The New Vaseline 2-In-1 Skin Soap

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Despite the aggressive advertisements by Unilever to position the new Vaseline 2-in-1 skin soap as a direct competitor of Safeguard, it failed to capture a massive market share from Safeguard due to its inadequate communication of the product’s remarkable anti-bacterial feature, and the ineffective conveyance of its attack to Safeguard. Moreover, because of Vaseline’s worldwide household name on moisturizing lotions, the company faced a challenge to break the market’s perception of the brand “Vaseline” for being tagged as a moisturizing product only, thus, limiting the brand name from being categorized as a germicidal product also.  Further confusing the market, even though the body cleansing market in the Philippines was concentrated in bar soaps, Vaseline 2-in-1 skin soap was still introduced in liquid form in advertisements to compete head-on with the bar form of Safeguard. This led to some consumers of not welcoming the idea of a liquid soap since Vaseline was a new player in the market.

The new Vaseline 2-in-1 soap should capitalize on its key strength as a 100% soap with no fillers, hence, more focus must be given on the bar form especially in ad placements directly targeting Safeguard.  On the other hand, the packaging of the liquid form should be enhanced as it resembled that of the Vaseline lotion, and should be continued to be placed alongside the bar soaps on grocery shelves. The product should be initially promoted in the way soaps are traditionally advertised, which is in bar form. Moreover, the TV commercials should emphasize thoroughly the benefits of Vaseline as a germ protection soap since Safeguard, the leading brand in the health/family segment, had effectively convey that value proposition to its target market. Furthermore, the company should enhance its commercial ads by adding a portion where doctors and dermatologists from the Philippine Public Health Association (PPHA) are being interviewed to give more credibility on the product.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

The new Vaseline 2-in-1 Skin soap failed to instill to its target market that it is an anti-bacterial soap, hence, it did not win against Safeguard to be the leading brand on the health/family segment of body cleansing category. It was not able to use its dual feature to its advantage due to its ineffective and ambiguous advertisements supposedly targeting Safeguard. Likewise, there was a challenge in expanding the market’s perception of the brand “Vaseline”, from being immediately tagged as a moisturizing product to becomingly known as a germicidal product as well.