“P&G Looks to Franchise Tide Dry Cleaning”
Posted by joe
This article describes a brand extension – where a brand is taken to a new product category. Tide is known for detergents — and it hopes that its reputation for cleaning carries over to the dry cleaning business. Tide has found a way to leverage one of its strengths (a well-known and well respected brand name) to take advantage of a great opportunity (strong growth in services, and lack of organized competition in dry cleaning). Check out “P&G Looks to Franchise Tide Dry Cleaning” at Bloomberg Businessweek (September 2, 2010).
What do you think of Tide’s strategy? Do you have any suggestions about its target market or marketing mix? What might be important to Tide’s success?
Tags: Franchising
This entry was posted on Sunday, September 12th, 2010 at 9:10 am and is filed under Marketing strategy planning, Place, Product, Service. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
This looks like an interesting idea! I think consumers may be a bit resistant to the idea of “brand name” dry cleaners because they have never seen anything like it before with that product. I also think consumers will be resistant to change from what they’re used to, everyone has a dry cleaner that they are usually pretty loyal to. I think the possibility of failure and tarnishing of P&G’s reputation is possible, but I applaud them for pioneering the idea and giving it a shot. A lot of great ideas are uncertain at first and require a leap of faith.
September 13th, 2010 at 1:01 pmI think it is a good marketing plan for tide to extend its business to the dry cleaners. However, I think the company needs to think about its competitors in the dry cleaning sector. Dry cleaners use very structured techniques in order to please their customers and get clothes as clean as possible. Do Tide products have that capability and will customers still be willing to take their clothes to the dry cleaners when they can just use Tide products in the household? These questions should be considered. I personally wouldn’t keep taking my clothes to the dry cleaners if I knew Tide was capable of performing the same in my own household. The dry cleaners would be a waste of money and time.
September 14th, 2010 at 10:07 pmPersonally, I feel that this is an excellent marketing strategy, they already have the reputation of being a common and quality household product. Therefore, users of the Tide brand will be more inclined to use and trust the Brand Name Dry Cleaners rather than a local one. P&G already has established credibility in the market of cleaning and household goods. By them tapping into this new line of business, it will give them a competitive advantage over a local dry cleaner. They would also be able to use the products they produce such as detergent in their own dry cleaners which will increase the efficiency and cost of their supply chain which in the long run could potentially make them much more profitable than their competitors.
September 14th, 2010 at 11:20 pm* … increase the efficiency and DECREASE cost of their supply chain which in the long run could potentially make them much more profitable than their competitors.
September 14th, 2010 at 11:24 pmI think this is a great idea, although there are the obvious risks related to developing a new franchise. However, I do think that Tide has made the right decision by putting trust in the consumers who already use their products at home. People who are happy with the results that the Tide products already give them are probably very likely to visit a Tide dry cleaning franchise whether that means switching from their old dry cleaner or trying one out for the first time.
September 15th, 2010 at 11:31 amTide should use marketing to appeal to families (the suckers and dog treats) – mostly the mother figure of the family, as well as business people who don’t have a lot of time to do their own laundry but who already know about the Tide brand.
The company will potentially need to develop new products that are used only at the dry cleaners and should advertise it so that consumers don’t feel like they’re paying for a service that they could do themselves with the products that they already have at home. Tide should be sure to provide customer service that at least matches the level that people experience at the smaller, family owned dry cleaners in order to retain their customers.
As soon as I read about the idea, I thought “wow, why hasn’t this been done before?”
There is definitely growth opportunity in the dry cleaning business since there is no “stand-out” brand in that business category. The tricky part is implementing a successful business model- maybe there is a reason why there is a lack of strong competitors in the dry cleaning business?
One advantage Tide does have is its reputation of trustworthiness, and for being relatively affordable. It would be interesting to see how Tide goes about executing their future dry cleaning business endeavors.
September 15th, 2010 at 8:53 pmP&G is one of the most trusted companies in the United States; with 27 leading products in each of their respected categories. I believe that if the Tide name was used to create a franchise, it would be a smash hit with the public. It would be great publicity for the product, though there could be repercussions. Because many people see laundromats as “lower-class” so this could deter the higher-paid customers to not want to purchase Tide anymore.
September 20th, 2010 at 5:30 pmIt could also be a factor of how much the services would cost. It’s a very large company, but that could cause them to overprice the use of their washers and product.
I think its a great idea i think with adquite forecast from all the departments then go for it. If theres a demand supply the product if there is a company that shows signs of a monopoly why not provide a little competition? and yes many people see laundromats as lower class, but you gotta understand there is a word out there called “target market,” and maybe going into towns that have more lower income famalies, or colleges not every college student goes home with their laundry and not every college student has a laundry machine so its going to have to take alot of planning and forecasting to pull it off.
September 21st, 2010 at 1:26 pm