Febreze: The fall and the rise; a story recreated

In the mid of 1990s, the US was experiencing a sudden economic boom. New companies were entering the market and the old ones were toiling to make their position stronger and so was doing P&G. After shaking the market with innovative products, the global giant launched “Febreze”, a colorless, odorless liquid that not only proved P&G’s superiority once again but also left a great lesson for the entire market.

The Emergence

It was 1993. A chemist of P&G was experimenting with a substance called HPBCD in the laboratory. Apparently, the chemist was a chain smoker. “Did you quit smoking?” His wife asked when he went back home. “No” He replied. “You don’t smell like smoke, at all”, his wife reassured.

The chemist went back to his laboratory the next day. He experimented with HPBCD and other scents and came up with a liquid that removes all the odor from clothes if sprayed with water. He showed it to P&G executives. As expected, they were overwhelmed. The market never experienced any liquid that will not mask the odor rather eradicate it, completely. It can be a big fortune for P&G, the team thought. P&G waited three years and spent millions of dollars to make it a viable product, to give it a name, “Febreze”.

The Branding phase

Febreze was first launched in 1996. The product was great, indeed, but P&G knew it needs a proper marketing plan to make it one of the biggest gambles of time. P&G assigned Drake Stimson, a thirty-year-old young man with a background in math and psychology, to lead the marketing team. It was a big opportunity for Stimson that could lead to his promotion in the company. Stimson and the team came up with two TV commercials. In one, a woman was shown. She complained that whenever she sits in the smoking section of a restaurant, her clothes smell like smoke. In another commercial, a woman complained that her couch smells like her dog. In both cases, Febreze was the solution. Free samples were distributed, commercials were advertised in every way possible to get the highest reach of people.

The Big Fall

Stimson’s team was done with their job. Now they were waiting to get a call from the headquarter about their bonuses and Stimson was waiting for his promotion. But things didn’t go the way they thought. Yes, they got a call but not for their bonuses but to inform them that the product failed. The sales were becoming small every week. Overwhelmed and panicked Stimson’s team tried their best to find out the problem. They paid the grocers to keep plenty of Febreze bottles near cash registers. Nothing changed. They visited houses whom they gave free samples. People weren’t using it. And why? The reason was still unknown to Stimson’s team. Then the headquarter decided to give the product another try. More people joined Stimson’s team. After doing a lot of research and visiting hundreds of households, the team found out the problem.

The problem wasn’t Febreze, the problem was Stimson’s team misunderstood people’s needs. They visited a woman’s house who had nine cats. The team found cat smell everywhere in the house. But they were shocked when the women said, “Isn’t it wonderful? They hardly smell at all.” People can’t smell a scent after overconsuming it. That is why the pet keepers couldn’t smell the pet odors which also applies to chain smokers. Stimson and the team understood the problem. How could they sell a product when the customers have no need for it? Stimson’s team sighed. They never imagined the product they thought could bring fortune for them was now thrown into the corporate garbage. “If we get fired, do the security guards show up and walk us out or we will get some kind of warning beforehand?” One of the team's executives asked.

Reforming The Mess

Frustrated and exhausted Stimson’s team gave a final try to save their jobs. They started to visit households with the hope that they might find a clue. Then one day they visited a woman’s house who made the team surprised saying that she uses Febreze every day. “You do?” Simson asked. “Yes. I use a couple of sprays after done in a room. It’s nice you know!” The woman replied. The interview hit Simpson and the team. They collected hundreds of videotapes of people cleaning their houses and noticed that after finishing their cleanup in a room a moment of relief was similar in everyone. “What if we make Febreze a product giving finishing touch after cleaning?” a researcher said.

The Boom

Stimson and the team redesigned the product placement. New commercials were aired and the tagline was rewritten from “Getting bad smells out of fabrics” to “Cleans life’s smells”. The once odor removing spray was advertised as an air freshener that will give you a final touch after the cleanup. Febreze was relaunched in 1998. After two months of the launch, sales became doubled and the company’s revenue skyrocketed. Stimson’s team finally got their bonuses and Stimson got his promotion.

Febreze is one of the successful brands of P&G to date that generates sales of more than $1 billion per year. No one ever thought that a product that had no demand among customers can come back this fiercely and hold its superiority for years. What Stimson’s team did was to elicit a craving among people that made them use a couple of sprays after the cleaning ritual is done. P&G had proved its superiority once again. But the irony was that the product which was once manufactured to eliminate scents is now being used as the finishing touch, once things are already clean.

References: Encyclopedia.com, Forbes, The power of habit by Charles Duhigg