• by Erik Oster , August 30, 2023

It’s a case of Gobbler versus the Goliaths. When consumers need a drain cleaner, two titans of the category are so ubiquitous they replace “drain cleaner” on shopping lists: SC Johnson’s Drano and Clorox’s Liquid-Plumr.

As consumers increasingly concern themselves with clean ingredient profiles and environmental impact, however, PurposeBuilt Brands believes its Green Gobbler can muscle its way onto shelf space -- and down consumers’ drains.

The company, which acquired Green Gobbler in 2020, is launching its first national marketing campaign to support the brand’s push to unclog brick-and-mortar shelf space and build brand recognition.

Promising to offer a biodegradable and more eco-friendly, yet still effective, solution to drain clogs, the brand sees an opportunity to disrupt the market by appealing to consumers who are increasingly reluctant to introduce harsher chemicals into their homes, PurposeBuild Brands Vice President, Consumer Marketing Jon Bellante told Marketing Daily.

He believes Green Gobbler’s combination of product innovation and broad distribution can allow the brand to be competitive with established brand leaders in a way the specialty cleaning category typically has not been. Since acquiring the brand in 2020, it has seen considerable growth from ecommerce channels –- with its Green Gobbler Enzyme Cleaner a best-seller on Amazon -- and an opportunity for brick-and-mortar expansion.

To do all that, Green Gobbler is uncapping a marketing campaign focused on what it considers its greatest strength: its name, which includes a built-in allusion to its eco-minded value proposition,.

“In so many categories these ‘green’ cleaners have become incredibly commonplace, but in most instances involve some kind of tradeoff [in effectiveness]. What has allowed us to set ourselves apart is a product that works,” Bellante explained, adding that the brand backs up its promise with a consumer guarantee.

PurposeBuilt teamed up with agency Hanson Dodge to lean further into the branding, with a primary focus on digital channels including connected TV and streaming, display, social media, podcast sponsorships, and shopper marketing through retail partnerships.

The campaign introduces the tagline, “Let The Gobbler Get It” to showcase the combination of efficacy and ease-of-mind the product promises -- something also embodied by the Green Gobbler character itself.

“Making sure the character can straddle those two mindsets is important,” Bellante said, something which required developing a character who “can maintain that balance of fierce and friendly.”

A pair of video ads at the center of the campaign anthropomorphizes the product through the Green Gobbler character -- who Hanson Dodge Creative Director Mitch Markussen explains was given a gruff but inviting East Coast accent and demeanor modeled in part on the hosts of NPR’s “Car Talk.”

“At the end of the day, we wanted the homeowner to be the hero,” he said, “We decided we wanted to make him a tough guy that you could trust.... We wanted him to be honest as well as have a little edge to him.”

Going forward, Bellante sees great potential to build Green Gobbler’s brand presence and appeal to consumers with its offering in adjacent categories, such as its line of weed killers.

The tagline “Let The Gobbler Get It” was designed to be broadly applicable across categories. “It’s easily memorable, easily repeatable. It works across all the [Green Gobbler products] – we didn’t make it specific to a drain cleaner,” Markussen explained.