Seemingly boring categories often are starved of media interest until someone makes a dramatic shift in product type (i.e. what P&G did to sweeping/mopping with the Swiffer) or distribution (i.e. what Sleep Country Canada/USA did for the mattress shopping experience).
Another way to shake up a dormant category is to re-define how the product is used. One such example is Bounce Fabric Softener, which recently changed their logo and packaging. In addition, they set up an on-line community and invited consumers to share their stories on how they use Bounce sheets.
According to their website, they already have had over 20,000 stories submitted. By building a community, they could potentially benefit by:
- Increasing category sales/exposure
- Increasing purchase frequency of Bounce sheets
- Building a valuable database of consumers
Although it is technically an on-line community, the interactivity between different consumers is non-existent. Consumers can either post their stories or read what has been written - they can not engage in a dialogue among themselves.
As an outside observer, it is difficult to determine if the Bounce brand has a complete strategy or if they are using Tribal Elements. Either way, it will be interesting to see how things work out.
