---
title: "Blue Moon: Can't Sell Laundry Detergent?"
description: "Blue Moon successfully pioneered the laundry detergent category in 2010, but over time, its early category dividend advantage has been eroded by competing brands. To distance itself from competitors again, Blue Moon launched 'Machine Wash Supreme' concentrated laundry detergent in 2015. Four years later, despite continuous marketing efforts, the product has seen little success. This good-faith product has missed the opportunity to iterate against competitors due to a flawed strategy. To verify the effectiveness of Machine Wash Supreme, the author bought a set from the supermarket and conducted an experiment: applying red and black ballpoint pen marks on white clothing, letting it dry, then applying the treatment and detergent, and observing the stain dissolve quickly."
author: "王超"
publisher: "New Distribution"
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published: "2019-04-09"
language: "en"
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# Blue Moon: Can't Sell Laundry Detergent?

> Blue Moon successfully pioneered the laundry detergent category in 2010, but over time, its early category dividend advantage has been eroded by competing brands. To distance itself from competitors again, Blue Moon launched 'Machine Wash Supreme' concentrated laundry detergent in 2015. Four years later, despite continuous marketing efforts, the product has seen little success. This good-faith product has missed the opportunity to iterate against competitors due to a flawed strategy. To verify the effectiveness of Machine Wash Supreme, the author bought a set from the supermarket and conducted an experiment: applying red and black ballpoint pen marks on white clothing, letting it dry, then applying the treatment and detergent, and observing the stain dissolve quickly.

Blue Moon successfully pioneered the laundry detergent category in 2010, but over time, its early category dividend advantage has been eroded by competing brands. To distance itself from competitors again, Blue Moon launched 'Machine Wash Supreme' concentrated laundry detergent in 2015. Four years later, despite continuous marketing efforts, the product has seen little success. **This good-faith product has missed the opportunity to iterate against competitors due to a flawed strategy.**

To verify the effectiveness of Machine Wash Supreme, the author bought a set from the supermarket and conducted an experiment: applying red and black ballpoint pen marks on white clothing, letting it dry, then applying the treatment and detergent, and observing the stain dissolve quickly.

This is a rare good-faith product in the washing category. Why hasn't it achieved good results? Is the price too high? Obviously not! **Because a car on the wrong track, no matter how much gas you add, will never reach its destination. All tactical efforts that yield half results are caused by strategic mistakes.**

1
**The Success of the First Generation Laundry Detergent Cannot Be Replicated**

Before 2008, many basic consumer categories were dominated by multinational companies. Procter & Gamble and Unilever occupied the household washing market, but multinationals carried heavy historical baggage and failed to quickly seize the trend of consumption upgrade. For Blue Moon, which had just risen with hand sanitizer during the SARS crisis, it was easy to turn around.

In 2008, Blue Moon slowed down its focus on hand sanitizer and fully turned to the laundry detergent market. At that time, laundry detergent held only 4% of the total Chinese washing market. With changes in washing machine numbers, fabric types, and consumption power, a product upgrade was about to explode.

These changes were not promptly captured by P&G and Unilever. At that time, their marketing focus in China was still on washing powder and soap, with brands like Tide, Ariel, and Omo positioned for the mass market. Even by 2010, when domestic brands were in fierce competition, P&G had not entered the laundry detergent market—despite having launched Tide and Ariel laundry detergents in the US years earlier.

For domestic brands, this was an opportunity not to be missed. Strong local players like Kaimi, Green Umbrella, Luowa, and Liby quickly entered the market, but consumers had already planted the seed of Blue Moon as the first brand. The crude imitation by latecomers actually created a locomotive effect, boosting the first brand's momentum.

In 2010, Blue Moon's market share in laundry detergent soared to 44%, making it the top daily chemical company in that category. After 2010, nearly a hundred brands, including Liby, Walch, Chaoneng, Mommy's Choice, Lonkey, Qiqiang, Omo, Weisun, and Tide, flooded the market, continuously dividing it. These brands also adopted strategies like lower pricing, value packs, advertising, and in-store promotions to erode Blue Moon's market.

