Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: There's a new trend, or I guess a new kind
Speaker 2: of product. I've been noticing lately, whole body deodorance with
Speaker 2: unbelievably long lasting since it's everywhere from my targeted ads
Speaker 2: online to the subways I ride in New York.
Speaker 3: It's those spice Gentlemen's Total Body gives me.
Speaker 2: Twy four seven freshness from pits to toes. It seems
Speaker 2: like almost every podcast I listen to has advertised it.
Speaker 2: My secret Sometimes I want to put deodorant on hard
Speaker 2: to reach places. That's why I use Aluminum Freeze Secret
Speaker 2: whole body deodorant, a whole body deodorant. I had never
Speaker 2: even heard of it a few months ago, and all
Speaker 2: of a sudden, it feels like it's everywhere for your pits, privates, boobs, guys,
Speaker 2: and faith.
Speaker 1: These are supposed to be for all over your body,
Speaker 1: so not just an armpits, but in any other area
Speaker 1: of your body where you may have odor concerns.
Speaker 2: Leslie Patten is a report on Bloomberg's consumer team, which
Speaker 2: means she also noticed something else about this whole body deodorant.
Speaker 1: They are round double the price of a normal deodorant.
Speaker 2: You've probably felt the pain of inflation, and you've also
Speaker 2: probably heard about shrinkflation, when companies respond to inflation by
Speaker 2: keeping their prices steady but making their products smaller.
Speaker 3: The snack companies think you won't notice if they chase
Speaker 3: the size of the bag and put a hell of
Speaker 3: a lot fewer same size bag, put fewer chips in it. Here, No,
Speaker 3: I'm not joking. It's called shrinkflation.
Speaker 2: But have you heard of upflation?
Speaker 1: Upflation is taking an item that we've all probably known
Speaker 1: and used every day, finding a new use for it,
Speaker 1: and charging more for it.
Speaker 2: This is the big take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah
Speaker 2: Holder today on the show how to Spot upflation in pharmacies,
Speaker 2: supermarkets and wherever you shop and what this new trend
Speaker 2: means for the price of everything from tortilla chips to
Speaker 2: razors to deodorant.
Speaker 1: I think upflation probably has taken hold over the last
Speaker 1: year or so, maybe even more in earnest over the
Speaker 1: past six months.
Speaker 2: Bloomberg's Leslie Patten says the first example of upflation that
Speaker 2: she noticed was the same thing I'd seen, all purpose deodorant.
Speaker 1: The deodorant is really what stood out to me as
Speaker 1: being the most prominent example.
Speaker 2: So she started poking around and she noticed that there
Speaker 2: were even more examples of companies who had taken what
Speaker 2: seemed to be an everyday product, tweaked it in some
Speaker 2: way and started charging more for it.
Speaker 1: Like razors, there are more razors now for different parts
Speaker 1: of your body. So if you're shaving your head, if
Speaker 1: you're a man who's looking to go bald, there's a
Speaker 1: different razor for maybe your head versus your face versus
Speaker 1: if you're a woman, your legs or your bikini area.
Speaker 1: There are different razors now for these different body parts.
Speaker 1: They're also different things to use, not just razors. They're
Speaker 1: derma planers now to remove the little hair, the fine
Speaker 1: hair that we all have on our face, if you're
Speaker 1: concerned about that. They're also trimmers in case you don't
Speaker 1: want to totally shave an area of your body, but
Speaker 1: you just want to trim the hair there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they really want us to get hair free. It
Speaker 2: seems really obsessed with that part of our bodily functions.
Speaker 2: And speaking of bodily functions, Leslie also noticed maxi pads.
Speaker 1: We've seen some interesting examples recently, so care Free is
Speaker 1: really targeting moms with this new product with their new
Speaker 1: maxi pads, and they're saying they're not just for like
Speaker 1: a few days of the month, but they're designed to
Speaker 1: be worn pretty much. Twenty four to seven are all
Speaker 1: the time to catch any sort of leak. So these
Speaker 1: new maxi pads, they want you to buy essentially more
Speaker 1: of them to wear all the time.
Speaker 2: It's not just personal care products. Food companies are also
Speaker 2: up fleeting.
Speaker 1: So the biggest one I've seen is really Pepsi pushing
Speaker 1: Doritos and tostitos as a side dish, So to go
Speaker 1: along with your dinner, you can make some sort of product,
Speaker 1: some kind of salad with doritos or toastitos or something
Speaker 1: like that.
Speaker 2: So we've all heard of a grilled cheese, but have
Speaker 2: you heard of a Dorito's crusted grilled cheese.
Speaker 1: Instead of breadcrumbs, we're using Dorita's Flaming Hot nacho cheese
Speaker 1: flavored tortilla chips. Here's a funny, creative way to make
Speaker 1: some delicious joki using Dorito's Flaming Hot nachos.
Speaker 2: That's quite a rebrand chips as a side dish alongside
Speaker 2: your string beans. And mashed potatoes.
Speaker 1: That's right. I mean the new occasions things cereal for dinner.
