Liquid Tide in Environmentally Friendly Containers
In the late 1980's, the movement to environmentally friendly packages and reusable/recyclable materials was a fast-growing trend. Heavy plastic bottles were seen as unfriendly to the environment. Attitudes were strong. The questions were, "Are these just vocal responses? If the consumer had the opportunity to make the choice, which one would they really make? How do we measure what the consumer would do?" We knew we could not just ask. This could be a motherhood, God and Country pitfall.
Our solution to the problem was simple. Give them a choice and see what they will do. Basically that is what we did. We recruited a series of stores that allowed us to use their stores to sell both options, current plastic bottle and the refill container. Note: Refill container here refers to a temporary container that is purchased and the contents is poured into a durable container for day-to-day use. Actually this was the very early stages of research and we did not even have a refill container. To simulate the refill containers, we went to a milk carton supplier and had them create lined milk cartons with the Liquid Tide labels. We knew that this was not a real solution because we would never use a container that looked like a milk carton (or a juice container). The containers were produced, printed, and filled with Liquid Tide.
The protocol was as follows:
Separately, we discovered not unexpectedly, that the lined milk carton was not an option. They leak too easily.
It is my belief that emotionally grounded products are one of the hardest to evaluate short of having the consumer putting their habits and money on the line.