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Product Diversification
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| The Highroller |
I have been noticing recently that there has been a new trend recently in household products and even some food products: product diversification. Products seem to be in a whole variety of different scents/flavours/sizes. For example, Reese's now has double chocolate, double peanut butter, 1 big cup, 3 small cups, etc. There are now many different flavours of toothpaste. Even with laundry detergent we are starting to see things like "tropical" scented detergent.
What are the reasons for this? Why hasn't this happened before? I would assume that the reason for this would be to boost sales, but why would having different flavours/scents of products boost sales?
My guess is that it's just a gimmick. When someone sees all these new flavours/scents, they will say, "Wow, I've never seen that product in that flavour/scent before, let's try it out." |
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| VERTiG0 |
| quote: | Originally posted by The Highroller
My guess is that it's just a gimmick. When someone sees all these new flavours/scents, they will say, "Wow, I've never seen that product in that flavour/scent before, let's try it out." |
You just hit the nail on the head. |
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| DigiNut |
| It's definitely a gimmick, but I don't think it's a new trend, it's been around forever, dating back to the days of Honey Nut Cheerios (and probably earlier). |
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| Tordan |
| The trend is to deliver a personalized customer experience. Back in the day having just the mint flavored toothpaste was enough but not anymore. They feel that personalizing a product would lead to more customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Therefore, we have many flavors now to suite different tastes. Take winamp for example... why do we have so many skins for it? Because it's personal to us. Same concept. |
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| The Highroller |
| quote: | Originally posted by DigiNut
It's definitely a gimmick, but I don't think it's a new trend, it's been around forever, dating back to the days of Honey Nut Cheerios (and probably earlier). |
Ok, maybe it's not a new trend, but there is a new trend of using the old trend of product diversification. Based on my observations, more products/brands/labels are doing this than before. |
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| rabbitjoker |
Brand extension - if you have a valuable brand, why not extend it to a closely related product? Many of the positive brand attributes transfer through the extended product. Example: Tim Hortons selling coffee makers (it must be a good coffee maker because Tims makes good coffee).
Product use extension (baking soda - use it for cooking, use it to clean, use it in the fridge) or product format extension (single unit, multi-unit, various packaging types) are methods that are employed to combat substitution tendencies by consumers. |
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| vickyvale |
| quote: | | Originally posted by The Highroller |
Best avatar ever. LMAO! aaahhhh the memories.
:stongue:
sorry...back to topic at hand. |
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| karim |
Everything mentioned above AND the new age manufacturing techniques that allow such diversification at inexpensive costs. All these Glade plug ins are made in china....
:)
Karim |
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| Tordan |
| one more thing... when it comes to household products you have to think about your target market. It is predominantly women of course. Marketers know that women pay attention to the little details like color, smell etc. Remember... it's not customer anymore... it's "custom-her" <- my prof told me this, no jokes. |
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| DigiNut |
Very true. I'm not sure if women are the "primary" customers, but there can't be any doubt that women are far more active in the market today than they were 50 years ago.
There have always been these product extensions in markets directed primarily at men (look at the variety in gadgets, mp3 players, stereo equipment, beer, etc.) and at children (cereals, action figures, dolls, candy, and so on), so maybe if we're seeing an increase it's due to (a) women buying more of the products that used to be sold mostly to men, and (b) new-ish markets directed specifically at women. |
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