PlusOne - Musings of a marketer

It can take years to build a good reputation, but far less time to ruin it.

Reputations are built on many factors, including trust, product or service quality, performance and reliability.

A good reputation can be worth a lot to a company. Referrals, word of mouth and repeat purchases can all have a greater impact that a massive advertising campaign.

So all I can think of is that Palmolive has a new person working for them who does not know about reputation.

I was first alerted to this when I boght a new five-pack of their popular personal soap, Palmolive Gold.

Now I have been a fan of Gold for over 30 years. I first started using it in Darwin because in that humid environment in the wet season you need all the help you can get when it comes to body odour and Gold did the trick.

Bust when I started using this latest purchase things just did not seem ‘right’.  The bar seemed smaller and as the soap bar was used, the inner prtions did not retain their golden colour.

My suspicions on a smaller bar size were realised over the Christmas  break when I stayed with relatives who had an old bar in their guest bathroom cupboard.

The bar weight quoted on the pack was 120 grams, while on checking on my return home the weight is now a paltry 95 grams.

I do not have any confirmation of a corresponding price drop, but in my eye, we the customer are not getting what we used to - a full bar of soap that performed to the very last sliver.

For me, the reputation of this product has been severely tarnished, so much so that I will be looking at alternative soaps when next at the supermarket.