The POWER of Clorox

By Michele Twiddy

What is “The Clorox Company?”

• Home Care Products– 409– Liquid Plumr– Pine Sol– Tilex

• Laundry Additives– Clorox Bleach– Clorox 2

The Clorox Company continued

• Brita Water Filtration Systems

• Car Care Products– Armor All– STP

• Dressings, Sauces, Seasonings– KC Masterpiece– Hidden Valley Ranch

• Glad bags, wraps & containers

• Kingsford Charcoal

• Cat Litter– Fresh Step– Scoop Away– Ever Clean

• Green Works– New line of “greener” cleaning products

• Burt’s Bees health products

Clorox Bleach

• First big product• Name you can trust• Abel M. Hamblet,

suggested name: "chlorine" and "sodium hydroxide," the amalgam "Clorox.“

• Hamblet also designed the trademark

A Household Product

• Clorox was initially an industrial cleaner

• Became household product in 1916

• Not an immediate success

• Needed to reach households

• Needed a marketing strategy

First Marketing Strategy

• Free Samples

– In 1918, The Electro-Alkaline Company, told everyone selling the product to give three of every four bottles away for FREE!

Information from the site: http://www.thecloroxcompany.com/company/history/history2.html

Today’s Marketing Strategies

• Fliers

• Coupon mailers

• Commercials

• Print advertisements

• Billboards

• Viral – word of mouth

• Internet

What I chose to Analyze• TV Commercials

– http://www.clorox.com/our_story/media_center/

• Look at several ads• Notice the use of different languages• Effective? Why?• “Rides”

– EMOTIONAL APPEAL; – DOWNPLAY (opposite of hyperbole)

• Lightning Bolts (Clorox 2)– EMTIONAL APPEAL– MAGIC INGREDIENTS– NAME CALLING– PLAIN FOLK

Magazine Adshttp://cgi.ebay.com/1965-ad-Clorox-laundry-Bleach-dirty-boys-people-Subway_W0QQitemZ7145796825QQihZ005QQcategoryZ876QQcmdZViewItem

PLAIN FOLK

EMOTIONAL APPEAL

WORD CHOICE

On the occasion of World Health Day, we commit ourselves to liberating our world from the germs that are everywhere.

Clorox. Cleaner world. Healthier lives. http://adsoftheworld.com/media/print/clorox_germs?size=_original

EMOTIONAL APPEAL; WORD CHOICE; PARALLELISM

A Magazine Ad from

http://www.rps.psu.edu/sep98/see.html

REPETITION (whitest whites); WORD CHOICE; EMOTIONAL APPEAL; BANDWAGON; PLAIN FOLK

Internet Ad

• http://www.clorox.com/

• Moving mouse allows viewer to peruse different products

• On the main page:– EMOTIONAL APPEAL– PLAIN FOLD– BANDWAGON– PARALLELISM (“Healthier lives happen in cleaner

homes. Cleaner homes start with Clorox.”)

Sponsorships

TRANSFER! –excellent example of this

Effective or Not?

• Your job is to collect 7 – 10 different ads for ONE company and analyze their effectiveness . . . USE THE TECHNIQUES YOU ALREADY LEARNED TO DETERMINE THIS!

• Is it all in a name?• What about the sound?• How does Play on Words figure into all this?• Do extremes make a difference? -- Hyperbole• Do they really want me to answer that?• Add it all up . . .• All of this can be a lot of pun!• What do they mean by that exactly?!

Is it all in a name? Is it all in a name?

• Name Quest believes so . . .

• http://www.namequest.com/study8.htm

What about the sound?• Rhyme: repetition of syllables at end of words

KitchenAid. For the way it’s made.• Chime: Keywords in a jphrase begin with identical

consonants A tradition of trust (Merrill Lynch Brokerage)

• Assonance & Alliteration: Three or more repetitions of a vowel or consonant No one knows the land like a Navajo (Mazda 4 wheel drive)

• Repetition of words at different places within the phraseEarly treatment. Early cure. (Gyne Lotrimin

medicine) Choose to be your most beautiful. Salon beautiful. (Salon Selectives haircare)Kleenex Ultra. Ultra softness is all you feel.

• Parallelism: The quality you need. The price you want. (Kmart) The protection you need in the colors you want. (Sally Hansen nail polish)

How does play on words figure into all of this?

• Repeating words or phrases in reverse order– Stops static before static stops you.

(Bounce)

• Binary opposites are incorporated into a phrase– Add Clorox. Subtract dirt.

Do extremes make a difference?

• Exaggerate– The best. All the time (S & W canned food)

• Underplay, Minimize or understate– It takes a little more to make a champion.

(Champion sportswear)– It just feels right (Mazda)

Do they really want me to answer that?

• Rhetoric– Make an assertion

• Don’t you have something better to do? (Hewlett-Packard plain paper fax)

– Call something into question• Chances are, you’ll buy a Ranger for its value,

economy and quality. Yeah, right.

Add it all up . . .

• Use of a portion, or any associated element, to represent the whole– There’s a brownies worth of fat in every

spoonful of Best Foods. (Kraft Mayonnaise)– You’re looking at 2 slumber parties, 3

midnight raids, 5 unexpected guests, 1 late snooze and 1 superbowl (Hormel frozen food)

All of this can be a lot of pun!

• Substitution based on underlying resemblance– Say hello to your child’s new bodyguards (Johnson &

Johnson bandaids)• Substitution based on accidental similarity

– How to make a home run (Whirlpool appliances)– Nobody knows the athlete’s foot like Athletes Foot

• Verbs taking on different senses– It’s too bad other brands don’t pad their shoes as

much as their prices. (Keds shoes)• Juxtaposition

– Will bite when cornered (Goodyear tires[picture of car splashing up water as it makes a turn])

What do they mean by that exactly?

• Paradox: Self-contradiction, false or impossible statement– For twenty years, the winners at Indy haven’t

changed their tires (Goodyear tires)

• Irony: statement means the opposite of what is said– We spent years developing this incredibly

comfortable contact lens, and this is how you treat it (Accuvue disposable contacts [picture of finger flicking away the lens])

Have Fun!• Now, analyze your ad campaign.

• Be able to identify the above techniques!