[9급 지방직 영어 2010년 15번]

Every year, people spend approximately 400 million dollars on detergents to clean, and help keep their laundry fresh. Most consumers of detergents are not novices, meaning that they have tried various brands of detergents and carefully selected the best product. To each customer, the best product may have a different priority. For example, some people may select the most well-known product, while others purchase according to how economical the product may be. Still, for others buying environmentally safe products is their priority.

However, many customers do not actually compare what is inside the box of various detergents. A surprising study showed that while each brand had its own marketing strategy, over 90 % of the same basic ingredients were identical to all brands. Another interesting result was found when veteran detergent customers were not shown the box, and were asked to choose their favorite brand based only on the result of the detergent. Only 3 % were able to identify their brand and even then, most of them were not entirely sure. This goes to show that while detergents may seem different, marketing is just giving basically the same products different clothes.