NEW YORK — Olay executives are tying 2006 body wash sales growth to a product with no less than 30 patents and a formula designed to provide intense moisture: Olay Ribbons body wash.
According to Ted Keegan, Procter & Gamble’s marketing director for personal cleansing in North America, Ribbons is a breakthrough for the $1 billion-plus category since it accomplishes what “we and our industry have been trying to do for 15 years: create better, beautifully moist skin.”
The challenge, he explained, has been putting moisture on skin at meaningful levels without washing it off. But Olay, which expanded into body wash in 1993, has a lot of experience in upping the ante in the categories in which it competes. This year, Olay entered the hand and body lotion business with Olay Quench, a four-item line that relies on an amino vitamin complex to hydrate, renew, replenish and moisturize skin. In 2004, Olay introduced the industry’s first in-shower body moisturizer, Olay Moisturinse.
The body wash category, while healthy due to consumers’ further shift from bar soap, is in need of innovation. According to P&G data, sales of body wash have grown 12 percent over the past year. Olay has much to do with that growth. Information Resources Inc. ranks P&G as the second bestseller of liquid soap (behind Lever Brothers) with $91 million in sales, an increase of 21 percent over last year. Data does not include sales at Wal-Mart stores. Sales of Olay in the category have jumped 11 percent, according to IRI data, ranking it second behind Dove. While P&G executives would not comment on sales forecasts of Ribbons, industry sources estimate it could generate between $30 million and $40 million in first-year retail sales.
Olay Ribbons, said Lauren Thaman, global director of P&G beauty science, is the result of several years’ effort to create a moisturizing body wash that could house a cleansing formula and a moisturizing formula in the same container without the two interacting until mixed with water.
“We tried putting syringes together as early mock-ups in order to deliver both the cleansing and moisturizing benefits,” Thaman said.
Dove’s Nutrium, which launched several years ago, does just this.
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So what makes Ribbons so innovative is its formula, where molecules are designed to remain stable until extracted, making separate chambers unnecessary.
Another challenge was keeping the cleanser from washing away the moisturizer.
“The cleansers roll the moisturizer on the skin, like a domino effect,” Thaman said, adding that lather is not compromised. “U.S. women don’t want to lose that.”
Moisture remains high in Ribbons, which Thaman said imparts equal moisture to that of the average body lotion, and that Ribbons Body Butter with Jojoba yields “better moisturizing results than a separate lotion.” Petrolatum, the moisturizing base in Ribbons, is found in all three Ribbons formulas, which also include Ribbons with Aloe Extract and Creme Ribbons with Almond Oil.
Executives look to bring Ribbons’ cleansing and moisturizing properties to life with a marketing campaign built around taking the “shower into a beauty experience.” External relations, in-store marketing, commercials and print ads will support Ribbons simultaneously with the launch, which is in January.
Olay executives said they are expecting knockoffs, and while they recognize imitation is a form of flattery, they’re doubtful competitors will be very effective.
“We are expecting our competition to come forward with similar-looking products, but, given the difference of formulas and the patent coverage, we do not think it is likely at all that anyone will be able to match this,” Keegan said.
Olay Ribbons will retail for $3.99 and $5.99 for 10-oz. and 18-oz. containers, respectively.