Blue Moon's success first came from seizing the dividend of the new laundry detergent category, leveraging the original force of consumption upgrade to become the first brand. Second, the slow response of international competitors gave Blue Moon ample time and space. **But this success is not replicable; the competitive advantage is too singular, and the predatory division by domestic and international brands is fatal for a Blue Moon that hasn't yet established a firm foothold.**

2
**The Essence of Machine Wash Supreme Is an Iterative Product of Laundry Detergent**

**Most companies' marketing activities are essentially a cognitive gap with consumers, using that gap to earn high profits, but Blue Moon is doing the opposite.**

If early business was constrained by technological barriers and couldn't provide better products to consumers, **most companies do not quickly iterate with technological improvements. Instead, they exploit consumers' blind spots in technical knowledge, on one hand showcasing slightly improved advantages to stimulate purchase desire, and on the other hand using consumers' cognitive defects, covering quality flaws with massive advertising. They improve quality gradually, because this allows them to continuously extract larger and longer-term profits from consumers' pockets.** Take the juice we often drink as an example:

> In the early 1970s and 1980s, Chinese companies did not yet have the technology to produce real juice. So the initial 'juice' was basically pure water mixed with sugar and flavorings.
>
> After the 1990s, the newly wealthy Chinese began to spread information about 'fake juice drinks' through the media. At this time, multinational companies led by Coca-Cola and Pepsi, leveraging their technological advantages, launched drinks with less than 5% juice content. A phrase like 'contains real juice' allowed them to make huge profits.
>
> After 2000, brands like Uni-President and Huiyuan introduced better juice production technology from abroad, launching upgraded products with concentrated pulp + sugar + water. At this point, juice content jumped from below 5% to 10%-30%. Both taste and health improved. Among them, Huiyuan directly touted '100% juice,' but this concentrated and reduced juice was essentially still a 'beverage,' far from real juice.

In developed markets like Europe, the US, Japan, and Korea, juice markets entered the 30%-50% mid-concentration era long ago. In recent years, with improved production technology, non-concentrated reduced juice has matured. Today, abroad, NFC (Not From Concentrate) juice without additives, water, or sugar has become a common mainstream product.

Looking at China, although consumers' awareness and health consciousness have improved, and many know that 99% of juice brands are not real juice, these mainstream brands still have juice content generally below 20% or even lower. Why? Because these brands are still exploiting consumers' cognitive defects with tricks like 'contains pulp, fresh-squeezed, 100% juice, first-pressed juice' and other concepts.

In other words, Chinese people are still drinking 'juice drinks' that developed countries have long abandoned. It's not that multinationals lack NFC juice technology, nor that China lacks raw materials for juice production, **but these brands still need to exploit Chinese consumers' cognitive defects to make money! When low-concentration juice no longer sells, they will introduce higher-content products, gradually moving up to 100% real juice. The entire iteration process does not upgrade with technology but proceeds like squeezing toothpaste, step by step, to extend the cycle of high-profit products.**

Multinationals' attitude toward quality upgrades in washing products is essentially the same as juice: to extend high-profit cycles, they slowly introduce upgraded products. From laundry soap, washing powder, to laundry detergent, they gradually improve quality. This is why when Blue Moon first launched laundry detergent, international brands were still busy promoting their washing powder brands. **It's not that they lacked laundry detergent technology, but they were unwilling to introduce iterative products to China prematurely.**

Blue Moon did not do this. In an era when washing powder was prevalent in the domestic market, they directly launched laundry detergent, which was already common in Europe and the US. After 2015, when facing 'predatory' encirclement from international and domestic strong brands, they directly introduced the highest technology products from Europe and the US to China. **If laundry detergent is just a form change from washing powder, Blue Moon's 'Machine Wash Supreme' concentrated laundry detergent is a revolution in washing quality!**

The truly effective cleaning ingredient is a substance called **'surfactant.'** Whether domestic or international, all laundry soaps, powders, and detergents contain only 10%-25% of this. In simple terms, 'surfactant' is the key ingredient determining cleaning effect. When cleaning power is insufficient, they use concepts like 'antibacterial, rich foam, gentle on hands, protects clothes, brightens colors' to make up for it. So consumers find that sweat stains, oil spots, and other common stains are still not clean. Scrubbing hard, brushing, or adding more detergent still doesn't work, resulting in wasted effort, water, electricity, and money.

Among these, 'rich foam' is the biggest trick multinationals use to create a 'quality standard' for Chinese consumers. All washing powders and soaps contain large amounts of foaming agents, but these foaming agents do not contribute positively to cleaning stains. Now, 'no foam' has become the biggest obstacle in Blue Moon's promotion of concentrated laundry detergent.

