Four months ago while U.S. shoppers were stockpiling items like toilet paper and disinfectant wipes as Covid-19 fears surfaced in the U.S., a few aisles down consumer goods giant Procter & Gamble quietly debuted a Walmart-exclusive brand of baby diapers called All Good.

For decades P&G’s Pampers brand has been a leader in the baby diaper category, but competition has heated up over the last several years as a flood of new brands—Hello Bello, Happy Little Camper and Abby&Finn, just to name a few—have hoped to chip away at P&G’s market share and cater to a new generation of parents—the millennials. These consumers value authenticity, transparency and expect brands and companies to give back to society.

In its efforts to attract this audience, All Good uses phrases like “all of the good and none of the bad,” “cushy soft and crazy absorbent” and “around-the-clock leakage protection for no epic fails.” And, every time a consumer buys a box of All Good diapers, the brand donates a day’s worth of diapers to a family in need through Feeding America.

With no official announcement about the new line from P&G or Walmart, Pricie Hanna, managing partner, Price Hanna Consultants, estimates that All Good diapers started hitting store shelves around mid-March of this year as mommy bloggers began posting reviews of the new nappies.

While it’s not a very different design compared to other P&G diapers, Hanna is fascinated by the selection of features the brand is promoting to consumers. “What really interests me is the way they are characterizing its benefits because it just shouts understanding of the way a lot of millennials think about new products,” she says. “‘All Good diapers make a difference for your baby and babies in need; created by parents for parents,’ these are the things that Walmart prints about the diaper.”

The brand also promotes things like free of elemental chlorine bleaching—P&G’s diapers have been free of elemental chlorine bleach for ages, Hanna says—as well as free of parabens and latex. “They’re just mentioning things that consumers have learned are on the bad list.”

Meanwhile, the social-impact component of All Good is also important to this generation of parents. Natalia Richer, global AHP consultant and COO of Diaper Testing International, says that brands exhibiting strong social responsibility that can be associated with sustainable practices resonate loudly within millennial parents.

“We have seen various brands show their commitment through supporting various programs,” Richer says. “Abby&Finn donates diapers, Coterie invests in the future of diaper sustainability by donating to diaper recycling programs, DYPER purchases carbon offsets on behalf of their customers and Parasol has donated masks to frontline workers and a percentage of sales towards Covid-19 charities.”

Despite the brand’s efforts, Richer finds All Good’s diaper donation program to be a bit lackluster at only a day’s worth per box. “One day’s worth could be as few as six diapers donated, while their largest box of size 4 diapers contains 150 diapers. For a similarly priced diaper, Abby&Finn donates many more diapers than what P&G is committing to, and will deliver the monthly subscription to your doorstep to boot. Abby&Finn promises 30 diapers donated for every 156 monthly subscription at size 4, in essence donating close to 20% of the diaper quantity sold compared to 4-8% that All Good will,” she explains.

Testing the Waters
Diaper Testing International recently conducted testing of All Good diapers in its lab. According to Richer, like other P&G lines, All Good diapers exhibit channels along the absorbent core formation with SAP printed cross directionally, curly fiber instead of fluff pulp and an acquisition distribution layer that expands the length of the absorbent core. Along with Luvs, she claims All Good are among the diapers with the lowest capacity for absorbency in the U.S. market (based on free swell and centrifugal retentive capacity tests at Diaper Testing International). The GSM of materials is similar to Luvs, with most notable improvements in the backsheet.

“The most interesting value added with this line that will distinguish them from other P&G brands is the social responsibility shown through their commitment to donating diapers with every box purchased, and their bold B&W unisex patterns,” Richer adds.

Hanna says the black and white theme symbolizes simplicity and is a very popular combination for this age group. “Fashion wise I think they hit it in the right place. Looking at Walmart’s selection of private label diapers like Hello Bello, they’re colorful and flowery—with All Good they’re playing to a different fashion theme.”

Hanna suspects that with this new line P&G was looking for an opportunity to experiment. “Walmart is definitely looking for something with these kind of features to balance out what they have on the shelf in the specialty diaper area and it probably came together that way. I think that’s the only reason why P&G is launching something that’s really a private label. I think they see it as a specialty brand experiment,” she explains.

P&G has also experimented in other hygiene product categories like femcare, where they’ve launched other brand names like Always Pure and Just, she adds. “I think they’ve been doing these things to see whether the consumer really wants a different name than Pampers to give them the impression that it’s different. As you compare it to Pampers Cruisers or Swaddlers, you see the same basic design.”

From Richer’s point of view, given the enormous success Hello Bello has seen and brought in for Walmart, she was surprised to learn this new P&G diaper would also launch exclusively with Walmart. “I’ve long thought Walmart’s Premium Parent Choice had no business carrying the premium name – not because the diapers were made poorly. Quite the contrary, actually. Walmart’s private labels continue to impress us for the incredible value they bring to the consumer.”

Diaper Testing International has tested Walmart’s products for years and has seen them offer high absorbent capacity especially compared to the incredibly low price point at which they sell to parents. “On the other hand, it has been clear that diaper performance is not the defining characteristic of premium diapers in the U.S. where millennials constantly look for value added in trendy fashion-forward designs, sleek packaging, a focus on greener ingredients, super soft materials and brands exhibiting social responsibility,” she says. “In this category, Walmart’s premium Parent Choice has been slow to react and it is obvious Walmart has chosen to instead partner with celebrity company Hello Bello and now P&G’s All Good to properly explore that market segment.”

 

 

 

 

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Hi 👋 We’re All Good – a new diaper brand that makes a difference. For every box you buy we donate a days-worth of diapers to a family in need through our partnership with @FeedingAmerica. Doing good is All Good. It’s who we are. That being said, it’s an interesting time to launch a new brand, but we figured the world needed allllll of the good right now. So 👏🏻 here 👏🏿 we 👏🏽 are. We’re available now only at Walmart.

A post shared by All Good (@allgooddiapers) on Apr 15, 2020 at 8:59am PDT