Procter & Gamble's Tidal Wave

Most people these days wash their clothes unless you’ve chosen the path of a mountain man or something like that. Now what do you need to wash clothes? Back in the day washing clothes meant manual labor with something called a washboard, Huck Finn can tell you all about. Thanks to modern technology and a company called Procter & Gamble we now have something called laundry detergent. Detergent revolutionized laundry manual labor was no more, all you had to do was put your clothes in a machine hit the start button and walk away.

Tide was released in 1946 and was billed as the first heavy duty detergent, in 1949 it was released on a national scale. Tide quickly gained market share and was advertised as “Americas wash day favorite.” Tide quickly surpassed its competition and since its inception has maintained a tight grip on the detergent market.

Tide has maintained this tight grip over the detergent market by consistently adapting and innovating its products. Since its initial release Tide has continually added new products to its product line. Currently Tide offers its customers 51 different products ranging from its newest creation pods all the way to on the go stain removing pens. By constantly adding to its product line Tide has managed to stay two steps ahead of the competition. This generates a unique advantage for Tide not only are they the most trusted brand in the market. They are also first to add new products to their line, this leaves the competition scrambling to add a new product. All the while Tide is generating revenue of a product that other companies haven’t even developed yet.

This leg up on the competition grants the Tide brand a little bit of breathing room. You’d think management would take a vacation after all they are the number detergent brand. According to Statista.com Tide had sales of $1,195,000,000 in 2014 alone. The market runner up is gain detergent brand with only $545,900 in sales, Tide sales are nearly double the competitions. This kind of industry dominance is especially rare in the household good market where competition is generally very fierce.

Even with this level of dominance Tide and its management team are not letting up anytime soon. Another key to Tide’s continued success is its relentless advertising campaigns. In 2014 tide spent $142 million on advertising, that’s a lotta cash just to spend on advertising a detergent brand. So far the strategy has been working for Tide since it was first introduced to the public it has only grown in size and market share.