This evening I’ve been pondering on the shampoo/conditioner conspiracy*. Why is it that companies create their shampoo and conditioner bottles with the same capacity of liquid when it’s common to use more shampoo (especially those products that want you to shampoo twice, then condition). Why have two bottles holding 400ml each? This question has even more strength when they’ve spent money on manufacturing different shaped bottles for each product – they can’t excuse themselves by saying they’re saving on cost by using the one bottle mold and thus having to use the same quantity of liquid in order to pass on production savings to the consumer.
The obvious answer is that they want you to have a third or a half full bottle of conditioner left when you painstakingly try to squirt out the last few dollops of shampoo. If you have conditioner left over then you’re likely to purchase a new bottle of the shampoo that matches the conditioner thus clinking some more money in to their bank accounts. This develops an evil cycle of running out of one before running out of the other and before you know it you’ve been using the same product for 10 years without realising why.
I’ve been the sort of person that has a dozen different brands and bottles at various stages of emptiness but I recently decided to use up what I’ve got (be it floor cleaning liquids; toothpaste; or shampoo and conditioner) before I buy more. But now I’ve fallen over on this evil marketing stumbling block…
* I need to get out more.