A 2013 survey report from the China Association of Surfactant Industry showed that the pass rate for laundry detergent on the market was only 58%, and by 2015 it dropped to 52%. Many so-called laundry detergents had active substance content even lower than ordinary washing powder. In more mature foreign markets, the sales of laundry detergent products show a completely different picture. Concentrated laundry detergent is already popular abroad, with nearly 100% in Europe, the US, and Japan, while in China it's less than 3%-4%. This shows that most brands focus mainly on profit.

Why is Blue Moon's Machine Wash Supreme a groundbreaking good-faith product? **Because they raised the surfactant content in concentrated laundry detergent to the same level as developed country brands: from below 20% to above 47%! This means Blue Moon provided Chinese consumers with the highest quality products from developed countries ten years or more ahead of schedule, completely changing the common practice of international brands: squeezing toothpaste-like quality improvements.**

The change from below 20% to above 47% surfactant is essentially a revolution in washing quality: less usage, better results.

However, Blue Moon clearly used a wrong marketing strategy for this high-quality concentrated laundry detergent. From 2015 to today, four years have passed, and despite comprehensive promotion through high-altitude advertising, ground promotions, roadshows, and exhibitions, sales of the concentrated product 'Machine Wash Supreme' remain unsatisfactory, far from achieving the goal of iterating competitors and maintaining leadership.

3
**Insufficient Strategic Impact, Compensated by Promoters**

Many people have a deep impression of the Machine Wash Supreme launched in 2015. On this laundry detergent, known as the 'machine wash pump era,' Blue Moon undoubtedly spent heavily, with advertisements both at the terminal and online. From TV ads to roadshows, ground promotions, and product placements, the methods were diverse.

But problems soon arose. The advantages described in the ads were not easily accepted by consumers. After investing heavily in promotion, Blue Moon began painstaking 'teaching campaigns.' The company believed that consumers hadn't discovered the benefits of Machine Wash Supreme because they hadn't mastered the correct washing method. But after five years of teaching, the results are still minimal, and thus began a long terminal teaching campaign.

**If 10 promoters can't do it, use 20.**

Drawing on the successful ground promotion experience from the early days of creating the laundry detergent category, Blue Moon adopted a human wave tactic in KA channels. In a certain region in Northeast China, in key supermarkets, there was one promoter for every 20,000 yuan in sales, and during holidays, even more people entered stores to promote. Often, other brands had one person, while Blue Moon had several.

But according to a media report: Blue Moon distributors invested heavily in KA channels. During peak times, promoters' monthly salaries could be around 5,000 yuan. For Blue Moon, which used one promoter per 20,000 yuan in sales, labor costs accounted for a quarter of that 20,000 yuan.

The author visited some shopping malls and observed: promoters used vague language like 'high-end laundry detergent, fresher shelf life, less foam' in their pitches. For key questions that could truly change consumer decisions, such as 'what is a pump and how is it different from ordinary detergent,' their explanations were weak. During observation, nearly 90% of consumers were unmoved by the promoters' pitches, showing that Blue Moon's 'Machine Wash Supreme' not only failed to make a splash but also fell into the marketing quagmire of 'educating consumers.'

It can be said that **Blue Moon's 'Machine Wash Supreme' chose a wrong marketing path from the start. Once a wrong marketing strategy begins with huge investment, it falls into the trap of sunk costs and cannot extricate itself.** What mistakes did this good-faith domestic brand, which should have quickly iterated competitors, make? And how can it turn around?

4
**Five Strategic Mistakes to Turn Around 'Machine Wash Supreme'**

### **1. Putting the Cart Before the Horse: Focus on Demand Pain Points, Not the 'Pump'**

First, clarify that the essence of category iteration is not driven by vague marginal values like cooler or higher-end, but **because the new generation category provides a better solution to the old category. Behind any successful category iteration is a 'iterative change in consumer demand for the category, creating clear and visible demand pain points'! Seizing the right demand pain point in response to the times is the first key to triggering iteration.**

For example, the impact of first-generation keypad business phones on keypad candy-bar phones stemmed from the times changing corporate talent needs: transitioning from production-centric to market-centric competitiveness. Companies reduced reliance on production talent, while demand for business talent increased year by year.

Business people generally needed tools to handle business affairs in real-time. In those years when the internet was underdeveloped, bulky laptops couldn't easily handle email anywhere. A business phone that could reply to emails anytime, anywhere solved this group's pain point, thus impacting the market for ordinary candy-bar phones.

Touchscreen smartphones iterated candy-bar phones not because of 'more user-friendly operation' but **because the arrival of the internet era created a huge demand gap in how people accessed information.** People were no longer satisfied with only getting internet information from computers, especially since using computers involved learning costs and high purchase costs.

