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SC Johnson's doubts that a newfangled clip-on mosquito-repellent fan priced
around $9 could be a big seller in a recession have proved unfounded, as the Off
Clip-On Fan is far outstripping the company's initial projections and leading to
shortages in much of the country.
The Off fan is one of several new products that has the family-owned
multinational hitting its stride like it hasn't in years, recession or no.
SC Johnson led all players in U.S. household and personal-care scanner data with
sales growth of close to 10% in the four weeks ended June 14. It has made
substantial share gains in recent months in cleaning tools and mops, plastic
wraps, toilet-bowl cleaners, and storage bags.
But nothing has taken off quite like the Off fan, which exceeded SC Johnson's
initial sales expectations by more than 400%, according to a person familiar
with the matter, despite the relatively heady price. He credited a
combination of the novelty, aggressive advertising for the brand from SC Johnson
agency DraftFCB and an unusually wet spring and summer across much of the
eastern U.S. that has helped spawn more mosquitoes.
"People seem to be loving it everywhere," said a spokeswoman for Edelman, the
public-relations firm for Off, which has positioned the product particularly for
women as an easier alternative that doesn't require application of chemicals to
the skin.
The Off clip sold about $4.2 million its first month, ended June 14, according
to Information Resources Inc. data that exclude Walmart, club stores,
home-improvement stores and other big channels for the product.
The fan has been popular enough that it's impossible to find in many stores
around the country during the prime barbecuing and summer-camp season, though it
remains in stock on Amazon. Amazon is charging $12.89 for a starter kit
and $8.49 for refills, well above the suggested retail prices of $9 and $3.99,
respectively.
Reviews on the site are mixed, with a combination of raves and users who say the
fan didn't protect them at all. The biggest complaints online, though, are
price and the inability to find the product.
Improvements are likely on both fronts now that SC Johnson knows it has a hit,
said Rodney Northern, an SC Johnson alum who now runs Fayetteville, Ark.-based
product and trade-marketing consulting firm Nucleus Group. He sees the fan
as one sign of a broader SC Johnson turnaround as the company's management team
gels under Johnson family heir and CEO Fisk Johnson, who took over in late 2004
upon the surprise departure of William Perez for Nike.
"As Fisk is starting to mature, they're putting the right pieces in the right
places," he said. Among other things, SC Johnson has started getting
marketing managers more involved in upstream product development, he said.
Household products generally have fared relatively well in the recession, but SC
Johnson in particular has benefited with a slew of new products that haven't
been duplicated by private labels yet. Among them are a Scrubbing Bubbles
gel toilet-bowl cleaner that sticks to the bowl to provide continuous cleaning
and a Windex outdoor window-cleaning kit.
SC Johnson went on the defensive earlier in the decade as a resurgent Procter &
Gamble Co. made household cleaning a renewed priority and led a charge on
Glade's once-dominant position in air fresheners, Mr. Northern said. P&G
and Reckitt Benckiser combined to carve more than 20 points out of Glade's
market share over several years.
That diverted resources toward defending air fresheners rather than SC Johnson's
biggest strengths, which were innovating in other household categories such as
insect repellents, he said. Now, SC Johnson is refocusing attention on
those categories, where it also faces less competition from big-spending
behemoth P&G, he said.
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