After a few years of fumbling about, Omo has finally got its act together and found a believable story. The brand, whose name I recently found out stands for “Old Mother Owl” finally has come up with a simple straight forward story that can be believed and bought – if they sick to it.
They spent years changing the brand from New Blue Omo to Omo to Omo with Powerform o Omo with Powerform Plus to I-forget-what-else (By this time, I had tuned off the brand altogether). Throughout this time, Omo was not building its brand but trying to sell the detergent by appealing to our common sense and IQ. “With this and that added formular, Omo is able to reach deeper and get to such and such stains etc. etc.”
Now, they are telling a simple story: Dirt is Good.
I can’t retell it better than they have on the Unilever web site:
“Although it might sound strange for a leading laundry brand like OMO to say this, we believe, like you, that this type of dirt is good: it’s an important part of a child’s development. It’s how kids learn, express their creativity and even bolster their immune systems.
“At a time when growing numbers of children are leading sedentary lives, often cocooned in the home, glued to the TV and the web, we’re not afraid to celebrate this time-honoured truth.
“GIVING YOUR KIDS FREEDOM
“More significantly, the idea that dirt is good isn’t simply a catchphrase for Omo. It lies at the core of our brand, supported by patent-protected technology that gives your kids the freedom to get dirty, safe in the knowledge that Omo will remove those awkward stains. We believe that dirt is a valuable way to enrich our lives, both young and old, and since we launched our ‘Dirt is Good’ campaign the growth rate of Omo has increased to 5%.
“Enabling everyone to realise their potential
“To ensure that everyone, everywhere, can share in this initiative, we’re investing heavily in developing a range of products that suits the pockets of all income groups. This has included launching affordable products in low-income regions such as Asia and Africa that not only offer the top-clean advantages of OMO, but also reduce the time, physical effort and amount of water needed to wash clothes by hand. In many countries, laundry has to be washed by hand, a laborious and time-consuming activity.”
Now that, we can consider, eh?