Soap is soap is soap is soap...right? That's what I thought, but boy was I wrong. I was at CVS a couple of days ago trying to buy soap - something my wife usually does for my family. As I scanned down the soap shelf, I was amazed at how many different product types and price ranges there were in the soap market. Sure there is bar soap, liquid soap, and even soap that has some kind of scent, but at the end of the day, they're just all soap. How can one soap product be priced at $4.00 and another soap product of similar size and volume sell for $12.00? The answer is aggressive marketing.
I actually identified my answer to the above posed question, while on Yahoo checking one of my email accounts. It was a banner advertisement for Dove Soap. This particular advertisement was complex and interactive and stressed, "The truth is clear." The ad starts with a vivid dramatization of multiple soap bars sweeping across a wet surface. One of the bars was a Dove bar of soap. Amazingly, the competition soap left soap scum while Dove did not. The ad ends by reminding viewers that, "Soap leaves scum, Dove does not," and invites the viewer to play an interactive soap toss game to win free Dove soap. I went on to research Dove and found that they have used an extensive marketing campaign to differentiate its product by using both traditional advertising as well as Internet marketing channels such as Facebook, websites, media displays, and banner ads.
I never expected that a simple trip to CVS to buy soap would produce this much excitement and awareness. Ultimately, this example is truly the power of marketing and advertising. Dove is taking something as simple as soap and turning it into something that is complex and differentiated. I invite all of you to take the soap toss challenge to win free Dove by going to Dove's webpage. But, does aggressive advertising really work? Are we more induced to pay a premium of like 3x to buy Dove instead of another soap product? Maybe. For me, I just couldn't justify spending that much more for Dove, and I ended up settling for scum.
Tyan Muckensturm
Blog #2
Marketing & the Internet
B8699-025
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