How psychology saved this $1B brand

Hi there - Jen here :)

You won’t be loved if you can’t be remembered.

A marketing psychology insight that Proctor & Gamble (P&G) found out the hard way.

Known for creating iconic household names like Tide, Head & Shoulders, and Gillette, P&G literally invented the modern brand. 

And they’d just spent millions of dollars developing and launching a new brand and product. 

It was something the world had never seen before - 

A spray that could erase smells. 

Not cover them up with a stinky perfume, but actually erase them from existence. 

Leaving a home smelling soft and clean.

Like when you open the windows and a fresh breeze blows in. 

And that’s why they called it Febreze.

P&G had high hopes for the rollout and sales were strong… at first. 

But they noticed that people weren’t coming back to buy another bottle.

It was a one and done purchase - a death sentence for any new household cleaning product.

To succeed, these products have to be bought again and again - ideally becoming a household staple that made it on the family shopping list. 

👉 So P&G’s market research team followed some customers into their homes to do observational research to try and solve the problem...

And they discovered something fascinating.

People loved Febreze, but they weren’t sure when to use it. 

And because they weren’t sure when to use it, they didn’t use it at all.

It got pushed to the back of the cleaning cabinet. 

Eventually people forgot they’d even bought it (so they never bought it again).

This gave P&G’s marketing team had a brilliant idea:

If they could frame Febreze as a part of an existing household habit - vacuuming, in this case - they could get people to remember when and where to use it.

So P&G started running ads that showed people vacuuming their house, and using Febreze as the finishing touch to their cleaning routine. 

By pairing Febreze with an existing household chore, they were able to piggyback off of an existing habit. 

Buyers used more Febreze because they remembered to use it, because:

You won’t be loved if you can’t be remembered.

…a marketing psychology insight that transformed a failing product into a $1B brand.

Until next time,
Jen

PS. I’m sharing a free, live 60-minute workshop next week that can help you discover buyer psychology insights like these.

It’s called “Intro to Buyer Psychology” and you’re invited. Click here to get the details and register for FREE.

*Thumbnail Image Credit: Jammy Jean - stock.adobe.com