« The Law of Unintended Consequences | Main | Michael Shermer's Mind of the Market »
Why is Tide so popular?
Eli Lehrer informs me that Tide has a high market share even though it is more expensive than most other brands. This source says the market share of Tide is about forty-four percent, with the sum total of all Proctor and Gamble products (Gain and Cheer are two others) accounting for about two-thirds of the market. Is Tide so good? Does Tide really "know fabric best"? I couldn't name one supposed feature of the product and I've been buying detergent my whole life. I couldn't even tell you what brand I buy. Maybe it is Tide. This is the kind of question that Wikipedia isn't much good for.
Posted by Tyler Cowen on January 24, 2008 at 01:45 PM in Economics | Permalink
Comments
The only thing Wikipedia is good for is to get the plot rundown for Episode 4 of Season 2 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
(I buy Tide - it was what my mother bought)
Posted by: yoshi at Jan 24, 2008 1:54:26 PM
Some background on the chemical (i.e., cost-based) explanation for retail price differentials here.
Bottom line: It's not just marketing, despite the factless histrionics of the malcontent you link to.
Posted by: KipEsquire at Jan 24, 2008 2:07:48 PM
i buy unscented, fragrance free All because Tide fades and shrinks my clothes. so there.
Posted by: dude at Jan 24, 2008 2:09:47 PM
“I want to be a race car passenger: just a guy who bugs the driver. Say man, can I turn on the radio? You should slow down. Why do we gotta keep going in circles? Can I put my feet out the window? Man, you really like Tide...”
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/i_want_to_be_a_race_car_passenger-just_a_guy_who/342690.html
Posted by: R.I.P. Mitch at Jan 24, 2008 2:12:22 PM
When Consumer reports tests the brands price makes a big difference and Tide was a consistent star.
Posted by: Lance at Jan 24, 2008 2:15:42 PM
Because Tide is (chemically) better.
Tide was the first laundry detergent that both cleaned well and didn't "scum" (created unpleasant surfactant-salt complexes) and thus could be used reliably in automatic washers.
That chemistry achievement was notable enough that is was recently recognized in Science.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/314/5803/1221c
Proctor & Gamble has consistently invested in the technology of Tide ever since. Two modern examples I know from friends ( I am an erstwhile chemical engineer) are (1) developing the touchy technology that allows modern detergents to be sold in a concentrated form without the surfactants "clumping," and (2) that remarkable pouring spout that a four person team spent 18 hellish months engineering/testing/failing/trying again.
My father, who (a) does the laundry in his house and (b) is a cheapskate who prefers generics swears by Tide. He says nothing else gets the clothes as clean and bright; he made me switch back from All.
So there you have it: underneath all the marketing hype, Tide is the best product because it has a long, continuous history of intensive R&D behind it.
There's gotta be great book in this story....
Posted by: tylerh at Jan 24, 2008 2:27:42 PM
Procter & Gamble's philosophy is
A. Spend a lot on R&D to develop better products
B. Spend a lot on advertising to let the world know you have better products
This goes along with things like hire good people, train them well, be honest, and so forth.
It's worked for them for a long time.
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Jan 24, 2008 2:34:38 PM
Procter & Gamble's philosophy is
A. Spend a lot on R&D to develop better products
B. Spend a lot on advertising to let the world know you have better products
This goes along with things like hire good people, train them well, be honest, and so forth.
It's worked for them for a long time.
Posted by: Steve Sailer at Jan 24, 2008 2:35:16 PM
Tide wins, case closed. It's all about intelligent investment. Tide for me has always been relatively price inelastic.
Posted by: Meds at Jan 24, 2008 2:39:17 PM
I just buy the store brand, and it seems to work as well for less money.
HOWEVER, Oxyclean is another matter. I've had success in using Oxyclean for the various uses it's listed,
but the store-brand cheaper version doesn't seems to be a copy (like for detergent) -- it's actually
lower quality. When I pour Oxyclean in water, it instandly dissolves and chemically decomposes ("fizz.."),
whereas the store-brand takes its sweet time to mix, and so I'm not sure if it's much use for anything.
No, I'm not Billy_Mays, I just call 'em like I see em.
As for concentrated detergent? What a crock! They have those little spigots/faucets on them so you're
supposed to be able to push the little button for it to dispense into your cup underneath. Unfortunately,
every one of those that I or my mom or her friends used, utterly FAILS to stay closed when not in use.
Yes, even when you close the top which is supposed to stop it from draining. Why can't you guys get that
right before marketing it? Or at least sell concentrated with the easy-pour shape of the regular?
Posted by: Person at Jan 24, 2008 2:47:24 PM
From the ACS article posted by KipEsquire:
J. Keith Grime, vice president of R&D for P&G's global fabric and home care unit, says Gain's success ...
Ummm.
