As a user of tide pods, I enjoyed reading Olivia Joe’s post on the innovative little packs of detergent. Tide Pods took a product in the maturity phase of the product life cycle, laundry detergent, and marketed it as a new and innovative product successfully. While competitors were quick to mimic Tide’s new idea, Tide will always retain the first mover advantage, and the majority of the share in this sub-market in the laundry detergent industry.
As a university student living on my own, I am always looking for easier and more convenient ways of carrying out my weekly chores. These new little packs save me from lugging a big bottle of detergent, along with all of my dirty laundry, to the basement of my building where the laundry room is located. If I could offer one suggestion to Tide, I would say that marketing to students, and other people who do not have a laundry facility of there own would be a beneficial move. Vending tide pods in laundry facilities is another potential revenue-generating idea that could be beneficial to create new value for this very mature product.