Consumers flexible in their choice of cleaners - discount store consumers - Top Brands, part 2: Consumer Survey

Discount Store News, Oct 30, 1989

Consumers Flexible in Their Choice of Cleaners

When consumers go to a discount store for a household cleaner or chemical, they are looking for a specific brand but are as likely to switch as skip the purchase if they can't find what they're looking to buy.

According to DSN's Consumer Brands Survey, shoppers of household cleaners and chemicals, along with photo and camera customers, are the most brand-conscious customers, based on interviews with consumers in 17 merchandise categories.

Ninety-five percent of all household cleaners and chemicals shoppers said they shop a discount store with a specific brand in mind.

Likewise, these shoppers have a very low preference for private label cleaners.

If they can't find a specific brand, half (49.3 percent) of these shoppers said they will skip the purchase entirely, up slightly over one percentage point from last year.

Increasingly, shoppers of household cleaners and chemicals are wary of finding their preferred brands.

Nearly one-fifth of the survey respondents said they are not sure they'll find their preferred brands, up three percentage points from last year's results.

On a scale of 1 to 9 - with with one meaning no confidence and nine meaning total confidence - shoppers gave household cleaners and chemicals a 7.6 confidence rating. This is relatively high compared with the other 16 merchandise categories surveyed - only three categories ranked higher - and is down from last year's rating of 7.8.

In addition, 53 percent of the consumers surveyed said they are completely confident they'll find the household cleaner or chemical in their local discount store, higher than every merchandise category but food, candy and snacks and photo and camera, according to survey results.

This is a very substantial comment since consumers listed 38 brands of cleaners they prefer to purchase, higher than all except consumer electronics, photo and camera, and housewares, and tied with food, candy and snacks.

Another reason for consumer confidence is that discounters are gaining a better understanding of what customers want to purchase.

Store managers and consumers agree on six of the top 10 brands in household cleaners and chemicals, up one brand from the 1988 survey.

Overall, consumers said Tide is the No. 1 cleaner, the same results as the store manager survey.

In fact, Tide increased its hold on the No. 1 spot by seven percentage points, due to increases at K mart, Target and especially at Wal-Mart.

No. 2 Comet, while firmly in second place, lost some ground this year, a result of losses at all four top discount chains, but especially at Ames/Zayre.

The top 10 consumer brand list is composed of eight of last year's labels plus Pledge (No. 9) and Spic & Span (No. 10). They replace Ivory and Colgate-Palmolive, which fell to 12th and 14th, respectively.

Of the other eight labels, five recorded mention increases and three, Comet, Lysol and Pine-Sol, all recorded losses.

Table : Consumer Brand Preferences

Table : In Household Cleaners

               Discount                                        Ames/
Top Brands     Shoppers     K mart     Wal-Mart     Target     Zayre
Tide             30.1%       28.3%      31.6%       28.9%      26.3%
Comet            17.0        18.1       21.1        17.5       13.2
Windex           13.5        14.6       13.2        14.4       14.5
Ajax             10.6        11.5       11.4         9.3        9.2
Dawn             10.3        11.9       15.8         7.2       10.5
Clorox            9.2         8.4       13.2         7.2       11.8
Lysol             8.5         9.3        7.9         8.2       10.5
Pine-Sol          8.5         9.7        7.9        10.3        3.9
Pledge            6.7         8.0        7.9         8.2        9.2
Spic & Span       5.7         6.6        2.6         2.1       11.8

Table : Top Household Cleaner Brands:

Table : Store Managers vs. Shoppers

Managers                     Consumers
Tide                         Tide
Clorox                       Comet
Windex                       Windex
Johnson                      Ajax
Formula 409                  Dawn
Lysol                        Clorox
Dawn                         Lysol
Purex                        Pine-Sol
Ajax                         Pledge
Johnson & Johnson            Spic & Span

Top 10 rankings in each category are based on discount store managers' response to the question: `What are your best performing name brands in (department)? and discount store consumers response to the question: `If you were shopping for (product) in a discount department store, which brand of that product would you want?