Sharpies, slow cookers, strollers and scented candles look like unrelated purchases. Behind the shelf, they are one sprawling experiment in making 50 familiar brands behave like one company.
It started with baking soda in 1846. Nearly two centuries later, the quiet New Jersey company behind Arm & Hammer has turned buying other people's brands into a business worth more than $25 billion.
The company behind Tide, Pampers and Gillette has spent nearly 190 years turning tiny household frustrations into repeat purchases. Its real product is a system for making ordinary things feel worth choosing again.