Soap: a substance used for washing and cleansing purposes (dictionary.com)
Like the moms from our panel discussion, I always make a list for my grocery store trips. Today’s list consisted of only four items, so I anticipated my time at Harris Teeter to take up roughly fifteen minutes of my day. However, because hand soap for my kitchen was an item to be purchased, my time at the store was double what I had originally thought. Here is a picture of half the overwhelming variety of soaps available in the grocery aisle, considering my phone couldn’t capture all the soaps:
This was my view for at least fifteen minutes as I looked at every front label of the pump soaps. With such an assortment for simple hand soaps, I realized that the consumer must take into account what he/she is looking for in such a product, and then rank these desires in order, for one product may have one aspect and another product may have another aspect. While reading the bottles, I composed the following list of the various factors consumers look for in their everyday act of washing their hands: anti-bacterial/germ killing ability, scent, texture, background, and appearance. Considering the prices were similar, I do not think price would be the determining factor for consumer purchase.
Four brands of soap occupied most of the shelves: Softsoap, Method, Mrs. Meyer’s, and Dial. First were the Softsoap products. This brand had many appealing scents, such as “Rich Moisturizing Shea Butter” and “Energizing Pomegranate and Mango”. These bottles had visible beads in the bottle to demonstrate the texture that accompanies the scent. However, these products did not mention anything in regards to killing germs. These products were instead focused on the senses. Softsoap also offered its original product, in a plain bottle with no special scent, and this product was antibacterial. The second brand I analyzed was Method. Method had basic-shaped bottles, therefore lacking in appearance. With less focus on scent, appearance, or texture, I assumed this brand would mention its anti-bacterial power. However, just gazing at the front of the bottle, there was no mention of killing germs. Therefore, this brand truly offers little appeal to the consumer. The third brand of soap was Mrs. Meyer’s. The look of the bottles indicated to me that the brand was environmentally friendly, so I decided to actually read the back label of one of the bottles. This brand’s soap products are cruelty free – never tested on animals. These products are also biodegradable, so sure enough they are better for the environment. These products cater to the consumers who feel the soap’s background is important – how it got there and where it will go. If consumers are green and/or fight for animal rights, this brand would be their brand of choice. Besides its helping the environment and animals, the brand had three different scents to offer: “Geranium Scent”, “Lemon Verbena Scent”, and “Lavender Scent”. However, this brand, like Method, had no mention of its ability to clean away germs, which would deter some consumers from this brand. The fourth and final brand I analyzed was Dial. Dial undoubtedly took up the majority of the shelf space, offering three different types of products. The first type of product was the original style soap – simple bottle with flavors such as “White Tea & Vitamin E” and “Winter Apple”. With the exception of the “Original Gold” soap, none of these bottles mentioned anything about germ killing. The next type of Dial product was the Dial Yogurt foaming soap. Though offering the rich and moisturizing “Vanilla Honey” and “Aloe Vera”, again this product offered no true cleaning power, only the scent and the texture. The final product of the Dial offerings was the Dial Complete. From the front label it mentioned “foaming antibacterial”, “kills ninety-nine percent of germs”, and “gentle on skin”. These Dial Complete products also came in a plethora of scents: “Cranberry”, “Original”, “Clean Citrus”, and “Frosted Pear”. From just the front of the bottle, this product offers the consumer anti-bacterial power, scent, texture, and a simple appearance.
After thorough analysis of these four soap brands residing on the Harris Teeter shelves, I was able to rank my list of criteria as I was now aware of what was offered.
1) Power to kill germs (after all, the definition of soap mentions its ability to clean)
2) Scent (I want my hands to smell good after I sing “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to indicate the appropriate hand washing length)
3) Texture (who wouldn’t prefer nicely moisturized hands over icky dry ones?)
4) Appearance (it is a bottle of soap after all, not a piece of art)
5) Background (I am all for helping the environment and helpless animals, but instead I’ll buy green paper towels and avoid fur coats)
Considering this the Dial Complete products fulfilled my top four criteria for soap, I purchased the Dial Complete “Frosted Pear”. Why the pear, you ask? It had the best ring to it, and my brain was tired of thinking about darn hand soap.
~Emily Langsenkamp is a Business & Enterprise Management major with a concentration in Marketing.
~Emily Langsenkamp is a Business & Enterprise Management major with a concentration in Marketing.
I can completely relate to this experience. Last week one of my roommates asked me to pick her up some deodorant while I was at the grocery store. I kindly agreed thinking this would be a simple favor. I couldn't have been more wrong. I spent over 20 minutes of my grocery trip standing like a deer in headlights on what could have been an entire deodorant aisle in Harris Teeter. Since my roommate didn't give me any product requirements, I had to decide for myself which deodorant to choose. Since I always just grab my usual Dove without thinking twice, I have never actually stopped and analyzed the entire offering of woman's deodorant. From brand, to scent, to special features, it would have taken at least 4 hours for me to pick up and read about every single product. This is where I think compelling packaging really makes a difference. I was tempted to pick up the products with the coolest shape or boldest colors, thus giving them a significant advantage over those with more plain packaging. In the end, I just bought her the same kind that I use because I couldn't make a decision and my ice cream was starting to melt!
