Unilever Confronts The "chairdrobe" As Consumers Rethink Laundry
It’s a familiar sight in the bedrooms of some 60 percent of millennials – 22- to 37-year-olds earning more than a quarter of the world’s income - who approach laundry differently from other age groups, Unilever’s market research shows. That’s a pain point for the company, maker of the world’s second-biggest detergent, Omo. That heap of lightly worn clothes.
For decades, Unilever and Procter & Gamble, the industry leader that created the best-selling brand, Tide, have pitched new and improved laundry detergents and fabric softeners, primarily to women using washing machines. But millennials are less loyal to traditional brands and have new demands, including that products save time and be environmentally sustainable. Many, like 36-year-old Olivia Tusinski, want to spend as little time as possible on laundry. Plus, washing too often wears your clothes out faster, she says. “I don’t like to waste water or energy,” said Tusinski, a government employee in London.