Posted by: nathaniel at Jan 24, 2008 2:48:34 PM
Here's another: why is Heinz Ketchup so dominant?
Posted by: at Jan 24, 2008 3:07:41 PM
I don't know if he still teaches at GMU, but I remember from his lectures that Professor Rustici in the econ dept over there used to own a supermarket so he may be able to give you interesting insight into something like this since he is sort of in the unique position of selling these products and being an economist.
Posted by: Tim at Jan 24, 2008 3:38:46 PM
I buy Tide because that's what my mom bought. I never bother to compare pries, I assume my mom knows the best detergent.
Posted by: Warren at Jan 24, 2008 3:50:49 PM
I know why! All of the above are wrong!
First, but not most importantly, is that if a detergent works, you probably aren't going to switch. So whatever you bought when you were at that point in your life when you first started buying detergent, is what you will continue to buy.
Second, and importantly - When you DO start buying detergent, its tough! there are a lot of different potions in that crazy aisle. The softeners are right next to detergents, and some detergents have all these different options, bleach, etc. And all the while your head is trying to remember what will harm your clothes, whether or not bleach is ok, etc...
All you want is the detergent! Just plain, vanilla detergent that works and that you can put in your machine. You see that familiar Tide logo and BINGO. At the bare minimum you know its a safe choice. Its basic, its detergent. Done. And it does work, so after using it once, there is no reason to switch, and go back to that agonizing selection process. Get out of this awful aisle and away from its myriad of complex options... Go to the cracker aisle, where things are comfortable and safe and familiar.
At least, thats how I felt as a college freshman. I'm sure many other people know better. But as long as a sizable proportion of people feel this way, its enough to give a decent advantage.
Posted by: Chris at Jan 24, 2008 3:53:28 PM
Q: Why is Heinz Ketchup so dominant?
A: because it's perfect. really. gladwell wrote a whole article about it:
http://www.gladwell.com/2004/2004_09_06_a_ketchup.html
Posted by: ramster at Jan 24, 2008 3:53:42 PM
I have always bought Tide. This is because Tide was the first - and for quite a while, the only - detergent to remove phosphates, a pollutant that destroyed waterways. This made it the only choice for me. I never switched after that, having never had any reason to.
Posted by: Stephen Downes at Jan 24, 2008 4:15:00 PM
I got a year of free Tide with my new washer, I plan to switch to Trader Joe's "HE" brand when it's gone.
Posted by: odograph at Jan 24, 2008 4:18:54 PM
I use Win sports detergent on all my clothes. It doesn't shred clothing, nor does it coat it in softeners and residue to hide that fact. It is also biodegradable.
Posted by: akatsuki at Jan 24, 2008 4:21:56 PM
My mother always used Tide. I can't count the number of times I've been told "your clothes smell nice". But after switching to generic stuff during/after college, the "compliments" disappeared.
I'm sure other detergents are equally pleasant, but it's not worth my time to find them. So now it's Tide for me too.
Posted by: Zac at Jan 24, 2008 4:37:38 PM
Ah, Nathaniel, you beat me to it!
Posted by: Yancey Ward at Jan 24, 2008 5:08:44 PM
I bought a competing brand instead of Tide once, and it didn't get my clothes clean very well at all. I was surprised -- it was another popular brand with lots of advertising behind it.
There might be some that beat Tide, but I'm not interested in experimenting to find out. Consumer Reports indeed has Tide near the top, as another commenter pointed out.
Posted by: Phil at Jan 24, 2008 5:16:53 PM
Several years ago, a Consumer Reports article on laundry detergents rated Tide as the best and warned against using cheap detergents, on the grounds that they're harsh and will cause clothes to fade. So my mother told me, which is why I also use Tide today.
This article here says that Consumer Reports rated various Tide brands as the best but says the cheap brands are also very good.
Posted by: blue at Jan 24, 2008 5:18:38 PM
Heinz is easy: Taste. It's a taste many of us have become accustomed to so we continue to buy it.
Posted by: Vincent Clement at Jan 24, 2008 5:48:04 PM
Quote" “I want to be a race car passenger: just a guy who bugs the driver..."
I KNEW that sounded like Mitch Hedberg. Still love the stuff on XM but it makes me sad.
Anyway, I like the generics and think the Costco Kirkland stuff works well in my front-loader. But there seem to be a lot of comments that found it worked and stuck with it. There are costs associated with switching to a new brand (time, energy, what if I have to throw away stuff I hate, I have to learn how much to use of the new brand, etc..)
Posted by: asparagus at Jan 24, 2008 6:30:51 PM
