Making Affordable Products for Low-Income Shoppers
By Lindsay Riddell
At Clorox, we’re making more products that are affordable to a budget-conscious consumer.
We have a wide variety of low-price items — we call them LOOP products, for “low-out-of-pocket.” These are our popular branded products in smaller, more affordable sizes. Consumers can find them at single-price-point retailers like Dollar Tree and 99 Cents Only, at discount retailers like Wal-Mart and at some small grocery and convenience stores.
“We understand that folks who are extremely budget-conscious still want our brands,” says Chris Warren, Director of Sales. “For those consumers, we create smaller sizes that allow them to buy our brands without having to pay for a two-month supply.”
About half of the U.S. population has a household income of less than $50,000 per year. These low-income households may not be able to afford a 64oz bottle of Clorox® Bleach, but they will spend $1 on a 16oz bottle.
“The low-income shopper appreciates tried-and-true brands because she can’t afford to make a mistake buying a product that doesn’t end up working,” says Karen Chen, associate director – Shopper Insights. “Our products have a deep heritage consumers trust, and low-income shoppers are some of the most brand-loyal shoppers out there.”
For shoppers seeking affordable options, we now offer 11 Glad® products, including several varieties of sandwich bags and trash bags. We offer homecare products like Pine-Sol® cleaner and Clorox disinfecting wipes, as well as that 16-ounce bottle of Clorox bleach. We even sell low-cost products for low-income consumers internationally, including a smaller format bleach bottle in Peru.
“What’s great is these Clorox products are the same high quality as their larger versions. We’ve just made them smaller to hit lower price points and make them available at more retailers” says Chris.
Low-income consumers aren’t the only ones seeking smaller sizes of our products. Urbanites who walk to the grocery store are often attracted to products in smaller packages that are easier to carry home. So are elderly households concerned about the weight of products and how much space they take up if they’ve downsized their living space in retirement.
Giving low-income consumers the opportunity to buy high quality products at price points they can afford in stores where they shop is the right thing to do for lots of reasons.
“Getting consumers to pay more for products through premium innovation and larger sizes is in the DNA of many Consumer Packaged Goods companies. Unfortunately, this leaves behind a lot of brand-loyal shoppers who can’t afford the high out-of-pocket cost of some of their favorite brands,” says Chris. “Giving these shoppers the opportunity to buy brand-name, high quality products at prices can afford is the responsible thing to do as a company. And investors like it, too, because of the new markets it opens up to Clorox.”