I traveled to the grocery store the other day to do the weekly grocery shopping. That is usually more than enough reason to actually go to the grocery store but this week I also needed laundry soap. So after getting the food items I made it to the laundry cleaning stuff isle. We use the same soap and as far as I know it is because it is the biggest box that they sell at the big Meijer. Mary may have other reasons. So I picked up the big orange box and was quite happy that laundry needs were satisfied for another 3 or 4 months. As I was moving the soap to the laundry room I noticed that it blared out in big letters “45% MORE”. Normally I don’t pay much attention to the writing on laundry boxes but I do tend to read all words put in front of me and I must say I was quite impressed at 45% more but didn’t study the whole situation nor had it influenced my decision to purchase.
We had a little left in the old box so I took it out to empty into the new box and low and behold I noticed something that made me realize why Marketing people have made America what it is today. (well for the moment forgetting Wall Street robber barons and Reaganomics) Here is the view that brought forth this epiphany.
The box on the left is the new box and the box on the right is the old box. I noticed right away that there was a little difference. And then I made note that they both are 9.92 Lbs. So I’m sure that the average American that believes anything written as true would think that the new box is better than the old box unless that fact that it is not a “New Formula” would have any bearing on what they perceive as value. So I checked the ingredient make up and it all appears to be the same. It’s when you look at the top of the box that it becomes much clearer.
The explanation is in the details. They claim 150 loads so 45% is that much more that 102 loads and 25% is more than 120 loads. So I suppose they could also compare to the Laundromat package for 1 load and claim 15000% more. This now brings us to the new formula statement. It would seem that by new formula that they are not referring to what most people would consider to be a change in chemical composition but is in fact a new calculation of how many more theoretical loads can be produced with this box as opposed to some other box size. Marketing brilliance. Say something true but meaningless and then make it appear as if it is something much greater. Think the war in Iraq and the deficit high business taxes and so on.
Oh and by the way there is one other deceptively brilliant marketing move that involves the new formula. They claim 150 loads. I do 1 load per week when Mary is not home and we do maybe 4 when she is home so let’s say that is an average of 2 per week . This stuff should last a year and a half or lets just say a year to round off the numbers. As noted we get about 3 or 4 months. How can this be, you say. Are they lying? Can’t they be sued for that? On the side of the box it gives instructions for regular loads washers and dirtiness fill their handy (but huge) scoop to line 1 or 2. For huge washers and, I don’t know booms used to soak up the BP oil spill fill to line 3.
Here you have the scoop filled to line 2. This is about 1 oz. which would be 158 per box.
Here you have line 3 which is about 4oz which would be about 40 per box. (and would be in the ball park of our actual usage)
Since the vast majority of Americans don’t read instructions for everyday things the design of the scoop is marketing genius. It is a clear polystyrene with bumps for lines and as you can see lines 1 and 2 are way down at the bottom and not noticed unless you are looking for them. Line 3 is in the middle and the only line you see when you pick it up so of course that must be how much you use. As a result these guys probably sell 3 to 4 times as much of this stuff as they should because of the scoop psychology. If they designed a 1 oz scoop with instructions to match of 1 for normal loads 3 for oil spill materials most people would use the correct amount and their sales would drop 60%-75%.
So there you have it. In one soap box the root of everything that ails the great American Experiment. All perpetrated by some marketing guy, probably this one.
