P&G hopes laundry haters will Swash clothes
— -- Procter & Gamble — which sells more laundry detergent than anyone else on the planet — is testing a product line that actually gives slackers an excuse to put off doing the dreaded wash.
The maker of Tide, Gain and Cheer is testing Swash, a four-product line that, with a spray or wipe, removes wrinkles, stains and odors from clothes within minutes. Without washing.
"This is not meant to replace the wash, but to enhance the re-wear experience that is a big habit with consumers," says Kevin Crociata, marketing director of North American laundry at P&G.
Re-wear? That's P&G's term for folks who grab stuff from the closet hook — or pick it up off the floor — and wear it again without washing it. There are a lot of those folks: Some 75% of consumers do it three to four times weekly, according to P&G research.
The Swash lineup now in testing:
•Fresh It Up. A spray to remove odors, it sells for $5 for a 2.5-ounce container.
•Get It Out. A stain-erasing pen, it goes for $3 for 0.4 ounces.
•Smooth It Out. A spray to remove wrinkles, it costs $5 for 5 ounces.
•Steam It Out. A moistened cloth (seven for $5) to toss in a dryer with the clothes, it removes odors and wrinkles after 10 minutes of tumbling.
P&G has even turned to its beauty care team to design Swash bottles to look nifty on nightstands. "The product isn't made for the laundry room, but for the bedroom and bathroom," Crociata says.
A test of the Swash line began this month in Lexington, Ky. The tag line: "Swash it out." After the test, P&G will decide what's next, Crociata says.
For P&G, it's about concocting new things and convincing folks they need them, says Tom Vierhile, director of researcher Datamonitor's Productscan Online. "If you can pick up sales from people who don't do laundry much, you grow the market."