Speaker 1: Everyone you know has been pushing that forever. It's also
Speaker 1: a pretty budget conscious option. It's kind of how they're
Speaker 1: billing it too. But also I've seen Hagendaws bites, ice
Speaker 1: cream bites that are supposed to be a snack, not
Speaker 1: just for dessert.
Speaker 2: Now, yeah, I was thinking cereal for dessert seems like
Speaker 2: more appropriate, and Dourrito's for dinner exactly exactly, But it's
Speaker 2: all well and good to notice the trend. As a
Speaker 2: consumer goods reporter, Leslie wanted to get to the bottom
Speaker 2: of why this was happening, and she says it has
Speaker 2: to do with two things. Inflation, of course, but also
Speaker 2: the continuing fallout from the pandemic.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of that is just in response
Speaker 1: to the sales declines that really were exacerbated by the pandemic.
Speaker 2: We all stopped buying as many personal care products during
Speaker 2: the pandemic when we saw fewer people, and perhaps also
Speaker 2: reevaluated our ideas of personal hygiene.
Speaker 1: Razor blade sales had already been on the decline before
Speaker 1: the pandemic, but then the pandemic kind of accelerated that
Speaker 1: with people working from home not shaving as much. You know,
Speaker 1: beerds were trendy beforehand, but maybe even now more and
Speaker 1: not even a beer, maybe just some stubble. But the
Speaker 1: point is less razor sales.
Speaker 2: Over the last four years, razor sales are down by
Speaker 2: more than twenty percent, shampoo sales fell by sixteen percent,
Speaker 2: and deodorant sales aren't what they used to be either.
Speaker 2: Does it feel like companies are creating a need for
Speaker 2: a product that didn't need to exist?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, these companies are trying to create new needs and
Speaker 1: they've always done that to some extent. It kind of
Speaker 1: reminds me of a long time ago when companies were
Speaker 1: telling us about dryer sheets. You can use those shore
Speaker 1: to reduce static in your laundry and your dryer, but hey,
Speaker 1: throw them in your tennis shoes, your gym shoes too
Speaker 1: at the gym and they won't spell as bad.
Speaker 2: But are any of us actually buying this literally or
Speaker 2: figuratively coming up after the break? What's at stake if
Speaker 2: all of us can't be convinced to have Dorito's for dinner.
Speaker 2: So here's where things stand. Over the last four years,
Speaker 2: American consumers have been spending less and less on certain
Speaker 2: staples like razors in shampoo, and to combat declining sales,
Speaker 2: Bloomberg's Leslie Patten says companies have started tweaking old products,
Speaker 2: marketing them for new uses, and trying to upsell consumers
Speaker 2: on these supposedly new, more specialized, and more expensive products.
Speaker 2: It's a strategy also known as upflation.
Speaker 1: The phenomenon is mostly a US or American one, but
Speaker 1: we are starting to see some examples pop up elsewhere.
Speaker 1: For example, Unilever, which is based in the UK, also
Speaker 1: has an all over body deodorant under its Dove brand,
Speaker 1: but it's just in the US right now, and then
Speaker 1: in China. I think people are really gravitating towards products
Speaker 1: that have various benefits where people can basically get more
Speaker 1: for their money. Top sellers include like a three minute
Speaker 1: miracle conditioner for damaged hair.
Speaker 2: Is this working? Our consumers willing to pay more for
Speaker 2: these new products.
Speaker 1: In some cases yes? In some cases I would say
Speaker 1: no or not yet. I think the example that stands
Speaker 1: out to me as being so far the most successful
Speaker 1: is probably the whole body deodorant.
Speaker 2: Leslie went to Procter and Gamble, the company that owns
Speaker 2: brands like Secret Old Spice and Native, and ask them
Speaker 2: about how these new products are performing.
Speaker 1: They've told me so far, it's selling above what they
Speaker 1: thought it when it launched earlier this year, kind of
Speaker 1: beginning of the year timeframe. It's under a Secret Old
Speaker 1: Spice in Native and they're doing well.
Speaker 2: In other words, many of us do seem to be
Speaker 2: buying these more expensive products, and Leslie says that's a
Speaker 2: good thing for consumer companies like P and G and
Speaker 2: Unilever and others.
Speaker 1: I think it's probably a strategy that they need to do.
Speaker 1: They need to have premium items, they need to have
Speaker 1: something that reflects what consumers want. And in some ways, yes,
Speaker 1: people do want premium items. They're willing to pay more
Speaker 1: for items that are more effective for them.
Speaker 2: But is whole body deodorant actually so revolutionary, dermatologists told
Speaker 2: Leslie not exactly.
Speaker 1: So for the most part, people don't necessarily need all
Speaker 1: over body deodorant. Dermatologists have told me it can be
Speaker 1: used if you have some like mild concerns about different
Speaker 1: odors on your body. It's not going to necessarily do
Speaker 1: any harm. But for the most part, anyone with moderate
Speaker 1: or severe body odor concerns should probably see a doctor.
