Views from the Hills by R. E. Stevens, GENESIS II (The Second Beginning) E-Mail views@aol.com

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:

  1. 1.    To hand out a flyer in the front of the store alerting the shoppers to the option of two containers for Liquid Tide.
  2. 2.    to place side-by-side both containers on the store shelves.
  3. 3.    To position a free-standing display of the two containers in the store aisle.  The sign on the display was both graphical and verbal with a heading, "Try NEW Liquid Tide REFILL packs."  The visuals directed the consumer to pour the contents of the Refill pack into the current reusable durable containers.
  4. 4.    Purchasers of either container were interviewed in the store aisle about their choice and the merits of the refill concept.
  5. 5.   Video taping of the shoppers' actions were recorded.
  6. 6.    Two weeks later the purchasers were recalled and interviewed about their opinions regarding the two types of containers.
The results of the study showed that there was a significant percent of Liquid Tide Purchasers who would purchase the Refill Pack to warrant a line extension.  Today we not only have refills in the laundry category but in many other categories.

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.


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