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SUCCESS STORY

Mike Eaton’s story started out when he would open laundry detergents to see just what detergents had the least offensive odors. He couldn’t take the heavy fragrances of many of the brands, and the cover-up fragrance idea really wasn’t what he was looking for.  Eaton came to the inspiration that every cleaning in the store was made for women, fragrances were added for women, and that there weren’t products geared for men.  A little checking on the Internet and Eaton found some pretty powerful statistics, 47% of US adult men (18 and over) are single.  The average age of a male getting married today is 29, and still 47 % of first marriages fail and 42 % of second marriages fail.  The result is that 42-43% of purchases made by men.  Eaton figured that 70 to 100 million men are buying cleaning products.

Defining the Product

Eaton study men habits and needs for cleaning products. One aspect was to look into cleaning products that better fit men’s sweat pH and bacteria that are more associated with men than women.  Men also need stronger surfactants (the chemical group that gets out stains and perspiration in clothing) and longer lasting much milder smelling fragrances (to deal with lingering bacteria odor without an overpowering scent). The other aspect Eaton considered was the number and type of cleaning products men prefer.  He found men like easy to use products, and all-purpose products that can do many tasks.  From his evaluations, Eaton determined men needed four different products:

• Laundry detergent
• Dish soap
• All-purpose spray cleaner
• Odor eliminator

Creating the Product

Eaton identified a great market but the question is how to develop the product.  The answer for Eaton was not to try and do everything himself, but rather to turn first to the suppliers, in case the ingredients industry

Manufacturers in the ingredients industry are always working to trying to get more business.  They do this by developing new formulations, including their products of course, that address some of the market issues their customers face.  Eaton was able to get ingredients companies to supply him with new formulations that he was able to evaluate. Since Eaton is a marketing person, specializing in brand building, he wasn’t comfortable dealing with all the technical aspects of the proposed brand, so he hired a chemist familiar with the cleaning industry to help in the final formulation.

Testing

Eaton’s used a rather large network of single friends to do performance testing.  He gave them samples and told them to go to town on seeing if the product worked.  These tests went well. This was not unexpected though as Eaton’s earlier work with ingredients manufacturers allowed him to use formulations where there was a substantial body of data indicating the formulations would be effective.

Pricing

Eaton’s pricing decision was somewhat straight forward as he had to be priced in line with other cleaning products on the market. Men wouldn’t pay and extra charge for a product designed for men over standard market pricing. Fortunately his product didn’t cost more than standard products so he still made an acceptable profit.

Choosing a Distribution Channel

Eaton decided early on that the best way to put his product into the market in a big way was to go through a major mass merchandiser like Walmart or Target.

Eaton is a marketing professional who had branded his product into concept, Hero Clean, Cleaning Products Made for Men.  He knew that he did not want to just go into and talk to buyers.  He had a concept for a market and he wanted to go to an executive who was involved in merchandising cleaning products.  In a retail organization merchandising managers are responsible for the entire selection of products available, and or how those products are grouped together, or differentiate to appeal to customers.  This is a much higher function than buyers who are selecting existing product lines and working with vendors of issues such as packaging, price and quality.

Eaton had done a lot of work with sponsorship of events before starting Hero Clean and one of his contacts knew a person responsible for acquiring sponsors at Target.  That Target contact gave Eaton the name of the Director of Merchandising for Cleaning Products at Target.  Eaton talked to him on the phone and the response was immediate and positive.  It turns out that Target studies had shown that there were a tremendous number of men walking through their store alone or with other men.  Target wanted to do things to entice these men to buy more products.  Hero Clean and Target it turned out was match. Definitely a concept that Target wanted to try out.  Phase one of the sale was made.