Fragrance Bloat

The classic Harvard Business Review article about feature bloat comments on the strategy, common among marketers of high-tech products, of adding bells and whistles in a one-upsmanship contest to demonstrate who has the most features.

The consumer packaged goods industry appears to be entering a phase I'm calling fragrance bloat. Household products now feature all kinds of familiar and sometimes exotic scents.

For example, Procter & Gamble's Mr. Clean Magic Eraser bath scrubber now comes with Febreze "meadows and rain" fragrance. A sponge with a scent?

Febreze scents have, in fact, been integrated into a vast array of Procter & Gamble's household products, including Glad trash bags and Mr. Clean liquid cleaner (featuring Hawaiian and New Zealand scents).

Reckitt Benckiser, maker of Lysol cleaning products, offers household cleaners in Pacific Fresh scent, lavender scent, and the usual citrus fragrance. The list of added fragrances isn't as long as the list of what P&G offers...yet.

Spic 'n Span liquid household cleaners come in "Sun Fresh" and "Citrus Fresh" scents. That's it. No fragrance bloat here.