Proctor & Gamble (P&G) is currently the most influential and largest producer in the consumer products industry. P&G has more than 250 brands and focus on five main categories: laundry and cleaning, beauty care, paper goods, food and beverages, and health care. Their major brands include Crest, Charmin, Downy, Pampers, and Tide, Pantene, and Pringles. They believe in sustainability and have a high environmental awareness. P&G is always innovating and reformulating products to make sure they are safe in respect to human health and the environment. P&G’s strong marketing strategies and high sales performance have continued to pressure other consumer product companies and have secured them as the leader in the industry.
Recently, an article was published in the New York Times on how one of P&G’s brands, known as Cascade, has been experiencing issues with their dishwashing detergent. Responding to a recent environmentally friendly law, detergent makers had to cut back on phosphate, a crucial ingredient of dishwashing detergent. Consumers have been extremely disappointed with the efficiency of Cascade’s detergent and say that they are running their dishwashers twice in order to fully clean their dishes, which is resulting in more unnecessary water consumption. As a result, Cascade is doing their part to protect bodies of freshwater; however, they are losing consumers rapidly.
In response to Cascade cutting back on phosphate in their detergent and customers' dissatisfaction with its efficiency, I find it ironic. A major portion of our nation's population has joined the green movement. They push companies to improve their products to be eco-friendly, as long as the products do not change in quality. In Cascade's case, their detergent is not up to par with its consumers, so they may want to go back to their "un-eco-friendly" ways.
ReplyDeleteBut would this new "eco-friendly" outlook gain more consumers in the long run? Should P&G keep their detergent the way it is if it will attract more customers in the long run? Or will this product only hurt the company in the end?
ReplyDeleteThese are all questions to consider. However, maybe the new detergent isn't eco-friendly as a whole. If they are cutting down on phosphate but consumers need to use twice as much water, this probably isn't equaling out. Using twice as much water is probably more detrimental to the environment than the phosphate. So, I think it would smart for P&G to fix their detergent since it is not doing what it was intended to do.
Well P&G has no choice whether to include phosphate anymore due to the recent environmental law that bans it in dishwashing products. This law is obviously hurting P&G. I believe that they should have been aware that phosphate is unhealthy for our environment and that they should have already had a back-up plan. If they had been prepared for the ban on phosphate, they could have had an advantage in the dish washing soap market after the law was put into effect.
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