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New Consumerism: Cold Turkey? Why Cold Water Washing Has to Work - Part I

Strategy Briefing

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About This Report

Nov 2016

The cold water washing trend in laundry care polarises consumers and the industry, with a great deal of rational evidence as well as passionate emotional perceptions that support or attack the principle. There are clear environmental and economic gains from washing in cooler temperatures, but also valid hygiene concerns and a potential compromise of the fundamental “laundry mission”.

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New Consumerism: Cold Turkey? Why Cold Water Washing Has to Work - Part I

Consumers reassess their priorities and increasingly ask themselves what they truly value

A host of major consumer trends have emerged: from the sharing economy to the preference given to experience over possessions, to frugal innovation and trading up and down. This shift towards new priorities, which Euromonitor has termed “The New Consumerism”, is impacting across a multitude of industry sectors and has the power to transform even the most established markets.

Laundry care industry comes under focus

Serves as an example of how recent more “frugal” initiatives to promote cold water washing in laundry have been introduced across Europe and North America in a bid to get average wash temperatures down and reduce the share laundry takes of household energy consumption.

Technology in both the consumable and durable space is influencing the way consumers “consume”

In this specific case we also look at how they view their behaviour and energy usage as it relates to homes and appliances. While this report does not focus on every aspect of “new consumerism” as set out in the same-titled report, it does touch on ideas surrounding “Frugal Innovation” and “Circular Economy”. This is one report in a wide-ranging series, exploring how The New Consumerism is impacting across industries.

New Consumerism

New consumerism
Drivers in common
The circular economy
What is driving the move to a circular economy?
Frugal innovation
Drivers of frugal i nnovation

Introduction to Cold Washing

About this briefing:
Cold washing in numbers
Interpretations of cold
Cold defined
EU laundry average washing temperatures
Software: T he history of “cold” in laundry
Hardware: T he history of “cold” in laundry
Sinner’s circle: M ess with this at one’s peril
Inside the drum
Do washing machines really have performance issues?
Even experts get it wrong (1): Chemistry fail
Even experts get it wrong (2): Mechanical fail
Balancing the circle on increase
Balancing the circle on decrease
What does “cold” washing mean: Cold vs cool vs warm vs hot ?

Key Trend Drivers

Key low temperature drivers
Key cold wash drivers
Consumer side
Industry side
Regulation and pressure groups

Hot and Cold Laundry Practices

Cold world a complex environment
What difference does “cold” make?
Global average laundry temperatures 2015
Factors that promote low temperatures
Australia: An early adopter
R esistance to cold washing?
Giant leaps
Why hot wash?
Hot washing driven by access
The natural order of things
How is it hanging?
Competition washers
The primacy of energy

ºC in Developed Vs Emerging Markets

Prevalent method of washing laundry 2015
Global penetration of washing machines and trends
Global average laundry temperatures 2015
Average temperatures in developed markets

Laundry Automation and Energy

Global energy consumption by household
Energy consumption across EU28 in 2015
Energy in the home: UK example
Average energy consumption (kWh) by activity in UK homes (1)
Average energy consumption (kWh) by activity in UK homes (2)
Average energy consumption (kWh) by activity in UK homes (3)
Average energy consumption (kWh) by activity in UK homes (4)
Energy usage by domestic activity
Average domestic energy usage by country
Energy use: M odern vs older machines
The linear progression of temperature
Energy use simplification in % terms
Washing machines a global picture
Global machine unit growth
Global machine expansion: W hat it means
Machine expansion and energy
Why cold water washing has to work
The “killer argument”?
Why cold wash has to be preserved
Stasis: “if they could, would they?”
Case study: Dryers in Italy - heat, energy use and paradigm shifts
Things change
The five “voices” with strong opinions about cold washing