Packaged goods companies have traditionally leveraged their brand equities by extending into new categories or segments. When I was at Procter & Gamble, under then brand manage and future CEO A.G. Lafley, we extended Tide Powder into Tide Liquid, which transformed the category. Since then, Tide has introduced countless line extensions—with bleach, with fabric softener, with Febreeze, etc.—in the midst of building a powerhouse brand franchise. It’s a model of brand line extensions.
Leave it to P&G to turn that model on its head and build a “brand” franchise from a scent. Scents and perfumes have always been a big part of household cleaning products. And apparently, P&G felt like it hit a home run with Mediterranean Lavender, which has been added to Dawn, Cascade and Febreeze and marketed on the P&G Home Made Simple website and TV show.
A winning formula is not simply the scent—it’s also the name. And branding a smell is almost as important as the smell itself. (In the perfume business, it’s way more important—it starts with the brand and the scent comes in relatively late.) So yes, the products smell great. And lavender is on trend. And finally, Mediterranean Lavender is about as aspirational as household products can get. I mean really, when you’re doing laundry, why not daydream about a patio on a villa in Italy, overlooking the sea, with beautiful and aromatic lavender filling the hillside.
Why We Love This: Find people who like the scent (or the scent and the brand of the scent) and give it to them in more products. Plus, it’s efficient. In the old days, they had to develop new names and new smells for each product. Leveraging one perfume is simpler, in addition to being a consumer win.
