P&G UK to phase out current Bold and Lenor in favour of premium versions.

[spoodles]

"Procter & Gamble is launching a laundry sub-brand that aims to reposition its Bold and Lenor ranges as premium products. The Infusions range will be introduced early next year.

The range will be co-branded Bold Infusions and Lenor Infusions but will have new packaging that will make them look similar. They are also expected to have matching “infused” fragrances to indicate to consumers that they should be used together.

The launch is expected to be supported with a major marketing campaign.

One insider says the products will not be sold as a pair but the new design shows they are “clearly intended to go together”,

The strategy has already been introduced in the US for its Tide detergent and Downy fabric softener lines. P&G launched Tide Simple Pleasures and Downy Simple Pleasures at the end of 2006. The range includes fragrances such as Rose & Violet and Magnolia & Orange Blossom.

P&G also launched premium versions of the concept in the US two months ago: Ultra Downy Pure Essentials, and Tide Pure Essentials. These are positioned to appeal to environmentally-conscious shoppers. There is also a Pure Essentials version of Bounce dryer sheets.

It is believed the UK Infusions lines will follow a similar concept, the long-term plan being to phase out the existing Bold and Lenor brands in favour of the premium range, which is understood to be priced higher.
P&G is the leading player in the £4.7bn UK laundry category with four of the five top brands: Ariel, Daz, Bold and market leader Fairy.

Fairy overtook Unilever’s Persil as the market leader this year, after posting growth of 17% to £225m. Bold’s sales increased 11% to £135m and it is now ranked fourth."

Source: Marketing Week

Surprise!! - it'll be more expensive than the current versions!

 

[laundryshark]

Not All That Surprising

That's Profit & Gain for you!--Laundry Shark

 

[peterh770]

Ugh! Gimme Persil anyday!

 

[nickuk]

Thanks for the information Spoodles, what I found really surprising about the article is that Fairy is the UK market leader! That is surely a first, I think that particular accolade has always gone to Ariel or Persil. I'm quite surprised!

To me, Fairy will always be washing up liquid (dishsoap). I'm so traditional, I like to be able to expect the predictable in terms of branding. Fairy for dishes, Persil for clothes! I know it's irrrational.....

Furthermore, I don't find that Fairy cleans or rinses aswell as Persil, and I don't like the results on whites as much - sort of greenish! On the plus side, I do rather like the scent.

So why the success? Well, above all, I think that Fairy has extended its range so that now their products are very cutesey and babyish, and this probably appeals to parents of young families. The matching FS may have helped too. It has often been voted `favourite detergent' in baby magazines like Prima. For the neative reasons which I outlined above though, I have to say that I think their success is a triumh of marketing over common sense, and I feel that Persil has a lot more to offer. I'm still a big fan of the non bio tablets - phosphates, beautiful whitening, economical, stunning cleaning and rinsing. Smells gorgeous too - I have a box of original USA Tide and to me the scent on clean linen is very similar. I still haven't used any machine which rinses all powder / tablet detergent (almost every last speck - yes, I'm that fussy) from the drawer and the back of the drawer) after the wash fill so I like the fact that the Persil tabs, which go in the drum, are all spun out ready for a totally fresh first rinse.

As an aside, I noticed a new Lenor while shopping recently - `Oxygen fresh', white in colour, gave it sniff and found it to be quite pleasant. It's still loaded with fragrance allergens though - a bit like the new Comfort `naturals' - LOL, which is anything but natural!

Best wishes to all......

