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Pumped Out

Softsoap
On August 22, 1865, Willian Sheppard of New York was granted a patent for his improved liquid soap. You take a small amount of soap and mix it with large amounts of spirits of ammonia. What you get is liquid soap with the consistency of molasses. In the US, liquid hand soap became popular in public places from the beginning of 1900s. But it took eight decades for liquid hand soap to make it to our homes, in the bottle pump avatar. 

In the 1980s, bar soap market was dominated by big brands like Dial, Ivory and Zest in the US. The competition was cut-throat and they had to fight it out for every percentage point of market share. Meanwhile, in Minnesota, there was a small company, The Minnetonka Corporation, known for niche items like bubble baths, scented candles, flavoured lip balm. They had a new product, liquid soap dispensed from a plastic hand pump. Until then only bar soap was used for handwashing. And Minnetonka wanted to change that. They tested their new product in small markets under the radar of bar soap manufacturers. It was a success. Pilot testing in the small markets indicated that Minnetonka can capture 4% to 9% market share within a short period. 

Minnetonka was ready to roll out the product nationally. And they had to do it as soon as possible before the big bar soap brands catch on. But they had a problem. There were only two suppliers of the kind of plastic hand pumps Minnetonka needed for their product in the US. What did the company do? They signed a contract with both the suppliers for a total of 100 million units and locked up the entire supply of plastic pumps for 2 years. They launched the product nationally under the brand name Softsoap. Within six months they sold $25 million worth of Softsoap. By the time other brands entered the market, Softsoap was in a dominant position. Softsoap is still the leading liquid soap brand in the United States with a sales share of 22.1% in 2019. 

Colgate Palmolive acquired Softsoap brand from The Minnetonka Corporation in 1987. 

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