Reference no: EM13694169

Case Six: Procter & Gamble: Febreze "Breathe Happy Campaign Launch"

Lead Agency: GREY

Strategic Challenges

Febreze was once a breath of fresh air in the category, but the competition caught up.

In 1998, Febreze entered the air care category with a revolutionary product. Rather than simply perfuming the air, its unique formula actually eliminated odors on fabrics and replaced them with a fresh scent. Febreze became known as THE odor-eliminating brand and enjoyed great success. Recognizing a good thing when they saw one, the competition responded by launching similar products that provided the same benefit. "Brand Health" data indicated that P&G had lost its distinct positioning. The company once "owned" odor elimination, but now shared this equity with competitors Glade (category leader by dollar share) and Airwick (third in the category by dollar share).

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Air care brands became indistinguishable.

As competitors expanded to offer products similar to Febreze, the category became nebulous. Innovation from any camp was replicated and marketing efforts were immediately countered. Products became increasingly similar with indistinguishable claims. Almost all advertising featured generic imagery, presenting freshness fantasies in idealized worlds. Toxic levels of advertising diluted P&G's marketing efforts and made people unable to tell the brands apart.

Cynical consumers ceased to believe brand claims and Febreze growth declined.

Research revealed that the company's audience (25- to 65-year-old moms who want constant assurance that their homes are clean and fresh) had grown cynical about the category's advertising. Because many cheaper, less advanced brands were making similar claims but did not live up to their promises, people struggled to know whom to believe, and became skeptical about all air care products. Consumers concluded that all brands' claims were overinflated and bought lower-priced products. With Febreze costing up to three times more than its competitors, P&G struggled to sustain sales.

Objectives
1. Restore faith in Febreze's odor-eliminating capabilities in a way consumers will remember.
2. Generate buzz for the Febreze brand and its advertising.
3. Restore the distinctiveness of the Febreze brand.
Insights

People's reactions to bad smells are stronger than their reactions to nice ones.

Focus groups reaffirmed that P&G's audience wanted to create a "welcoming home" by keeping it clean, tidy, and fresh, and that they were concerned about bad smells destroying this atmosphere. The threat of malodors did not only made them uncomfortable, but triggered passionate descriptions of unpleasant smells, reflecting their disgust of uncleanliness. P&G realized that focusing on the problem rather than the solution could help Febreze stand out among the other brands.

What we smell can be more important than what we see.

In-home interviews helped P&G understand Febreze's role in creating a "welcoming home" in greater depth, uncovering the most influential insight: When judging if a home is "welcoming," a messy-looking home can still be clean, but a smelly home can never be clean. This was best encapsulated by one respondent's comment on the issue: "When you walk into an unappealing room, you can close your eyes, but you can't turn off your nose."

Smelling is believing.

Observations of shoppers in stores revealed that consumers were spraying the product in the aisle after picking it off the shelf. This indicated that firsthand experience of the product is vitally important in influencing the consumer's choice of a brand.

The Big Idea

Involve real people in visceral experiences to prove that Febreze makes even the filthiest places smell nice, no matter what they look like.

Questions

1.Apply the principles of perception to the three insights listed in the case.
2.Are the three objectives aimed at repositioning Febreze? Explain your answer.

3.How would P&G determine whether the campaign's objectives have been achieved?

4.On You Tube, you can find several commercials that "brought to life" the "big idea." Describe three of them and discuss their persuasive effectiveness.

5.Several versions of Febreze are now on the market (febreze.com). Apply the concept of benefit segmentation to three of them.