Brandweek, March 5, 2007

Extensions: P&G's Latest Entry Joins Recent Tide Of Extensions; New Tide makes push as an all-in-one detergent.

Procter & Gamble has more than 35 types of Tide detergent on the market, but some laundry needs are apparently still unmet. Hence, the latest extension, Tide with Bleach Alternative with ColorClean.

The extension is the first since Tide Simple Pleasures was introduced last August. While that entry added scents like vanilla and lavender to the laundry experience, the latest Tide is a bit more of an all-in-one product designed to let consumers wash both colors and whites in one load and get the benefits of both bleach and color brighteners.

Aiming for Gen X moms, the campaign features '80s icon Cyndi Lauper singing "America the Beautiful." Lauper's song will play during a 30-second TV spot which P&G sees as a bit of a link to one of Lauper's earlier hits. "It celebrates our country's heritage with their true colors: red, white and blue," said Suzanne Watson, Tide's U.S. brand manager.

In addition to the spot by Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, the campaign also features print and online components including a Web site where customers can listen to Lauper's full version of the song, see clips of her recording and play advergames.

While computer games still have a reputation of being primarily a bastion of the young and male, Watson said that's not the reality. "Women over age 30 are playing these games more than any other segment of the population," she said.

The brand also will continue its long history of appealing to African American consumers with spots by Burrell Communications, Chicago, that will run on networks like BET and feature a re-recording of Marvin Gaye's classic "Pride & Joy."

Though there are many Tide extensions already on the market, new ones continue to do well. P&G CEO A.G. Lafley recently singled out Tide's aromatherapy play, Simple Pleasure, as one of the innovations driving P&G's growth.

Spending for the newest launch wasn't disclosed. P&G put about $32 million in measured media behind Simple Pleasures through January, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus. Sales figures for Simple Pleasures were not yet available.

Last year, the company told analysts that Tide and Gain each grew value share in the U.S. laundry market by more than 1 point. In its most recent quarter, P&G's Fabric Care and Home Care net sales increased 11% and volume grew 8%, the company reported to analysts.

Tide's place as the nation's best-selling detergent and its growing list of sub-brands seems to put a lie to the conventional wisdom that too many extensions will weaken a brand. By comparison, there are only 10 versions of the No. 2 brand, Unilever's All.

Because each type of Tide fills a particular function—like a scented version and a version with fabric softener—P&G is building the brand not weakening it, asserted Gary Stibel, CEO of New England Consulting, Westport, Conn., who has worked on projects for P&G.

"The consumer doesn't want her blue jeans smelling like lavender, but she does want her sheets to," he said. "So she has different bottles of Tide for each. That makes it harder for any other brand to find space in her cabinet."

It also makes it harder to get on the store shelf. While few stores stock all of the versions of Tide, the more they carry, the more likely that Tide will crowd out a competing brand.

Stibel said this mass attack is one of the company's standard tactics: "If you go to the razor aisle it's hard to see another brand besides [P&G's] Gillette."