The Challenge
Family Toiletries is the collective term for Waitrose’s mainstream bath and shower products. Prior to 2005 this wasn’t a cohesive range. As is traditional for supermarket own brand products, each soap, handwash, shower gel or bath foam followed category cues and mimicked the brand leader. The family of products is basic and mainstream as market leaders such as Radox, Imperial Leather, Palmolive and Dove predominated. Waitrose saw an opportunity to bring these basic toiletries together in a simple and stylish way.
The Brief
Pearlfisher was briefed to redesign the products with a real family feel. Waitrose had introduced a consistent price point and brought the range together into a set of fruit flavours. The brief simply asked Pearlfisher to revitalise the look, promote consumer understanding of the range and maintain market share – no increased sales targets were set for the relaunch.
The Design
Focusing on simplicity, quality and desirability, Pearfisher chose structures that would allow the 99p price point to be maintained without any loss of elegance or any suggestion that this was a no-frills range. Despite its low price, the design feels more premium than the competition. Photographic imagery of fruit links Waitrose toiletries with its food expertise, subtly claiming a similar commitment to freshness and quality in the bath and shower aisle. Bringing together
the range into a cohesive family allows the more successful products, such as soaps, to have a halo effect on those that have historically performed less well.
The Results
The toiletries range was re-launched in March 2005. In the year following the launch, the range achieved volume growth of 58%. Value growth of 25% was also achieved, despite some retail sales prices cuts being necessary to bring everything to the 99p price point. After a design investment of £35,000 (Euro 52,000) the range is now worth £1.5million (Euro 2.22million) to Waitrose. Two years on, volume growth has been sustained and stands at 51%, with value growth at 34%. The overall bath and shower market grew just 1.5% between April 2006 and April 2007 – Waitrose has achieved growth of 9.1% and each product is outperforming the norm for own brand products.
Judges Comments
The panel praised the designers for ‘doing a great job in making this quite classy and quite simple’. ‘This is a pretty crowded marketplace,’ said Peter Williams, CEO, Alpha Airport Group, ‘and Waitrose is a business that’s historically about brands rather than own brands. This is a great job, the results are very good and it supports all the things that Waitrose stand for. I thought it was excellent.’
