CleanSpritz Case Solution

1. Introduction 

CleanSpritz is one of the major brands of the household cleaning products category. The brand earned a total revenue of $53.76 million in 2011. As of 2011, The CleanSpritz brand consists of two product lines; the CleanSpritz all-purpose surface cleaner spray and the CleanSpritz concentrate.  CleanSpritz is a brand of the MJ Brenner Company. MJ Brenner is a leading company in the U.S. cleaning industry with 80% sales of its $6.2 billion revenue of 2011 coming from the country. The company sells numerous cleaning products under different brands for industry, house, and automobiles. 

Under pressure due to the changing consumer demands and perceptions, CleanSpritz in an attempt to refresh its brand image revamped the formula of its all-purpose spray formula in 2009. The new formula was designed to be more biodegradable by reducing the chemical content of the formula by 15%. In the same year, CleanSpritz also launched a 3:1 concentrated version of the all-surface cleaner spray in the hope of getting a first-mover advantage and gaining the loyalties of consumers who were moving towards more eco-friendly and pro-environment products. However, despite introducing differently formulated products, CleanSpritz has still been struggling for the last five years with a constant decline in sales. This has been due to many reasons which are discussed in detail under the Issue Analysis heading. Due to the struggle of the CleanSpritz brand in the market and its failure to grow, the MJ Brenner management and executives were reluctant to invest further resources in the brand and considered it more profitable to invest the same resources in other brands and branches of the company. Thus, it is vital for Clair Beaton, the brand manager of CleanSpritz, to present a solid strategic plan which can convince the company executives to keep supporting and investing in CleanSpritz.

2. Issue Analysis 

CleanSpritz product line consisted of CleanSpritz all-purpose surface cleaner and a 3:1 concentrated version of CleanSpritz all-purpose surface cleaner. Although the brand had gained a respectable market share in its category with sufficient efforts but the future of the brand was at stake due to multiple factors. The sales of CleanSpritz surface cleaner were declining for five consecutive years at the average rate of 7.5% annually. On research, it was found that the consumers are shifting to greener and cheaper alternatives which have inclined the demand for cleaning concentrates. To gain a first-mover advantage and capture the environment-friendly market CleanSpritz launched the concentrate version of its cleaning spray to convince the consumers that CleanSpritz was making an effort towards conserving the environment. However, the efforts didn't translate into sales and the loyal consumers were shifting to substitutes threatening the market position of CleanSpritz.