Price tends to be a key driver in toilet cleaners, although some manufacturers are still developing better products
“Consumers generally want something affordable in a toilet cleaner, which smells like it’s working,” says David Briscoe, marketing analyst at McBride. Perhaps unsurprisingly for an own label manufacturer, he believes price and fragrance are the key drivers in this market and, although he’s probably right, suppliers have managed to grow bleaches and lavatory cleaner sales by 3.8% to £238m in the past year, according to TNS.
Barry Carter, category manager at Musgrave Budgens Londis, says that given the nature of the product, consumers aren’t too willing to flush lots of money down the toilet, a factor which has deterred many companies from making huge developments in the category.
“There hasn’t been much innovation in toiletcare - it’s a utility product,” he says. “It’s
tucked away under the sink and consumers see it as something that’s literally just flushed away.”
Unilever, however, still sees mileage in developing better products for the toilet. After a quiet 2005 for its Domestos brand, the company started the year with a new, more powerful product, Domestos 5x. It hopes that it can raise consumer expectations with Domestos 5x - which it claims attacks germs for five times longer than other bleach or toilet cleaners - and believes consumers will pay for a premium product.
Unilever is not alone in driving development in the category. Jeyes has just launched No Spill Parozone following research that showed that consumers’ biggest worry when it came to using bleach was safety, especially for those who have children. The new product has been fitted with a special safety valve which helps prevent leaks and spillage when the top is left off or if the bottle is accidentally knocked over. Says marketing director Jayne Hazelwood: “It’s important to us to add value in bleach and this offers the first major innovation in the sector for a long time.”
The high value toilet block sector is one of the main contributors to the category - set to reach an anticipated £83m in retail sales in 2005, a growth of 5% since 2003, according to Mintel. In-cistern and rim blocks with ingredients such as bleach and bicarbonate of soda have added interest.
Jeyes launched Bloo 2-in-1 rims and limescale blocks, while Reckitt Benckiser’s Harpic Ready Brush also attracted consumers. Although penetration builds slowly for such products, loyalty value in terms of repeat purchases of cleaning fluids and disposable pads and wipes is potentially a strong value driver for both retailers and manufacturers, says Mintel.
Jeyes’ Hazelwood says the interest in disposable products is continuing to drive the category and says over the next year there will be a growth in the disposable market and in particular among wipes such as Parozone toilet wipes and SC Johnson’s Toilet Duck Fresh Brush, which blazed a trail in disposable products when it was launched in 2004.
Morrisons senior buyer for toilet care Fergus Dodds says that the current key category drivers are freshness and fragrance. He adds: “2006 will see the further development of these two areas including the introduction of a rim block with air freshener.”
“Consumers generally want something affordable in a toilet cleaner, which smells like it’s working,” says David Briscoe, marketing analyst at McBride. Perhaps unsurprisingly for an own label manufacturer, he believes price and fragrance are the key drivers in this market and, although he’s probably right, suppliers have managed to grow bleaches and lavatory cleaner sales by 3.8% to £238m in the past year, according to TNS.
Barry Carter, category manager at Musgrave Budgens Londis, says that given the nature of the product, consumers aren’t too willing to flush lots of money down the toilet, a factor which has deterred many companies from making huge developments in the category.
“There hasn’t been much innovation in toiletcare - it’s a utility product,” he says. “It’s
tucked away under the sink and consumers see it as something that’s literally just flushed away.”
Unilever, however, still sees mileage in developing better products for the toilet. After a quiet 2005 for its Domestos brand, the company started the year with a new, more powerful product, Domestos 5x. It hopes that it can raise consumer expectations with Domestos 5x - which it claims attacks germs for five times longer than other bleach or toilet cleaners - and believes consumers will pay for a premium product.
Unilever is not alone in driving development in the category. Jeyes has just launched No Spill Parozone following research that showed that consumers’ biggest worry when it came to using bleach was safety, especially for those who have children. The new product has been fitted with a special safety valve which helps prevent leaks and spillage when the top is left off or if the bottle is accidentally knocked over. Says marketing director Jayne Hazelwood: “It’s important to us to add value in bleach and this offers the first major innovation in the sector for a long time.”
The high value toilet block sector is one of the main contributors to the category - set to reach an anticipated £83m in retail sales in 2005, a growth of 5% since 2003, according to Mintel. In-cistern and rim blocks with ingredients such as bleach and bicarbonate of soda have added interest.
Jeyes launched Bloo 2-in-1 rims and limescale blocks, while Reckitt Benckiser’s Harpic Ready Brush also attracted consumers. Although penetration builds slowly for such products, loyalty value in terms of repeat purchases of cleaning fluids and disposable pads and wipes is potentially a strong value driver for both retailers and manufacturers, says Mintel.
Jeyes’ Hazelwood says the interest in disposable products is continuing to drive the category and says over the next year there will be a growth in the disposable market and in particular among wipes such as Parozone toilet wipes and SC Johnson’s Toilet Duck Fresh Brush, which blazed a trail in disposable products when it was launched in 2004.
Morrisons senior buyer for toilet care Fergus Dodds says that the current key category drivers are freshness and fragrance. He adds: “2006 will see the further development of these two areas including the introduction of a rim block with air freshener.”
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