So, touchscreen smartphones perfectly met people's need to 'surf the internet anytime, anywhere.' **From a value reconstruction perspective, they reduced and eliminated the obstacles of complex operation and difficult internet access of candy-bar phones, created and added some internet functions of computers, and removed or lowered learning and purchase costs.** This not only successfully iterated traditional keypad phones but also indirectly impacted the computer market.

Looking back at the iteration of laundry detergent over washing powder, it benefited from the widespread adoption of washing machines, which made people directly feel the pain points of washing powder: slow dissolution, residue, and damage to clothes. Laundry detergent perfectly solved these three pain points. But people soon discovered: **the cleaning power of many laundry detergents on the market seemed compromised, and many formed a habit of hand-washing the toughest stains with washing powder before machine-washing with detergent.** As the saying goes, problems are opportunities. For Blue Moon, this was an easy iteration opportunity.

Today, many post-80s and post-90s have left their parents to build careers alone, becoming the backbone of the workforce. For them, clean and tidy attire is to maintain a good professional image. **Their demand for laundry detergent is not only quick dissolution, no residue, and no damage to clothes, but also higher efficiency in completing cleaning tasks!** Hand-washing with powder and then machine-washing with detergent means expensive time costs for them.

**So 'insufficient cleaning power' is an obvious pain point of ordinary laundry detergent!**

Blue Moon's Machine Wash Supreme concentrated detergent has 'active substance concentration' several times that of competitors, creatively introducing the convenient method of 'apply strong treatment first + machine wash with concentrated detergent,' doubling the reduction in washing time. **Competitors left Blue Moon with the most basic market opportunity: 'cleaning ability.' Consumers don't need 'machine wash artifact, machine wash supreme, high-end, or the machine wash pump era,' but a solution to 'complete laundry tasks in less time.' Only by focusing on the shortcomings of ordinary detergent and emphasizing 'the benefits of fast washing to customers' can the target audience feel a need gap, achieving rapid acceptance and the strategic goal of quickly iterating competitors.**

So, the first step in marketing strategy is precise analysis of potential demand, starting from the macro level of the social environment. **Only brands that fail to grasp the needs of the times have unsellable good-faith products!** Find the key pain point of demand and the fatal weakness of competitors for precise attack, rather than educating consumers with irrelevant technical terms like 'the pump era.' **Customers don't care about the metering mode or usage method; they only care whether the clothes are truly clean and what change it brings compared to ordinary detergent!** The biggest difference between half results and double results is that the former finds the root of the problem, hits the key point, and quickly moves sales; the latter is like scratching an itch through a boot, producing no effect.

After identifying the key pain point of 'insufficient cleaning power,' dig deeper into the key population behind the pain point, and around the demand, carry out category transformation of concentrated detergent, creating a clear mental distinction between the target audience and ordinary detergent. **The strategy of high-efficiency marketing is different in 'attracting customers' rather than 'educating customers'; simplify and present value to the extreme.**

### **2. If You Can't Change Perception, Use Value to Attract Demand**

It's not hard to see that 'Machine Wash Supreme' clearly challenges the usage habits in mass consumers' minds—Chinese mass consumers are used to buying a large bag of washing powder or a big bucket of detergent for tens of yuan; even with a measuring cup, they still adjust the amount by feel; they throw clothes directly into the machine, and more foam and thicker is better. The claim of '8 pieces washed with 8 grams (one pump)' clearly challenges people's cognitive bottom line. **Obviously, directly challenging cognition did not achieve good results.**

When traditional FMCG products conflict with cognition on technology, they usually use **'establishing value cognition through common demand pain points' to turn the unfavorable situation around.** For example:

Herbal tea is a typical case of using value cognition to drive demand. Herbal tea originated in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions. In the eyes of old Cantonese, herbal tea is a 'non-drug solution' for daily physical discomfort: drink herbal tea for colds and coughs, for summer heat, for poor appetite, etc. In other regions, some herbal teas are just drinks made from various plants to relieve heat, and many even call overnight tea herbal tea.

