How reframing the growth challenge from detergent share to dishwasher ownership helped Finish expand the category, grow revenue and increase market share.
The business challenge
Finish was already the market leader in automatic dishwasher detergent, with around 58% market share and a premium price position.
But the brand had ambitious growth targets: increase net revenue by 20% year on year and add 500 basis points of market share.
The problem was that the category itself was small.
Only 5.4% of households owned a dishwasher, and penetration was increasing by just 0.5% a year. Appliance sales were growing at around 13% annually.
Previous attempts to grow Finish by winning users from competing detergent brands had delivered limited results.
The constraint was clear: Finish’s growth ambitions were greater than the category could naturally support.
What the analysis revealed
Finish could continue fighting harder for share within the detergent category, but that would only go so far.
The more important relationship was further upstream. People only buy automatic dishwasher detergent once they own a dishwasher.
That meant Finish’s addressable market was effectively capped by appliance ownership.
The biggest growth opportunity was therefore not simply to persuade more people to choose Finish over another detergent brand – it was to create more dishwasher users in the first place.
The strategic shift: grow the category first
To sell more detergent, we first had to sell more dishwashers
That became the central strategic idea. Instead of treating dishwasher manufacturers as adjacent businesses, we treated them as potential growth partners.
If Finish could help make dishwasher ownership more accessible and attractive, more households would enter the category. Every new dishwasher sold would then create a potential long-term detergent customer.
The strategy therefore shifted from competing only within the existing market to expanding the market that created demand for Finish.
How the strategy worked
Reduce the biggest barrier to entry
Dishwashers were still widely perceived as a luxury purchase.
Cost was therefore one of the biggest barriers to adoption.
Finish partnered with Bosch and Kelvinator in a series of cooperative promotions, using part of the marketing budget to help subsidise substantial discounts on dishwasher purchases.
In some cases, those discounts reached around 40%.
This made dishwasher ownership significantly more accessible to the target market and gave both Finish and the appliance manufacturers a shared commercial incentive to grow the category.
Change the value of owning a dishwasher
Price was only part of the problem.
Consumers also held rational and emotional reservations about dishwasher ownership.
Some questioned whether machines cleaned as effectively as hand washing. Others associated washing dishes manually with caring for the household.
The communication strategy therefore had to change how people thought about the appliance itself.
Dishwashers were positioned not simply as a convenience, but as a way to give people something more valuable back: time.
Campaign ideas such as “Every day can be a holiday” and “Family Time” reframed dishwashing as a chore that took people away from the things they would rather be doing.
The rational message reassured people that dishwashers delivered clean dishes. The emotional message gave them a better reason to want one.
Turn new appliance buyers into Finish users
Growing dishwasher sales only created the opportunity.
Finish still needed to convert new appliance owners into detergent customers.
Every dishwasher sold through the participating promotions therefore included samples of Finish tablets.
That allowed the brand to establish itself at the moment a consumer entered the automatic dishwashing category, increasing the likelihood that Finish would become their first – and potentially habitual – detergent choice.
Bringing the strategy to life
The strategy connected appliance manufacturers, retailers, communications and product trial into one system.
Television helped build awareness and explain the proposition.
In-store activity brought the offer closer to the point of purchase, with a presence across around 200 major white-goods retail stores, supported by promoters, on-machine messaging and retail displays.
An independent, unbranded Dishwashing Expert website addressed common questions and misconceptions around dishwasher ownership, maintenance and use, supported by search activity.
Together, these elements created a clear journey:
stimulate appliance demand → remove barriers to ownership → drive purchase → introduce Finish immediately
The commercial impact
Dishwasher sales grew 23%
Dishwasher sales across South Africa increased by 23%, compared with the previous annual growth rate of around 13%.
That showed the strategy was achieving its first objective: accelerating growth in the category that ultimately drove Finish consumption.
Finish revenue grew 24.8%
Finish’s net revenue increased by 24.8% year on year.
That exceeded the original 20% growth objective.
Market share increased by 625 basis points
Finish added 625 basis points of market share, outperforming its target by 125 basis points.
The brand therefore succeeded on both fronts: the category grew and Finish captured a greater share of it.
The manufacturer partners grew too
The participating manufacturers also recorded strong results during the quarterly promotions.
Bosch dishwasher sales increased by 107% in one promotional quarter and 45% in another. Kelvinator recorded increases of 740% and 167% across its two promotional periods.
Why the strategy worked
It identified the real constraint on growth
The limiting factor was not simply competitor detergent brands.
It was the number of households that owned a dishwasher.
Once that constraint was recognised, the growth opportunity became much larger.
It created shared commercial value
Finish, appliance manufacturers and retailers all benefited from increased dishwasher adoption.
That gave every partner a reason to help grow the market.
It addressed the whole customer journey
The strategy tackled price, functional doubts, emotional resistance and brand trial in sequence.
Each part supported the next.
It created new demand
Rather than relying only on taking share from competitors, the strategy expanded the pool of potential customers available to the brand.
That is what allowed Finish to grow both revenue and market share at the same time.
Capabilities demonstrated
Growth Strategy | Category Strategy | Customer Insight | Partnership Strategy | Commercial Strategy | Integrated Marketing | Marketing Effectiveness
My role
As Director of Strategy, I led the strategic development of the work — from diagnosing the real constraint on growth to developing the category-growth and partnership strategy that connected dishwasher adoption directly to Finish’s commercial objectives.
This work was completed during my agency career, working in partnership with the Reckitt Benckiser team and the wider creative, account and media teams.