Beauty care adds value to clothes washing market

Having driven innovation in the sector for two years, the environment is taking a back seat as the focus in the laundry market shifts to beauty treatments for clothes.

The seven signs of beautiful clothes

Tide Total Care, launched recently in the US, is designed to help clothes looking fresh after 50 washes, making them last longer by revealing the ‘seven signs of beautiful clothes’, which include:

• Thorough cleaning
• Protecting colour
• Preserving shape
• Maintaining finish
• Enhancing softness
• Preventing pills
• Fighting stains

Both the Tide detergent and Downy’s fabric softener (both from P&G) are made with silicone, polymers and chlorine neutralizers, ingredients more typically found in beauty care products.

Is this a good strategy?

Can a laundry detergent positioned as a beauty treatment for clothes really have a place in today’s market where leading brands are busy out-greening each other and consumers are focusing on cheaper clothing?

Procter & Gamble’s Total Care range might be positioned at the top-end of the market, but the reality is that many of us are looking for ways to save money in the economic downturn, and making our clothes last longer can be one of them.

Almost a third of British consumers already find dry cleaning too expensive (from Mintel’s UK report on Dry Cleaning & Household Retail Services – August 2008), so it is not what most consumers will be using to get their wardrobe to survive more than a season. This new premium laundry detergent shows not only intelligent crossover from the beauty market, but is also cleverly positioned as a potential long-term money-saver.

See the Mintel GNPD Category Reviews on Fabric Care – Automatic and Fabric Care – Conditioners & Softeners for further insight and analysis.

For more information on Mintel GNPD please see www.gnpd.com.

Shop Happy

There is a risk for any retailer in a recession that trade will get so tough that all you’d want to do is curl up in a corner and wait for things to improve.

But that is not an option.

The difference between boom and bust can be a very small number of percentage points of growth. There is still a huge amount of business out there, but retailers will have to fight harder for it. Consumers have to be given more reasons to buy.

The retailer that can add an element of fun to its merchandising and promotional activity will have a great advantage. (A recession is not a time to cut spending, it is a time to invest more.)

A happy shopper is one that doesn’t have to cope with awkward children. The time has come for supermarkets to make a greater investment in crèches. Children can perhaps learn about healthy eating, play with food, make smoothies etc, but what matters is that they are kept happy.

In the battle for customers and in the battle to stop them drifting off to the discounter there is scope for far more themed events. Recent examples in other retailers include Selfridges’ 'Bollywood' and 'Brazil' events. Excitement, in-store entertainment, getting people to try and experience food from different cultures all provide reasons to visit a store.

Marian Newman Wash-Off Nail Colour for On-The-Go Fashionistas

 Marian Newman: Nails  is a new nail colour line that offers an alternative to traditional polish.  The brand’s founder aims to make applying nail colour as quick and easy as lipstick.  The  Incredible DIY Kit  (£22) is designed for ‘on-the-go’ use.  It contains two brush pens (nail colour and topcoat) and two sachets with wipes.  The Inkredible 1-Colour is water-based and can be used without a base coat.  The quick-dry formula is said to facilitate colour changes on the way to work, a date, a party or as ‘often as you change your outfit.’  The Wrapture topcoat claims to use nano technology and ceramide beads for increased hardness and colour enhancing properties.  The acetone-free Remove! Towel can be used to remove colour or clean the Wrapture brush.  The Moisturise! Towel is for cleaning any colour that strayed onto fingers or hands.  

A former scientist, Marian Newman began work as a nail professional in 1987 in the UK.  She launched Marian Newman: Nails in 2008.  The line of nail colour and accessories is available at Selfridges, selected hair salons and online.

Read My Shirt

Instead of sending a Martini over to the striking blonde at the end of the bar, try opening your coat.

A Chicago shirt-maker, Josh Galecki, didn't know how to talk to women, so he invented a T-shirt that would do the job. The company, Loop Apparel, prints clever lines on shirts for commuters who take the L-train (subway) in Chicago.

One shirt called the Poet, reads: "Relax, you'll be home soon. Now, do you get up and let the older woman sit in your seat on the L, or do you sort of pretend to sleep? ... I guess it depends on how hung over you are."

Another says, "The prettiest girls in the world live in Chicago."

We're The Ad

While silly T-shirts are nothing new, this brand certainly resembles a unique approach to communication. Talking to women for many men is difficult but exciting - there's so much guesswork involved that every approach is sure to produce a different outcome.

We'll stop there.

Nevertheless, the shirt does create leverage. It alleviates some stress because a man doesn't have to sound so rehearsed. Humor is breaking a barrier; the shirt is allowing whomever to be funny without having to say a word.

• Advertising in space makes sense since people tend to remember by sight, rather than by words. Because a shirt is accompanied with the face - or the other way around - we remember what was said.
• We've learned to market ourselves over time and technology has allowed us to do uncomfortable chores with ease, like breaking up with your boyfriend via text message.
• The onus on all of us to become individual brands looks set to continue as the tendencies towards individualisation and customisation strengthen.

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