Understanding Your Customer: What Higher Ed Can Learn from Febreze

By Walter Rankin - EvoLLLution. A few years ago, The New York Times ran an in-depth story that analyzed how companies were trying to market their products in ways that built upon consumer behavior because, the logic goes, “once consumers’ shopping habits are ingrained, it’s incredibly difficult to change them.”[1] A key example in the article is Febreze, originally marketed by Proctor & Gamble in 1998 as an odorless spray that eliminated bad smells. Febreze was initially deemed a marketing misfire that failed to build upon established “habit loops” of consumers. In follow-up tests, P&G found consumers had become so used to the odors within their own homes that they saw no value in changing their cleaning routine. More...