It's clear that 'herbal tea' lacks broad value cognition, but marketing strategy researchers found in a Wenzhou market survey that locals commonly regarded Wanglaoji as a 'prevent heatiness' drink. **Nationwide, 'heatiness' has both common cognition and certain preventive effects. Thus, around the common pain point of 'preventing heatiness,' they rebuilt a value cognition that could take Wanglaoji to the national market, turning it from a local specialty drink into a new category of national necessity.**

**What common pain point does 'one pump washes 8 pieces' solve for consumers? What essential difference in product value does it provide compared to ordinary detergent and washing powder? This is the cognitive barrier Blue Moon must overcome now.**

### **3. Aunties Are Not the Key Group for Iteration; Young People Are**

In the previous section, we said that in the major factors of era change, people are the core force driving iteration. In the efficiency-focused contemporary era, post-80s, post-90s, and even post-00s are different from post-60s and post-70s. Their environment is no longer one where productivity determines quality of life; everyone needs to run fast to avoid elimination. In the days of striving alone away from parents, with no elders at home to do laundry and many unable to afford dry cleaning, when washing clothes themselves, **'efficiency' is the core value that triggers their purchase decision change.**

In Blue Moon's promotion language for Machine Wash Supreme, **'one pump washes 8 pieces, don't add more, reduce usage by 82.5%' ostensibly conveys higher efficiency cleaning ability, but actually conveys the wrong message of 'saving money.'** This greatly reduces the targeting and effectiveness of value transmission. For aunties who are truly interested in 'saving money,' a bottle priced several times higher than ordinary detergent or powder doesn't make them feel the value of 'saving money'; they'd rather spend half the money on a bag of powder that lasts half a year. They have plenty of time to scrub slowly.

Additionally, **the terminal promotion network Blue Moon built at great cost is misaligned with young people.** Among efficiency-focused young people, spending time shopping in supermarkets is better spent on work, so online shopping has become a common habit. The misalignment of promotion channels not only wastes a lot of promotion expenses but also misses opportunities to contact key groups.

### **4. 'Machine Wash Supreme' Neither Establishes a Category Nor Communicates Value**

A category name is not a simple listing of ingredients or processes; **it triggers people's value judgment and demand connection for the category, using the name to stimulate customers' visual, auditory, gustatory, olfactory, tactile, and cognitive conditioned reflexes. To some extent, the category name represents people's demand for the category.**

> Off-road SUV → triggers the conquest need for bumpy mountain driving scenarios.
>
> Rice mixing sauce → evokes the appetizing need to mix sauce into rice.
>
> Garment steamer → evokes the easy ironing need of hanging clothes on a door frame.
>
> Correction pen → evokes the need to correct writing errors.

However, **'Machine Wash Supreme' has no unique features in name or usage compared to washing powder or ordinary detergent. The word 'Supreme' only conveys high-end, but it's unclear what it really means.** All FMCG products that cannot directly showcase personal image (like luxury bags, lipstick) are hard to trigger purchase desire.

'Concentrated' might be a good starting point, but it's a term overused by competitors and no longer has direct use value. **Blue Moon should start from the customer's perspective on laundry needs, find and sort out key pain points, and rename the category from the pain point. Let customers immediately associate the name with powerful cleaning ability, creating a clear value distinction in their minds between the Machine Wash Supreme series and ordinary detergent.**

5
**Establish Standards to Create Negative Perception of Competitors**

In China, many FMCG products exhibit a 'bad money drives out good' phenomenon. The root cause is that consumers lack clear value judgment standards for many categories. For example, people still lack clear standards for what real juice is. Before the state clearly announces standards, **companies can start from aligning with customer cognition, finding trust evidence from dimensions like production process, nutritional standards, and efficacy promises.**

For example: Robust established the standard for purified water by communicating '27 layers of filtration' in its production process, becoming the leader in purified water; Jinwei Oatmeal, starting from oat quality identification methods, communicated 'good oatmeal, 70% floats on top,' immediately sparking consumers' interest in trying it themselves, and once became a representative brand in instant oatmeal.

Similarly, **Blue Moon's Machine Wash Supreme series can also find standards representing high concentration quality, but these standards must align with customer cognition and ideally be hands-on identification tests. This achieves rapid creation of oppositional emotions toward ordinary detergent from cognitive, value, and demand perspectives.**

6
### **Summary**

No matter how great the technology or product, it must align with customer cognition and serve customer needs! Blue Moon is a rare good-faith brand in the market, but it chose a difficult 'education' path from the start. It fails to realize that high-level marketing is not about educating consumers, but **attracting them from the three dimensions of cognition, demand, and value, so that they form different value perceptions between concentrated detergent and old detergent categories in their minds. Only with deep cognitive imprints can category iteration be promoted!**

Source: Marketing Wang Laopao (ID: wangchaolaopao)

**-END-**


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