Duracell

Type	Division of Global Gillette
Founded	1930
Headquarters	Bethel, Connecticut, U.S.
Industry	Industrial Electrical Equipment
Products	Duracell Batteries
Parent	Procter & Gamble
Website	www.duracell.com

Duracell is a brand of batteries manufactured by Procter and Gamble.

Additionally, Duracell owns the Procell professional-use brand.^[1]

[edit] Products

A Duracell AA battery.

Duracell manufactures alkaline batteries in many common sizes, such as AAA, AA, C, D, and 9V. Lesser used sizes such as AAAA (primarily for pagers, penlights, and blood glucose meters) and J size batteries (for hospital devices) are also manufactured along with a range of "button" batteries using Zinc-air chemistry, used in calculators, hearing aids, and other small (mostly medical related) devices. Duracell began selling Dane-Elec products such as flash memory in 2008.^[2]

Duracell also manufactures specialty batteries, including NiMH rechargeable batteries and batteries for cameras, watches, hearing aids, etc. Their two main battery brands are "Coppertop," marketed as longer-lasting, and "Ultra," directed mainly at users of digital devices and devices that need more power. Duracell also has a line of lithium chemistry batteries and products, now manufactured outside of the U.S.

A Duracell Procell AA box with the battery superimposed

In recent years, Duracell's innovations expanded to include new battery designs with their prismatic batteries, which are prismatic in shape rather than cylindrical. Prismatic cells were made available in both alkaline and lithium designs. In 2006, Duracell introduced "Power Pix^TM" batteries with NiOx technology, designed to supply longer life in digital cameras and other high drain devices by up to twice the number of photos typically achievable with alkaline batteries.

Duracell batteries are also bulk packaged for end users under the brand name Procell.

[edit] History

Duracell originated via the partnership of scientist Samuel Ruben and businessman Philip Rogers Mallory, who met during the 1920s. The P.R. Mallory Company produced mercury cells for military equipment use, trumping the Zinc-air battery technology used then in virtually all applications. During the late 1970s, when the company's concerns for the now-known effects of mercury began, mercury quickly became an obsolete ingredient in all their manufacturing processes. It was replaced by alkaline technology.

During the 1950s, Kodak introduced cameras with integral flash: the design required a new cell size, and thus size AAA was developed.

In 1974, the term "Duracell" was formally introduced as a brand. The name is a portmanteau for "durable cell."

The name came from a conversation with A-1 Durable Carpet & Fabric Specialist Inc. and an executive from Mallory Battery which were both from Waterbury CT. The executive called the cleaning company and asked if the name A-1 Durable Carpet & Fabric Specialist Inc. had a copyright on the name Durable. The executive spoke to the son of the cleaning company, Steven Nobrega. The executive explained how they were thinking of calling a new battery that had a copper cell "Durable Cell" and asked how the name suited the cleaning company. The owner's son explained that his father was the owner of a franchise originally called "Duraclean". His father had chosen the new cleaning company name for the cleaning company by dropping the clean in "Duraclean" and added able to Dura to keep the name similar. The two of them started playing with the name for the new battery and the executive and owners son instantly agreed that Duracell was a better name for the new battery.

P.R. Mallory was acquired by Dart Industries in 1978, which in turn merged with Kraft in 1980. Kohlberg Kravis Roberts bought Duracell in 1988 and took the company public in 1989. It was acquired by Gillette in 1996.

[edit] Advertising campaigns

Duracell's advertising campaigns in the United States have always outlined the reliability of Duracell batteries. These campaigns show people using the battery to power the devices they find most important: everything from a Defibrillator to a BrickHouse Child Locator ^[3]. Spending millions of dollars on these campaigns, Duracell has become a household name^{[citation needed]}. Some of Duracell's most notable advertising campaigns include:

• Duracell "Trusted Everywhere" "Heart" Campaign ^[4]
• Duracell "Trusted Everywhere" "BrickHouse Child Locator" Campaign ^[5]
• Duracell "Trusted Everywhere" "Firefighters" Campaign ^[6]

In the United Kingdom, advertising has concentrated more on the long life of the batteries. Since 1973 a pink toy bunny powered by a Duracell has outlasted other toys in a variety of exercises.^[7]

[edit] See also

• Duracell Bunny
• The Puttermans

[edit] References

1. ^ "Products". Duracell corporate site (Procter & Gamble). http://www.duracell.com/procell/products/default.asp. Retrieved 2007-05-11. 
2. ^ Duracell Advances 'Trusted Everywhere' Brand Name To Flash Memory Products
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ [2]
5. ^ [3]
6. ^ [4]
7. ^ [5]

[edit] External links

• Official website