Bar-Soap Makers Boost Marketing Budgets

With Dove, Dial and Lever 2000 leading the sales hit parade, the nation’s bar-soap makers are spending more money this year to entice Americans away from the new, highly popular body washes and gels. It isn’t a simple task because soap sales declined last year in a trend that has persisted for several years. In a $1.6-billion industry where sales fell between 4% and 5% in 1997, Dove soap, produced by Unilever Group, continued to hold first place with sales of $259 million or a market share of 18.9%. Second was Dial, made by the Dial Corp., with sales of $187 million and a market share of 13.7%. Third was Lever 2000, also a Unilever product, with sales of $128.3 million and a market share of 9.4%. All three leading brands and the next two, Irish Spring, a Colgate-Palmolive Co. product, and Zest, made by Procter & Gamble Co. , increased their marketing outlays last year over 1996, according to figures from Competitive Media Reporting, Inc., a New York research firm.