That's All, Folks - Unilever's marketing strategy - Brief Article - Statistical Data Included

Brandweek, May 14, 2001 by Christine Bittar

Unilever Cleans Up Detergent Aisle

As part of its year-old strategy to narrow its focus on 400 "master brands"--rather than 1,500--Unilever this summer will rejigger its three fabric-care master brands, Wisk, All and Surf.

Plans include more than doubling All's marketing budget, adding line extensions a "weight out" for packages of powder detergents, and rolling a detergent tablet under the Surf brand and a second Wisk tablet. Rival Procter & Gamble is also rolling a second Tide tablet in late summer.

Unilever will put $28 million in marketing behind All versus $9 million last year, per Competitive Media Reporting. The plan to enhance All's budget comes as Unilever sees the value brands playing an increasingly important role during the economic downturn, a company rep said.

For example, though All's sales were down about 2% in the 52-week period ended Feb. 28, sales have rebounded at Wal-Mart, which has been promoting it since the beginning of the year.

Unilever will also bow an All detergent for babies, shipping in mid-July Getting $8 million in marketing support through the end of this year, All Baby Care Plus is being billed as a "clinically proven, baby-tested," dye-free detergent with All "stain lifters."

Dedicated support for the scented Baby Care Plus includes just under $5 million for print advertising and the rest for direct-to-consumer programs and physician outreach.

Following up on their respective detergent tablet releases last year, both Unilever and P&G are ready to offer up bleach extensions--Wisk Color True Bleach Dual Action Tablets and Tide Rapid Action with Bleach, respectively Unilever also plans to roll out tablets for its mid-tier Surf brand, which will be priced lower than its premium Wisk brand.

Though manufacturers estimated the high-priced tablet entries would garner 8-10% of the $1.7 billion U.S. market in this first year (Brandweek, July 17), sources said that sales across brands thus far seem to be closer to 4%. In Europe, where tablets have been on the market since 1998, that number is closer to 33%.

While both manufacturers have been putting most of their marketing muscle toward tablets in 2001, amid more severe financial concerns, P&G has atypically let Unilever overshadow its consumer advertising.

Attempting to act more conservatively P&G had initially allocated only $20 million in Tide tablet media in 2001, compared to $28 million on the Wisk tablets, out of $48 million in total marketing support.

P&G spent $7 million on Tide tablets for the first two months of this year, versus Unilever's $9 million for Wisk tabs, per CMR. Wisk has also planned another four $1 and 50 cent-valued Wisk FSIs, scheduled for national distribution every two months starting this month.

Following rivals P&G and Colgate-Palmolive, which downsized some powder detergent brands last year, Unilever will scale down its Wisk and powder starting in July. Amounting to a hidden price increase, the current 85-load Wisk SKU, will be decreased to 80 loads, for example, and the 43-load unit will go to 40 loads.