Swiffer is a market leader in the quick clean industry due to its parent company P&G's vast resources which allowed heavy promotion and innovation through new product lines. However, some extensions have hurt perceptions of quality. While Swiffer's low price increases trial rates, traditional cleaning methods are cheaper long-term. Environmental concerns and claims about product safety pose risks to Swiffer's brand image if not addressed. Emerging automated cleaning technology and increased competition for the remaining 25% market share also threaten Swiffer's dominance.

1. SWOT Analysis
Strengths
The Swiffer brand has much key strength, which helped it create, and dominate the market. One
strength, which is potentially underestimated, is its parent company P&G, with vast resources and
willingness to spend big dollars to promote products. This along with the distribution, and innovative
(line extension) leadership, is a key element to success and a strong point for Swiffer. Swiffer has its
own brand specific strengths as well.
Being the first to and on the market, though a huge risk, helped Swiffer develop other key strengths.
Through heavy promotion in the beginning, Swiffer was quick to capture nearly ¼ of all cleaning
dollars in a relative short amount of time. The innovator behind new products is often considered to be
the standard.
With an already captured growing market, Key and timely innovations allowed Swiffer to expand the
market even more creating even more brand loyalty and brand recognition through line extensions
The Kleenex phenomenon- some times in an industry certain brands become the identity of the product
category as a whole to a very large degree with end users. For Example: It is common to refer to a
facial tissue as a Kleenex rather than a tissue. It is also common to here people ask for a Coke rather
than the specific carbonated beverage that the venue carries. For some time early in the in the
refrigerator product life cycle, it was common to call it a Frigidaire as opposed to the brand it actually
was or just refrigerator. “Q Tips” are another example. We believe due to primary and secondary
research that, the swiffer brand is in a position to cash in on this phenomenon.
Swiffer has a reputation for being high quality and has high satisfaction rates among consumers. This is
definitely a strength for many reasons, some of which include, making it easier to keep current market
share and taking others share, Giving clout to future innovative product extensions and line expansions,
Allowing swiffer to maintain current positioning with out fear of a fall out due to customer satisfaction
Swiffer’s Price point is strength because there is not strong risk of loss for trial. In addition to
increasing trial purchasing the relatively low cost of the product makes it a great fit for product tie-ins
and product bundling. They can put other P&G products that have huge markets in packaging bundles
at low costs to get in the doors of new markets.
Weaknesses
Pricing, it would seem is a two edged sword with swiffer. While it is a relatively low price point for
product trial purchases and the refills are also a relatively low ticket item, when you look at the bigger
picture and include substitute products, there is an issue. Traditional mop and bucket non convenience
based cleaning expenditures over a life time would never cost as much as using a disposable substitute.
It is similar to the idea that while eating on paper plates all the time would be convenient, most don’t
do it because it would cost a fortune over a life time compared to reusing non disposable plates. This
may never have a huge impact on swiffer, but this is a feature of the product that eliminates at least
some portion of the potential market. This is a weakness that a substitute product company could
exploit if they were concerned about loosing category dollars or market share. We live in a
convenience based economy and world, and for the most part people who need, or desire strongly
enough, the convenience are willing to pay premiums for it. However it would be a bit short sided to
over look the potential chink in the armor.

2. Product innovation, while a strong suite for P&G, has had some negative effects on the swiffer brand
image. Line extensions and product expansions are key ways to attack the market and swiffer did just
that. They put out every kind of swiffer that one could imagine and some were hits and others hurt the
brand. One such flop was the swiffer carpet flick, recently recalled, the flick had lackluster sales results
and it did not really work all that well and began to bring down the quality perception of the brand.
Now because of over extended lines and a quality issue, the market is saturated with swiffer like
products that are not quite delivering like the original did. Getting rid of these product variations that
don’t fit the script will help keep the quality up to a level were it can still be considered a strength
Opportunities
Yet another perk of have P&G as parent company is a leg up on distribution. One key opportunity is to
take advantage of the convenience appeal, and the price point. This means they could do much like
razors of late (not far from our price point) and put refills and even the product in the impulse buying
areas of stores. They could get them in the convenience stores and gas station quickly and effectively
due to the presence in these places by P&G. This would further promote the convenience and
availability of products and supplies. They could become one of those products that you can literally
get anywhere.
Swiffer got a 143% bump in advertising budget for 2004 over 2003. This leverage with parent
company P&G is an enormous opportunity. It puts swiffer in a position that allows them to really find
their branding strategy and know that when they get the right one, they can go big and have the full
support of P&G.
Another opportunity is swiffer’s success with events, contests, and celebrity interaction. Swiffer has
been holding various contests and events to increase product awareness and have found celebrities like
Jessica Simpson, and Cindy Crawford to help connect with their brand image and target markets.
Threats
Environmental groups have caught on to the waste issue that the quick clean industry presents. There
are several groups that have called out not only swiffer but all disposable quick clean products,
claiming that it is unnecessary to create this much additional waste. This is a small concern now but if
this cant be spun or dealt with, eventually the bad image will start to erode the brand.
Another similar threat are some claims that a chemical used in the swiffer wet jet solution can hurt or
kill small animals. At the moment these are nothing more that urban myths, but if there is any truth to
them, they could also potentially damage the brand image. Still the negative myth doesn’t help
regardless if it true or false
A slightly easier way to clean then the quick clean way is the automated way. A new robot cleaning
machine, called Scuba, is available at stores like Sharper Image and online at irobot.com. This is a
potential market share thief. If this product delivers, and catches on, then swiffer would almost be in
direct competition with the robot.
The last main threat has to do with being on the top of this emerging industry. A healthy 75% market
share is a huge target of any other competitor. With only 25% market share spread across seven other
brands, there is inevitably going to come a time when the smaller brands directly attack swiffer

3. customers. They are at risk of having several crafty companies plotting to take them out and capture the
market.