Speaker 2: Dermatologists skepticism aside, P and G has expanded the strategy
Speaker 2: beyond deodorant.
Speaker 1: Head and Shoulders is another PNG owned brand, and you know,
Speaker 1: the company not necessarily Headed Shoulders, but it had been
Speaker 1: watching you know, US industry sales decline for a while
Speaker 1: now for several years, and through its research conversations with
Speaker 1: consumers and focus groups, the company learned that people didn't
Speaker 1: want to use its regular Head and Shoulders product every
Speaker 1: day because they considered it too medicinal. Basically, it was
Speaker 1: something they were like, oh, this is too many chemicals
Speaker 1: to be putting on my body or in my hair
Speaker 1: on a daily basis. So they created a new version
Speaker 1: that's called Head and Shoulders Bear. It just came out
Speaker 1: this year bre and it only has nine ingredients, which
Speaker 1: is quite a bit fewer than like the twenty plus
Speaker 1: ingredient list of its normal shampoo. But they wanted to
Speaker 1: address the issue that people were like nervous about putting
Speaker 1: something like this on their head on their body every day,
Speaker 1: and this is their way of basically addressing that.
Speaker 2: So they made the Head and Shoulders product simpler pair
Speaker 2: down the ingredients. Is the product cheaper, No, it's not.
Speaker 1: It's more expensive than the regular product. And this is
Speaker 1: a great example of upplation, right, So it's about twelve
Speaker 1: dollars for a bottle, give or take obviously at different places,
Speaker 1: but it's it's for sure more than the original version.
Speaker 2: This success has been a relief for these companies and
Speaker 2: to investors who have been worried about their future sales.
Speaker 1: I think what's on the line for these companies is
Speaker 1: they've been saying for years they can turn around sales
Speaker 1: volumes basically since sometime in twenty twenty two give or
Speaker 1: take a little bit with the various companies, And if
Speaker 1: they're not able to keep sales up and keep growth
Speaker 1: going without price hikes, then it takes away growth prospects
Speaker 1: for the company. And that's a big deal to investors.
Speaker 1: That that's a big deal to Wall Street. So the
Speaker 1: market wants to see that these companies can keep sales
Speaker 1: going without the massive price hikes of the last few years.
Speaker 1: The way to do that is by increasing volumes which
Speaker 1: have been pressured.
Speaker 2: But don't think this is the end of it. Even
Speaker 2: if upflation is successful at revitalizing stalled sales. Leslie says,
Speaker 2: there could be even more innovation on the horizon. We've
Speaker 2: had shrink flation, upflation. Is there another flation you're looking
Speaker 2: out for?
Speaker 1: There's another one we have kind of noticed on the
Speaker 1: food side. We called it wasteflation, where people are just
Speaker 1: looking to waste a lot less.
Speaker 2: Seems like a pretty noble impulse to me, but in
Speaker 2: some ways wasteflation could be bad news for companies since
Speaker 2: it comes from a place of wanting to wasteless.
Speaker 1: There's also a growing movement and just more awareness about
Speaker 1: consumerism and waste. All of these things, or most of
Speaker 1: these things come in giant plastic containers. People want to
Speaker 1: lower their environmental impact.
Speaker 2: You'll be shocked to discover that companies are already trying
Speaker 2: to figure out a way to capitalize on this too.
Speaker 1: For example, in the frozen vegetable aisle, Canagra, which owns
Speaker 1: the Birdseyde brand, has this new take on their frozen vegetables, saying,
Speaker 1: why should you waste money on these fresh vegetables that
Speaker 1: you'll just end up tossing in the garbage. But frozen
Speaker 1: ones they never go back, so you don't have to
Speaker 1: throw them away. You don't have to throw away that
Speaker 1: like moldy piece of broccoli in the back of your fridge,
Speaker 1: because the frozen ones don't do that. So with people
Speaker 1: looking to wasteless and save money in that way but
Speaker 1: also be more environmentally conscious, I think that's another move
Speaker 1: we're seeing companies respond to wasstflation.
Speaker 2: I love that wasteflation. I'll be looking out for that
Speaker 2: as well. This is the Big Take from Bloomberg News.
Speaker 2: I'm Sarah Holder. My co host David Gura, is in
Speaker 2: Atlanta ahead of tonight's debate between President Joe Biden and
Speaker 2: former President Donald Trump hosted by CNN. We'll have an
Speaker 2: episode on that debate tonight, as well as coverage on
Speaker 2: Bloomberg TV, Radio, dot Com, and as always, the Bloomberg Terminal.
Speaker 2: This episode was produced by David Fox. It was edited
Speaker 2: by Becca Greenfield and Shelly Banjo. It was mixed by
Speaker 2: Blake Maples. It was fact checked by Adrianna Tapia. Our
Speaker 2: senior producers are Naomi Shaven and Kim Gitttleson, who also
Speaker 2: edited this episode. Our senior editor is Elizabeth Ponso. The
Speaker 2: Cold Beamster bor is our executive producer. Sage Bauman is
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