The habit is the asset. That is a capital allocation problem.
The page can be rewritten in an afternoon. A habit handed down four generations cannot be, and neither can its loss. Each item below is a decision for you, with a bill attached. None of them is a marketing job.
Decide what you bought in 2018
“Comet Cleaner is engineered with a proven formula that cuts through tough grease, soap scum, and grime.”
A formula can be improved, cheapened, relaunched. A habit can only be kept or lost. The site is run as if KIK bought a formula. The reviews say it bought a habit. Every other decision on this page follows from which of those you believe.
Say it out loud, inside the company. Comet is a habit brand. Then run it like one: protect the can, the name, the smell and the strength before anything else. Cost: some growth ideas get refused.
Read all 3,897 for the one sentence that matters
“Even though this product does not have the punch and strength it had many years ago, it still does a good job.”
One review in 89. If that thread runs at 1 per cent of 3,897 it is 39 people who have noticed, forgiven, and said so in public. At 5 per cent it is nearly two hundred. The next reformulation decision should know that number.
A week reading the full set for that thread, then a standing count. Cost: a week, then an hour a month.
Measure tenure, not just units
29 of 89 reviews: years, decades, mother, grew up with it. 4 of 88 on the sister pool brand.
The single most valuable thing in the reviews is how long people have used it and who used it before them. Nobody records that. Units tell you the habit is alive. They cannot tell you whether it is being passed on.
Two questions at the point of sale or on the pack. How long have you used Comet. Who used it before you. Report the answers like any other number. Cost: a survey line and someone to read it.
Put the can on the page, not the spray
Homepage photograph: Comet Ultra Bathroom Spray on the edge of a shower. Product with 22,600 ratings: the 21 oz powder in a can.
The spray is a newer format and it may be the growth story. It is not the thing four generations kept under the sink. Leading with it tells a returning buyer this is a different brand now.
Lead with the can. Sell the spray underneath it, to the same person. Cost: a photo shoot and an argument.
Own one place a Comet buyer can be reached
3,897 written reviews of one Comet SKU. All on walmart.com. None on cometcleaner.com.
Comet has one of the largest bodies of customer writing in its aisle and owns none of it. It cannot ask a question, run a count, or thank a reviewer. Walmart can.
One owned place. Register the can, leave a review, tell us who taught you. Cost: a small team and a year.
Give the habit an owner
KIK leadership page: nine officers, two interim, no marketing officer. Household division led by a President.
Somebody owns Comet’s units. Nobody, as far as the org chart shows, owns whether the habit survives the next ten years. That is the one number that decides what the brand is worth to KIK.
One person accountable for tenure of use across the household brands, starting with Comet. Cost: a senior seat.