SC Johnson, Cornell's Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise develop Wow

RACINE, Wis. — SC Johnson has teamed up with Cornell University's Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise to launch a new product concept.

The three-year business pilot, called "Wow," is a membership-based club whose products and services help low-income homemakers care for their homes and families by turning the stressful practice of caring for the home and family into a bonding group experience. The club memberships, which are sold to groups of seven homemakers, include a bundle of four different SC Johnson products in refillable formats. The bundle is comprised of pest control products to manage insects and home cleaning products to keep homes clean and fresh. In addition to the products, the membership includes group coaching sessions around home and family-care best practices. Members also enjoy loyalty rewards for every three consecutive months of membership, the two said.

"The WOW™ offering and business model are designed to tackle two key business challenges that come with low-income markets," said Erik Simanis, managing director of market creation strategies at Cornell, who worked with SC Johnson to develop the Wow concept. "The first is to persuade consumers to adopt very new routines and behaviors associated with the products. The second is to generate the margins needed to sustain the high-intensity sales process for acquiring and retaining customers."

The pilot recently was unveiled in the willage of Bobikuma, Ghana.

"SC Johnson is committed to preventing insect-borne diseases as well as creating sustainable business solutions to help strengthen communities in developing countries," SC Johnson chairman and CEO Fisk Johnson said. "The Wow concept is a tremendous opportunity to make a real impact in the lives of families in these communities."