[kingu]

Downy's marketing team did an extensive survey of their customers. The marketing team came back with a plan to dual price the product; a higher price for chain stores, and a much lower price point for off brand stores.

The survey found out multiple things - because of price increases and a switch to ‘concentrated’ formulations, they were losing customers who saw a much more expensive and smaller bottle.

Rather than take the advice they paid for, the company instead decided to double down with an expensive marketing campaign on television (with dwindling eyes on commercials), backed up with heavy newspaper coupon distribution. When subscriptions crashed, they doubled down with even more expensive e-coupons.

Meanwhile, multiple other companies took advantage of Downy's abandonment of the low end market and captured the majority of those customers.

Too little too late, Downy expanded into ‘niche’ infusion scents, paying even more for shelf real estate, raising the price yet again (to stay matched with the price of concentrated laundry detergent.)

Now as sales crash even harder due to high shelf prices, they've lost the low end market they used to dominate, owe huge bills for shelf real estate for products that aren't selling, they now are pointing fingers at potential customers calling them too stupid to use their product.

This, my friends, is a study in how to trash a brand. People who thought they were smarter than what their customers told them.

[Falconspeed]

Excellent analysis of Downey. Thanks. Just like Schwinn who looked down on the riders who placed fat tires on their bikes and cycled on mountains in the 1980’s. Sad.

[CodeToad]

“This, my friends, is a study in how to trash a brand. People who thought they were smarter than what their customers told them. “

Fact is, few, if any, business majors are smarter than a parrot. If told a partial story from some business success, they parrot it to their demise. They’re like little birds that follow your finger and don’t know why.

[Windflier]

This, my friends, is a study in how to trash a brand. People who thought they were smarter than what their customers told them.

Microsoft comes to mind. Their business practices are brutally customer unfriendly, and they seem to be completely disinterested in what the broad public has to say about their business model or their product.

[COBOL2Java]

This, my friends, is a study in how to trash a brand. People who thought they were smarter than what their customers told them.

Did they have a side job running the GOP? Are Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan on the Downy Board of Directors?