How 60 Equals 15, or Packaging to Sell More.
I often help my wife with laundry, sorting, hanging clothes, buying the supplies, but actually running the machines only about once a week. While adding fabric softener recently in one of those rare occasions, something seemed odd, I was adding the cap full of fabric softener from the bottle marked 60 loads realizing there was no way the quantity from 60 of those caps would fit in that small bottle. Sorta the opposite of buying pizza for a small group, when you believe those two large pizzas will feed everyone, only to go home hungry eating only one slice.
A quick read of the directions revealed that a normal load required filling the cap only to the first line inside the cap. Looking inside, there was a very faint line about 1/4 the way from the bottom. Now understanding that my loads had historically used four times the amount of solution required, I queried my wife. She too had always simply used a cap full as a unit of measure. I felt a little better with the knowledge that others were fooled as well, followed quickly by a bad feeling from the implications of the first thought.
Naturally, my curiosity led to the local big box retailer to investigate packaging of other brands. The findings were remarkable, in that almost every brand used the same strategy of a small faint line inside a large cap to sell consumers more fabric solution than they required. In a time marked by brands attempting to build environmental good will with consumers, this seemed absurd.
What I do not know is how many consumers actually follow the label or simply use the full cap as a unit of measure. I’m sure a fellow MBA tucked away in a cubicle somewhere knows the answer has a small chuckle every time they walk down the laundry detergent isle.
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Well, I find that interesting. Was just this last summer when I read the instructions on my liquid laundry detergent. For years I have been using a full cap for a full load but in reading the instructions I found that i should have been using a cap plus a half cap. I have never noticed my clothes not being clean even using two thirds the needed amount.
vidb