Volumes may be disappearing down the plughole across household but with innovative brand extensions and hefty ad spend, the likes of Dettol and Domestos are thriving. The boldest brand extension saw RB’s Dettol brand move into laundry in the autumn but the core Dettol surface care brand is doing well, with £5.7m in extra sales, and innovation is also working for category leader Flash.
Domestos had another good year: with sales up £3.1m, or 5.5% year-on-year in value, it was unable to match the nearly double digit rise last time around, but Ben Taylor, category manager for household at Unilever, said there had been a “step change” in the opportunities to grow sales with a wider mix of stores now selling household products, while the brand also moved into fresh territory with January’s launch of Domestos Toilet Wipes.
Reckitt’s Harpic also saw value sales up 5.7% and marketing director Jerome Lemaire says “investment in marketing… with the return of Barry Scott [on Cillit Bang] and the Harpic Fireman… has found great traction.”
P&G’s Fairy enjoyed better fortunes in auto dishwash than on the liquid side, but while McBride is making a decent fist of Persil, under licence, Fairy is the market leader by miles, and has stepped up advertising.
Read The Grocer’s full Top Products Survey.
Top launch: Flash Liquid Gel P&G
How’s this for flash? The P&G brand was already category leader by a country mile before the July launch of its first concentrated liquid gel surface cleaner, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t more growth in the market leader. Liquid Gel has helped drive 4% value growth on volumes up 11.5%. And if that doesn’t impress, the fact the new variant uses 45% less packaging and 65% less water per volume is bound to raise a few smiles, among the greenies at least.
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