A New Appreciation for Cold Wash

Delivery

This report comes in PPT.

Key Findings

Vested interest in industry growth is pushing stakeholders into cold wash

All stakeholders in laundry, from additives and appliances to apparel, have made significant promises regarding carbon emission reductions, partly driven by regulations, while maintaining ambitious growth targets. Automatic laundry can only expand beyond its current household penetration in emerging and developing countries if effective cold washing is achieved, which is one of the reasons why there is considerable investment going into creating cold wash solutions.

Stakeholder collaboration is one of the requirements for credible cold wash solutions

Solving cold wash requires innovation, and innovation requires strong partnerships and collaboration. All laundry stakeholders need to be in sync with one another in order to create solutions that adequately address all aspects of Sinner’s Circle (time, mechanical, chemistry and temperature). This is less likely to be resolved to any degree of satisfaction unless the whole industry can find a way to better collaborate across detergency, appliances and apparel. Some previous strong solutions built in isolation have actually damaged clothing.

Mixing-in-the-moment as a cold wash enabler creates out-of-silo dynamics

Laundry technology is maturing, encouraging both appliance and consumables brands to create their own ingredients and devices, seeking added value and taking revenue from other stakeholders. The most advanced solutions in this space utilise multi-cartridge auto-dosing technologies, assisted by deep learning. These technologies enable improved hygiene results by better controlling Sinner’s Circle through the release of disaggregated ingredients into the wash cycle. Third party tests confirm a substantial improvement in wash performance in cold wash associated with ingredient disaggregation.

Using nudge theory to get consumers where we want them to be

To adopt cold washing at scale, consumer motives must be addressed. Driven by self-interest, consumers often act contrary to their professed eco-conscious convictions. Preaching to consumers about doing the “right thing” is ineffective. Achieving sustained behavioural change will require making poor decisions and behaviours visible and linked to consequences. Everyone hates to realise they are selfish, which makes colour coding, guilt, shame and audiences worth remembering throughout shopping journeys.