VIDEO CASE 19–1 Lysol

L&F is a North American business unit of the Kodak Corporation. An important brand for L&F is the Lysol product line. Most Canadian consumers are familiar with Lysol Spray, but L&F wants to increase sales of not only the spray product, but also the entire line of Lysol products. It is attempting to develop a strategy in Canada in order to market more of the entire line of Lysol products.

Lysol, primarily the spray, has a long brand heritage in Canada. The disinfectant benefit of the product is very distinctive. In the early 1990s, Lysol spray had 44 percent household penetration in Canada, but the other Lysol products—Lysol Basin, Tub & Tile Cleaner; Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner; and Lysol Liquid (All-Purpose) Cleaner—had much lower penetration. With little existing synergy between the products within the line, L&F wanted to bring these disparate products together. In doing so, L&F could achieve economies of scale in terms of marketing expenses. The company believed that by combining the marketing budgets for the four separate products, it could achieve a greater impact on the market. It was believed that one way to link the products together was through the unifying benefit of disinfection.

L&F wanted to achieve a greater market penetration with all four products. However, the overall household cleaning product category was not growing and in some areas was actually declining. Some industry people felt that one reason for this was that many households were cleaning less. They also felt that the recession was impacting on sales in the category. Therefore, new growth for Lysol would have to come at the expense of existing competitors.

While all competitors were using advertising and couponing, the intensity of the battle was at the shelf level. Competitive firms were literally battling it out for shelf space in order to capture market share. This meant that trade sales promotions were being used extensively, often in the form of price discounting. L&F felt it shouldn’t get more involved in trade discounts because of the squeeze it put on margins. It did believe, however, that limited use of consumer coupons should be part of its overall consumer-focused marketing communications activity.

L&F believed that the Lysol brand probably had a rather tired personality. The company wanted to give it a 1990s contemporary, interesting, and even provocative image. The problem was that to most consumers, household cleaning products were really an uninteresting category. As such, building consumer awareness of the entire line would not be possible without increasing the level of consumer involvement. The question was how to create interest or involvement with the product line. A way had to be found to demonstrate the line and to have consumers pay attention.

L&F knew that timing would be important. For example, interest in the category would be highest just before or during traditional spring cleaning time in Canada, which ran between late February and early May. Interest would also be high again in late fall or early winter. But if the product line itself could not be made interesting or more involving, even good timing wouldn’t help.

L&F had to determine an appropriate creative message for the consumer, select an appropriate communications medium, and consider other ways to build sales and market share for the line.

1		What would be the most appropriate advertising medium for L&F to use in order to communicate with its market?
2		What would be a creative way to build consumer involvement with the product line? What would be the specific message and execution?
3		Besides the specific advertising medium you recommended to L&F in question 1, what other promotional activities would you recommend to build sales and market share for the Lysol line?
4		What type of advertising schedule would you recommend L&F use during the year?