Super concentration wins Product of the Year for Omo
Radical new packaging for a concentrated laundry detergent was one of Australia’s most innovative product moments of last year, according to a survey of 5,000 Australian consumers.
The launch of Omo’s Small & Mighty range – which saw the creation of a new super concentrated product category – has been recognised in the Product of the Year Awards.
The awards – organised by advertorial TV company What’s New – recognise new products across 14 supermarket categories, including Unilever’s Omo in the laundry category.
Michelle Katz, marketing manager of Omo Small & Mighty, said: “It was a retailer – Walmart in the US – that drove the initial idea by challenging laundry manufacturers to rapidly move to super concentrates.
“In the US the average pack size for laundry liquid was 3l, so it took up a lot of shelf space for a category that had not delivered significant growth to retailers for many years. In Australia we changed from a 1.4L bottle to 475 ml with each wash needing only a third of the previous dose.” She added: “Consumers have responded very well.”
Researcher Steven Braddon of Roy Morgan Research, who conducted the survey, said: “Products that make it into the shops are the result of enormous series of consumer studies that try to find out what people’s needs are, and how they behave in the real world. It’s much more about addressing unmet needs than convincing people to buy what they don’t really need.”
The survey was conducted online, among 5000 consumers identified as Main Grocery Buyers. The products – all of which had been introduced in the 12 months prior to the survey – were shown to the respondents as both image and text description. In order to be eligible, all had been featured by What’s New.
Each product was then rated on how new and different it was perceived to be, using a four point scale. This was followed by ratings of six attributes about the product and consumer propensities. These included “would recommend to others,” “is an original idea,” “makes life easier,” “would make a special trip for,” “addresses an everyday need,” and “would be a hard product to give up.”
The winners list:
- Dairy: Dairy Farmers, Rise Fresh Start
- Simmer sauces and recipes: McCormick Slow Cookers
- Hot drinks: Nescafe Greenblend
- Personal care: Dettol Instant Hand Sanitizer
- Dog food: Purina Lucky Dog 2 in 1 Beef and Marrowbone Dog
- Household cleaning: GreenWorks
- Meal kits: Greenseas Chunky Tuna Plus
- Sauces and marinades: MasterFoods Homestyle Marinades
- Herbs and spices: McCormick Herbs and Spices
- Breakfast: Uncle Tobys Oat Crisp Cereal
- Cat food: Purina Supercoat for Cats
- Laundry: Omo Small & Mighty
- Insect control: Raid Automatic Insect Control System
- Household fragrances: Glade Scented Oil Candles
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“In order to be eligible, all had been featured by What’s New.”
Tim, did you reprint this article word for word? How could you run the headline when only a few products were eligible? This is paramount to an agency running awards for their own clients only. So what happened, how did this get through?
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The opposite, as it happens, James. It wasn’t mentioned in the press release, but I did think it was relevant to tell people that, which is why I added it in in the interests of transparency.
I’m not quite sure if you object to me mentioning it, or object to the story running at all.
Assuming it’s the latter, my view is that the story is certainly of less interest because it only features product launches that featured on What’s New. But it doesn’t make it valueless, which is why I’ve chosen to write about it.
For instance, I do think the Omo launch was innovative enough that it deserves discussion. As a punter, I made that switch, and I’m interested in the shelf space story behind it.
But that’s why I put the line in about it being featured on What’s New, and details of the methodology – so you can make up your own mind as you read it.
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella
Hi Tim
Thanks for the clairification, and this is where it becomes interesting with your classifications within Mumbrella. I do not object to you running the story, but I do object to it being in your News section, but perhaps this is only because the standard of News in Mumbrella has been exceptionally high.
Or maybe it is because the one piece of information that puts the whole article into context is at the end of the 7th paragraph.
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Quick point of clarification: in order to be eligible, products did NOT have to be featured by “whatsnew?” and the majority never have been. As per the terms and conditions of entry, the Product of the Year competition was open to ALL new products.
It was a thorough piece of research conducted by Roy Morgan amongst 5,000 consumers and is definitely an interesting, worthwhile news story.
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Hi james,
As you’ll see from Mark’s comments above, I was basing my health warning on last year’s methodology anyway… so it was all as clean as clean can be…
(Update to the update: It’s always been open to any new product, I’m told. But in early years it was known as the What’s New Product of the Year). Glad that’s sorted…
Cheers,
Tim – Mumbrella