A new player has entered the dishwashing detergents segment ruled by two major companies that, until recently, accounted for about 80% of a $15m market. The new player entered the market in late last year and is a perfect match for the two.
Procter & Gamble launched the Fairy liquid detergent, which it is trying to sandwich between the Colgate-Palmolive and Henkel products by means of a very aggressive TV advertising campaign. Will it succeed? Hard to say.
Neither P&G, nor its competitors were available for comment, but it is obvious that when a multinational such as P&G decides to release a product, then this is no random move and the action is preceded by consistent market surveys. The rivals are expected to take about the same stand, as they could not possibly stand by and watch somebody "steal" the ground they have worked so hard to gain since 1995.
The battle is quite fierce, at least on the surface, as each of the companies makes a generous contribution in form of advertising to the TV stations' budgets, especially, as this kind of media makes the biggest impact.
Henkel Romania, for instance, invested 45% of its 2002 advertising budget in a single brand, the Pur detergent.
"We use the media that provides the widest coverage, such as the TV, in order to make sure every potential buyer learns about our various products and their benefits," Colgate-Palmolive Romania's marketing manager Mihaela Ungar says.
Still, when it comes to communication, the companies are as open as a tortoise shell. The example in this case, Procter & Gamble, showed willing to talk about anything but the strategies to "sandwich" its brand between the other two held by its rivals.
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