How to sell batteries

Lately I found myself admiring the success of one specific regular household battery and no, I'm not talking about the forever going rabbit powered by Duracell.

Namely Panasonic has introduced a new battery called EVOLTA (“EVOIA” in Europe) that lasts longer than any other and recognized by Guinness World Record as the world’s “longest lasting AA alkaline battery cell”

My first sightings about this battery evolution were in technology blog called Engadget in somewhere at the end of last year. The news itself is more than a year old. The first thoughts were that why there is a news article written about a regular battery?

Lately I noticed a package of those batteries in a store near my home village. The package design and the world EVOIA caught my eye and I recognized them: “Oh hey, aren’t those the batteries said to be world’s best?” 

I thought how well did it succeeded as a PR campaign for this simple everyday item.

Let’s imagine that you are at the beginning of the process of bring the new battery to the market. Currently in the lead is the well known Duracell with their rock climbing bunny and right after that seems to be the Energizer with the similar pink drum banging bunny. So what to do with those market leading rabbits?

Well the Panasonic got somehow the Guinness World Record for their innovative battery that outlasts the competitors by 20-30%. What a good chance to but a well known and trusted Guinness World Record logo onto the package making the batteries look professional and not comparing the performance by how high can a cute stuffed rabbit clime on the cliffs. 

So why did I chose that brand of batteries? Look at it this way: if you are at shop choosing between different products, what are the main things you decide on when buying a regular battery? For me it’s how long they last as simply there is nothing other to compare. So if Panasonic has this flashy yellow sticker on the package stating: “World’s No. 1 Long Lasting” and they have Guinness World Record to stand behind that statement then for me it’s a sale! If you ask that is the 20-30% longer lifetime also expensive, then 3-5% difference in price is still worth it. You then don’t have to change the batteries so often and by that you also keep the world a greener place as you use fewer batteries.

In my opinion, the EVOIA has a good chance on becoming the market leader in a few years or so.