Procter Mn24b16 Duracell Alkaline Battery

It is this writer’s sad obligation to report on a terrible blunder by one of the world’s outstanding branding companies: Duracell. Duracell is a division of The Procter & Gamble Company, arguably the leading buyer packaged goods producer in the world and legendary for it is branding prowess. Proving yet again that no establishment is perfective (hey, the legendary ’85 Bears had one loss), Duracell is presently running an ad in Newsweek magazine where they position their batteries as lower-cost, less-powerful number of things from which only one can be chosen to “Energizer e2 Lithium” cells.

Over the past various years, Duracell has with great success positioned their alkaline batteries as more authenti due to their “copper top” construction (which is genuinely just a color on the cell’s wrapper). Even even though Consumer Reports says that basically all ordinary alkaline batteries are very similar in performance, Duracell has built a commanding market share lead through a series of brilliant television and radio commercials. In these ads, Duracell shows galore highly critical situations in which their batteries are used, implying a distinguishable and superior level of reliability. They repeatedly use the phrase, “when it just has to work,” and then illustrate an ordinary battery application along with the critical one, implying that even in every day use, your choice of battery matters.

In one ad, for example, a young basketball player collapses on the court as his mother watches from the stands. Paramedics rush out and administer a defibrillator — equipped with Duracell batteries, of course. The spot cuts to a subsequent high school graduation ceremony and shows the young man smiling in his cap and gown (he survived, obviously) and his mother is taking pictures with a digital camera. The voiceover (intoned by Jeff Bridges) implies that it’s best to use Duracell in both the defibrillator and the camera.

They have some similar commercials with Duracell batteries applied in heart monitors and handheld video games, by NASCAR pit crews, etc. The systematically implied message (they never come out and say this directly, probably because most alkaline battery brands genuinely do carry out similarly) is that Duracell batteries are the most dependable and are unequaled in performance.

Not a heap of companies may take an each day product like an alkaline battery and position it as a highly critical — even lifesaving — purchase. No wonder P&G does so well at branding!

Now this: In the Nov. 10, 2008 issue of Newsweek, on page 75 in my version, is a full page ad proclaiming, “These are hardly the times to compensate for more power than you need.” The ad without doubt or question shows an Energizer e2 Lithium cell on the left and a Duracell battery on the right. There are a few bullets describing the divergences amid the two batteries and then the statement, “Don’t waste power. Don’t waste money.”

Don’t waste power? What the heck? “Don’t waste power” says the company that has convinced us for a lot of years that we need Duracell batteries because they are the only brand that has ENOUGH power! This is an perfectly horrid advertising that flies in the face of the brand position that Duracell has built with great success over the course of assorted years and at the cost of numerous millions of dollars. The clear message is that the Duracell battery is the lower cost, less powerful battery vs. the Energizer brand.

Okay, so why did Duracell do this?

This type of ad occurs when a brand’s stewards overreact thoughtlessly or incorrectly to a competitor’s actions. What is happening in the battery marketplace is that there is a new type of non-rechargeable buyer battery available and it uses lithium to provide superior performance in a lot of apps vs. an alkaline cell. Energizer — whose “bunny” venture merely isn’t as smart and powerful as Duracell’s “copper top” venture — has at long last found an area where it may pick up market share, because it has done a nice occupation positioning it is productions in the new, lithium sub-category.

This new engineering poses a problem both to buyers as well as battery marketers because the lithium batteries are much more costly and only outperform alkaline cells in some– not all — applications. For consumers, that means the best-cost solution varies: in numerous apps it’s more economical to buy lithium batteries because of their longer life; from time to time you save cash by buying alkaline batteries.

While I have no connection to any individual at Duracell, I suspect what’s happening is that they grasp Energizer’s success with Energizer e2 Lithium as a threat to their popular alkaline batteries. Indeed, lithium cells are in fact a new choice in the marketplace and they are taking portion from the alkaline battery market. But the problem is that most buyers don’t actually grasp the details of current battery technology. So they look at an ad like the one in Newsweek and reasonably get the message that “Duracell doesn’t last as long as Energizer.”

No brand that has positioned itself as a performance leader and has persuaded buyers to remunerate a premium for it is merchandise must ever reposition itself as the lower-cost, lower-quality alternative, and that is incisively what this ad does. In fact, it’s a well-known syndication maxim that the leading brand shouldn’t compare itself to contenders under any circumstances — that’s a “follower” strategy, not a “leader” strategy.

Complicating things further, Duracell has it is own “uber-cell,” the Duracell Ultra. I don’t recognise if this is a lithium or souped-up alkaline battery because the “How batteries work” link was down on the Duracell web site when I clicked it. But without doubt or question the Duracell Ultra is the brand that competes with Energizer e2 Lithium.

I sympathize with Duracell’s challenge in the suddenly-changing buyer non-rechargeable battery market. Their hard-earned and carefully-crafted positioning of their frequent alkaline batteries is threatened by new engineering and they surely need to come up with a scheme to proceed their brand sensing and category dominance. But these things take place — technology advances and categories alter and Duracell needs to respond. But this ad is perfectly the wrong approach. It’s just too likely that buyers will comprehend that the core message of the ad is that Energizer (regardless of further and added modifiers like “e2″ or “lithium”) is the superior and more pricey brand. Duracell has aggressively, thoughtfully and conservatively traditionalisti and defended it is position as the superior substitute for a long time. To use their outstanding brand name, believability and retail dollars to switch positions with their number one rival, therefore handing Energizer the “best battery” position on a silver platter is plainly absurd and counterproductive.

Time for a new strategy, Duracell. Engage those great brand thinkers at parent P&G and come up with something revolutionary — rather of this reactionary, counterproductive white flag. You still have the best equity in the battery category and if you don’t believe that, search blogs beneath “favorite battery.” Most buyers still believe that Duracell is the superior brand and you need to reinforce rather than undermine that position.

Procter Mn24b16 Duracell Alkaline Battery

Duracell, 16 Pack, size “AAA”, Alkaline Battery, Reclosable storage pack Doublewide Pack.

Procter Mn24b16 Duracell Alkaline Battery Picture

Procter Mn24b16 Duracell Alkaline Battery Image

Procter Mn24b16 Duracell Alkaline Battery Image

Procter Mn24b16 Duracell Alkaline Battery Picture