Undoubtedly a great ‘Green’ move, the real merit of the idea is in demonstrating to the savvy consumer that Unilever is prepared to play fair when it comes to adjusting prices to reflect cost increases.
In other words, the new aerosol will focus attention on what consumers get for the money, when it comes to changes in pack sizes.
As you know, following years of freezes on trade prices, a number of suppliers have resorted to reductions in pack contents to disguise shelf-price increases, possibly causing damage to consumers’ faith in the brand. This latest move by Unilever heightens interest in the issue… and will surely cause the ultra-savvy consumer (and the competition) to conduct comparison tests for ‘peace of mind’….
Today's launch will be backed by a £13m marketing campaign. In these unprecedented times, Unilever will need to devote a high proportion of the money to explaining how an aerosol 50% smaller contains the same amount of active ingredient. However, if competitors have equivalent technology available in the wings, their subsequent launches will ease the consumer-education burden, but will leave Unilever with the innovator’s advantage for Sure Women, Dove and Vaseline Intensive.
Incidentally, given the resulting 15% reduction in shelf space taken up by the new cans, it would also be interesting to check out the small print of Unilever's retail agreements to see if shelf-payments specify shelf-length or number of facings…
It sure is complicated launching new products nowadays...
Watch this space...
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