Perceptual Mapping Laundry Detergent

Laundry Detergent - Cost vs Cleaning

Starting my perceptual mapping assignment, I took a look at the laundry detergent industry as a whole. In the US alone, Americans spend over $5 billion dollars a year on laundry detergent. The leader in both sales and ratings is Tide. Known for effectiveness in cleaning and or stain removal, it is favored highly. Tide, holds the laundry detergent market with 28% of sales. The average price per load for consumer is .20¢ a load if using the original Tide. The second biggest seller is Purex at 12.5% of the industry sales and is on average .10¢ a load. Arm & Hammer is a contender holding 8.25% of sales and is .12¢ a load. Surf detergent comes in 4th at 12% of sales and is .10¢ a load. These four big names control 60.75% of the laundry detergent sales in the US, leaving 39.25% for the other detergents. Gain, All, Cheer, and also the eco or environmentally friendly detergents, Seventh Generation and Charlie's Soap are two well known brands.

Looking at customer ratings of these products on both Good House Keeping and statista.com I compiled the customers cleaning perception of the laundry brands. Those that use Tide believe in it's ability to clean very well and don't mind paying the higher price for it. However consumers that use Charlie's Soap place it high on the effective cleaning scale. Charlie's may be largely unknown by most consumers but since its availability on Amazon.com the detergent has gained faithful customers, and has increased their portion of the market share.

I went to Walmart and Amazon for the cost of each detergent bottle and figured the average price per load based on how many loads each bottle claimed to clean. The average price per load is based solely on what each detergent claims. These numbers don't take in to account human error. The bottle of Surf states it will wash 100 loads, the average person adds a little extra or maybe they pour some detergent directly onto a stain. So that bottle may really only clean 80 or 75 loads of laundry.

Glancing at this map one might think there aren't any detergents that don't clean well. Why would anyone spend the extra money for brand like Tide, Charlie's or Gain? Well this map only shows price and consumers ratings. If a consumer is using a brand and are satisfied they will give it a higher rating and will justify the amount of money spent, based on their satisfaction of that detergent. Also if they are satisfied with "Surf" detergent that costs less, why would they pay extra money for Tide or Charlie's. I guess it all comes down to a personal preference and or a families monthly budget.






Source Sites:
http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home-products/laundry-detergents/

https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_7?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=laundry+detergent&sprefix=laundry%2Caps%2C148&crid=2ARU0BJ026TY3

https://www.statista.com/statistics/251472/sales-share-of-the-leading-10-liquid-laundry-detergent-brands-of-the-us/

https://www.walmart.com/