Laundry

The largest adjacent category by value, and a meaningfully harder product to make well.

A bigger category and a harder product

Laundry is bought more often and in larger quantities than surface cleaners, and the customer judges it on things a surface cleaner is never judged on: how clothes smell days later, whether colors hold, and whether stains actually go.

It is also performance-tested by the customer against a benchmark they already own, every single wash.

What changes in the formula

Enzymes, which are the modern answer to protein, starch and fat stains and which bring their own problems: they are deactivated by high pH, by some preservatives and by bleach, and they need stabilizing in a liquid.

Anti-redeposition agents, so soil lifted off does not settle back on.

Optical brighteners, which are a perception ingredient rather than a cleaning one and which some positions rule out.

Much more attention to hard water, because the dose is spread through a large volume of the customer's own water.

And fragrance chemistry designed to survive a wash and deposit on fabric, which is a different brief from a surface cleaner.

Format decisions

Liquid, powder, or a unit dose.

Powder removes the water and the preservative problem and handles hard water well.

A unit dose is convenient, premium-priced and a significant safety consideration: concentrated liquid in a soluble film is exactly the format that has caused ingestion incidents in children, and packaging and labeling for it deserve deliberate care.

Which is worth weighing honestly before choosing the format because it looks modern.

Why it is worth it

Volume, repeat purchase, and a customer who will pay for a position on ingredients.

And it uses the same supply chain, the same equipment and the same regulatory framework as the rest of the range.

References