SC Johnson is just itching to carve a niche in the flea control market.
With the aggressive launch of its Raid Flea Killer Plus line, the Racine, Wisc.-based company is trying to break into what was formerly an arena controlled at the mass-market level by pet product manufacturers such as Hartz and Sergeant.
‘We believe we can make major inroads into this market,’ says Shawn MacLeod, senior product manager for insect control and personal care for the company’s Canadian division in Brantford, Ont.
(Companies such as 3M, with its Sectrol line of pet and household flea-control sprays, sell their products through veterinarians’ offices, although MacLeod says the new Raid line is not competing with these premium brands.)
Several years ago, SC Johnson entered the market with a Raid flea collar but dropped the product because it just wasn’t up to snuff, says MacLeod.
The new Raid line, which includes a dog spray, a flea trap, and carpet and room spray, is superior to most flea-control products on the market because it attacks the eggs as well as the fleas, says MacLeod.
A flea can lay up to 800 eggs in its lifetime, he says, so this innovation makes a difference.
SC Johnson is spending about $700,000 advertising the line, according to MacLeod, with three 30-sec. spots airing in b.c., Ontario and the Maritimes.
MacLeod describes the animated spots, created by Foote Cone & Belding and featuring the tag line ‘Stop the life cycle,’ as tongue-in-cheek.
Hartz Canada, a supplier of pet and livestock goods based in St. Thomas, Ont., does not advertise any of its close to 20 products in its 2-in-1 flea control line, according to a company spokesperson.
However, its u.s. parent has developed a product similar to Raid’s, that stops the flea life cycle. It has not been decided whether the brand, called Control, will become available in Canada.