Nick xx

 

[aquarius1984]

pfft

Fairy will never have a place in my machine due to its poor rinse and poor clean. Its bad enough having to use Intensive on the LG To get a half decent Ariel wash. The box of Fairy tablets, kept next to the box of Daz tablets in the back of my stash cupboard will be there for the duration. Fairy will only be Market leader in the non bio sales, Persil was counted as 1 brand in the last count. IIRC To sales of 80 million. Fairy was not in the top 5 at that point. It went Persil (all varietys) Comfort, Bold, Daz and Ariel. Its possible with the campaign for Sick babies that Fairy have gotten back sales of just over half what Persil got as a total and now Persil is split into 3 brands, bio colour and non making it harder for them to be market leader. Tad unfair i guess. Anyway this price increase had better mean a better product. Im a snob by all means, Bold is not my kind of product nor my Mums -It has to be seperates. I look at 2in1s with suspicion and rightly so. Bold hardly cleans, nor leaves a reasonable scent. Only premium softener for me is my Daily driving Comfort Easy Iron simply cos it does what it says on the tin. Lenor is far to greasy and the scent never survives the tumble dryer, and i refuse to buy Bounce to top it up. Rob

 

[launderess]

Powder Not Shifting From The Back of The Dispenser Drawer

Had the same problem withe some powders in my Miele, and after going crazy using a turkey baster, hit upon a solution.

As the washing machine is filling, open the drawer half way, wait a moment for a bit of water to build up in the dispenser, then shove it back in (not too hard mind), repeat once or twice. This action causes a surge of water to build up in the drawer and acts like a wave to push the detergent down the hatch so to speak.

L.

 

[launderess]

This Is What Comes From Gobal Conglomerates

Owing everything.

P&G is consolidating things on both sides of the pond where possible, as are pretty much everyone else. Oh they are crafty, these detergent makers. Did you know those Spray and Wash tablets and powdered "stain remover" are the same as "Vanish" sold in the UK and Europe? The tablets even stated "Made in Italy" on the packet.

L.

 

[aquarius1984]

Launderers

That method of flushing powder does work, great on any machine bar my LG. You shut the drawer fully on that and as the powder or tablets flush down it also creates a tidal wave that forces the water out the front of the drawer! Best solution is to leave the drawer slightly open so when the gush of water that takes the majority of detergent in the first 5 or so seconds has further to travel to hit the drawer back and tidal wave out missing the hole its meant to go down rob.

 

[peterh770]

Yes, but those SnW tablets, liquid and powder used to absolutely kick butt. They no longer make the tablets nor the powder. The liquid isn't half as powerful as it used to be and is extremely sudsy.

 

[spoodles]

nickuk.....

I think you're right - Fairy's success is mainly down to the marketing which, hats off to P&G, is very well done. In the mid 90s Fairy was doing so badly that P&G launched Ariel Non-Bio to compete with Persil Non-Bio as Fairy didn't seem to be working as a laundry brand at that point.

Similarly Bold has really been dragged back up from quite a cheapo brand to a major one, again I'd say it's down to marketing and packaging re-design too. I have tried Bold out of curiosisty and it does clean extremely well although there wasn't that much of a scent to clothes once they had dried.

aquarius...
Fairy is the overall detergent brand leader - not just in the non-bio sector. Persil has seen a massive drop in sales over recent years, as has Surf. P&G have really hammered Unilever lately. Comfort is also losing a lot of sales to both Lenor (since its re-launch a couple of years ago) and now the new Fairy softener range.

P&G are now leaders in all detergent variant categories too - when product sales are combined.
Non-Bio - Fairy/Ariel Non-Bio
Biological - Ariel Bio/Daz
Colour - Ariel Colour
2in1 - Bold (not much competition for that one though!)

Unilever only has 2 brands so I guess P&G would have the advantage!

Unilever need to stop doing Mr. Men/exploding clothes/and 'whatever those Surf ones are meant to be' adverts and promote how great their products are at CLEANING clothes. I mean how much have they just spent flogging those Mr. Men toys? Why can't they put that sort of promotion into Persil itself?

 

[launderess]

Have ten or so cansiters of the SnW stain remover powder (nothing but sodium percarbonate, enzymes, and washing soda), in my stash. Got the lot down at Nationwide Warehouse for about 89 cents each. Go back and forth between the SnW, Ecover pure oxygen bleach and now Biz (old formula) that I nabbed a case of recently.

Local shop had a few boxes of the SnW tabs, but never bothered as already was full up. Also my experience with Electrasol tablets taught me that after awhile those darn tablets turn hard as rocks, so long term storage in my stash may not have been a good option.

L.