Procter & Gamble, the consumer-products giant that’s been steadily pruning brands from its roster, is bucking the trend by introducing a new line of upscale home fragrances.
The products, called Unstopables, will roll out nationwide to discount chains in February, the Cincinnati-based company said. The lineup, which includes candles, oils, and air and laundry fresheners, comes in six scents and bears names such as Lush and Shimmer.
P&G, the world’s largest seller of consumer products, sees higher-end home fragrances as a category where it can lure away customers from department stores and specialty chains such as Yankee Candle Co. The company is pitching the collection with the slogan, “Smell like the lifestyle you deserve.”
“There is a big market for premium scents in the home,” Shailesh Jejurikar, P&G’s North America home-care president, said in an interview.
The new products, which cost about $5 to $7, are about two to three times as expensive as typical fragrance products sold at discounters, he said. S.C. Johnson’s Glade premium room spray, for instance, costs $1.34 at Target. But consumers are willing to spend $20 for a medium “Beach Walk” scented pillar candle at Yankee Candle.
P&G is turning Unstopables into a stand-alone product line even as Chief Executive Officer A.G. Lafley works to eliminate as many as 100 slower-selling brands. The company agreed to sell its pet-food units and the Duracell battery brand in multibillion-dollar deals, and last month it said it would sell portions of its soap lineup to Unilever.
P&G shares rose 0.5 per cent to $91.74 at 9:46 a.m. in New York. The stock increased 12 per cent last year.
While it looks for areas to cut, the company also is seeking growth opportunities, aiming to pull out of a sales slump. The size of the US home air-care market more than doubled from 1999 to 2013, according to Euromonitor International. The research firm expects the category to reach almost $3.4 billion in sales by 2018.
P&G introduced Downy Unstopables laundry fragrances in 2011. The success of that product led to a broader rollout after P&G developed a technology that produced longer-lasting scents, Jejurikar said.
P&G is already one of the world’s largest perfume makers. While its Febreze air fresheners are pitched as eliminating bad odors, Unstopables will be marketed more like a home decor product, Jejurikar said.
The television spots, which will air beginning Monday, strike an aspirational tone. In one, a woman folding clothing exclaims, “I want my yoga pants to smell like I sweat money.”
A mother in another spot sprays the air while her son lounges on a bed behind her.
“I want his room to smell like he’s away at boarding school,” she says.
Bloomberg News edited by ESM
