“What’s really going to bake your noodle later on is, would you still have broken it if I hadn’t said anything?”– Oracle, The Matrix
Charles Duhigg, in the book, The Power of Habits, explores the launch of Febreze, its initial failure, and how understanding customer context and motivations made it a success. The following is a summary of the case study described in the book.
Procter & Gamble (P&G), a corporate behemoth with a wide range of household products had an interesting experience launching Febreze. It was an innovative product that could eradicate bad odor. It was inexpensive to manufacture, and it could be sprayed on fabrics in homes and car interiors.
The product was so phenomenal in eliminating odor that the team was very confident about its success in the market. The marketing team created ad campaigns using the cues, routine, and reward framework of the habit loop, that Charles Duhigg explains in his book. The cue was an everyday situation...