ReplyDelete-Jacqueline Buff
For most of us, “low-involvement” decisions seem like thoughtless, automatic decisions, when in fact we subconsciously go through a series of stages that result in the selection of one product over competing options. Emily’s experience at the grocery store when purchasing soap outlines the habitual decision making process that we make with little to no conscious effort. These types of purchase decisions are so routinized that when we take a step back and engage in conscious control, like Emily did, we have the ability to evaluate our options and get a glimpse into our own needs, values, and motivations. Since hand soap is normally a habitual decision, we subconsciously go through the stages of the decision making process: problem recognition, information search, evaluation of alternatives, product choice, and outcomes. Emily’s decline in the quality of her actual state (need recognition), rather than opportunity recognition, motivated her to buy hand soap at the store. As a habitual decision, the information search is limited. In this case, Emily experienced more of an internal search in which she scans her own memory bank to assemble information about different product alternatives. She clearly depicted her evaluation of alternatives and ultimately made a product choice based on her list of criteria—what’s most important to her needs. What’s most interesting about decision-making is that it’s not always rational (Solomon p. 313). Why didn’t Emily buy the hand soap she is accustomed to or the hand soap she’s grown up with? Sometimes we simply like to try new things. We crave variety as a form of stimulation or to reduce boredom. Also known as “variety seeking,” we desire to choose alternatives over more familiar alternatives, for whatever reason that may be—in Emily’s case, the name stood out to her. Solomon’s approach to the “rationality” of searching is can be applied in Emily’s situation. Research supports the idea that we are willing to trade enjoyment for variety because the unpredictability itself is rewarding (Solomon p. 313).
ReplyDelete-Linleigh Hawk
This is a very interesting dilemma. I am certain that I would never be in this exact situation with this product, but I have been there in other products, such as toothpaste, as I usually do not know exactly what I am looking for. When it comes to bar soap, there is a specific brand that I always use, sometimes differing between products within the brand. However when it comes to hand soap, my decision making process is simple: I want the cheapest. I do not care how my hands smell, or if some have more moisturizer. I am indifferent about green-ness and texture is not a concern. Handsoap is no real concern of mine. I think it is interesting from a male perspective versus a female perspective as to the decision making process. While you went in without knowing what you wanted for hand soap, having to go through the whole decision making process, makes for a long trip to the store!
ReplyDelete-Jordan Jacobson
When making a purchase decision for a product in a heavily saturated market such as hand soap, it is increasingly important to organize and evaluate the characteristics and attributes that differentiate these products and brands from one another. Since individually analyzing each hand soap product can be overwhelming and time-consuming, it is important that consumers determine what attributes are most important to them and then rank the available products accordingly. A perceptual map is a valuable tool that can help consumers organize category product offerings on the basis of two or more attributes or values. By creating a perceptual map of hand soap brands, the purchasing-process for hand soap can be made considerably easier for the average consumer. Since a perceptual map determines how brands are perceived in consumers’ minds, they can differ from consumer to consumer. Like Emily, if I were purchasing hand soap, the two most important factors would be germ-killing ability and scent. Based on these two values and Emily’s observations of each brand, I created the perceptual map below with corresponding axes for scent and germ-killing ability.
ReplyDelete[Perceptual Map image could not be posted.]
Based on the perceptual map, my product of choice would also have to be Dial Complete because it was the only product to feature both appealing scents and high-germ killing ability. However, if I based my perceptual map on two different attributes such as product background or bottle design, my perceptual map would differ drastically. Thus, only once the consumer determines what product attributes are most important to their needs can they begin the decision-making and purchasing process.
-Jacqueline Buff
I have a love affair with grocery shopping. For some reason I could spend hours in the grocery store not even buying anything just fascinated by all of the options out there. In terms of my buying decisions I have stuck in a perpetual active loyalty loop. I buy the same things and the same brands every time regardless of what is on sale or even if they are out of the brand I want I will hold off buying another brand. This of course drives my dad nuts because he is the king of coupons and sales.. We have about 10000 rolls of toilet paper in the basement to prove that he really can’t pass up a sale. However the trouble comes when I need to buy a new thing that I haven’t bought before. For instance buying laundry detergent for the first time took me 2 hours because I analyzed all of the various ones I could find in the target isle. I feel your pain. I will say that my decision making process is spot on to the traditional process in that I am very aware of the problem, spending hours absorbing information, weighing my options, and then and only then making a decision. I now buy only tide (although they recently came out with the new active lift so I did switch to that on) for fear of having to go through the decision making process all over again. As far as hand soap goes? Dial vanilla honey the scent just makes me want to wash my hands all day! - Emily Kieczykowski
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