A very interesting article recently appeared in Advertising Age. "Will All-in-One Products End Their Reign?" discusses the recent trend of many CPG companies, Procter & Gamble included, to launch and market "complete products."


You know: Tide Total Care laundry detergent, Downy Total Care fabric softener, Olay Total Effects and Crest Complete were a few notable P&G branded products that were launched to offer multiple benefits to consumers.
Specifically citing the total laundry products, the author of the article states: "Turns out that in laundry, like history, the end of one cycle just means the start of the next." Very insightful.
What's provocative to me in the idea of innovating and marketing multi-benefit complete or total products. . .and what comes next. I mean, when a product is designed to offer a complete array of features and benefits; to do everything in essence, where can CPG companies go with their next generation of product offerings? How can they improve on that? Think about it.
Interestingly, the article cites the work of Arbor Strategy Group, a consultancy that has researched new CPG launches for years, stating: "(they) found most categories ultimately spawn a product labeled "total" or "complete" at the tail end of a lengthy bout of product and benefit proliferation. Then competitors start all over again with single-benefit claims."
Meaning that this starts a new cycle of positioning products marketed with single feature benefits again. . .as prompted by competitors' latest and greatest offerings.
Not surprisingly, P&G spokesman Kash Shaikh, had this to say about Tide Total Care, when interviewed for this article: "Old two-in-ones did two things but not very well. Nowadays, the standard is much higher."
Still, if past business cycles are any indicator of future ones, and they generally are. . .and "what goes around comes around"–as the article succinctly states. . .can innovative new consumer products touting one overriding, single benefit innovations be far off again?
Here's how our article ends: "But don't customers feel cheated when "total" products turn out to be not all hat when improved single-benefit products arrive?"
"'I don't think anybody cares,' said Doug Hall, a former P&G executive who runs product-consulting firm Richard Saunders International near Cincinnati. 'It's the circle of life. After the winter comes spring, and these fads, too, must pass.'"
Questions:
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Have you used "total" or "complete" products recently? Were you convinced that they lived up to their promise? That is, did they offer all the benefits they were supposed to in your view?
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Do you, as a consumer, care about getting numerous benefits from one product, or do you prefer to purchase products that do the one thing you need them to do exceptionally well?
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Do you like trying the next new innovative product in a category, or do you prefer to stick with what you continually purchase and like to use?
I'd love to hear from you.