The Wonder Wash product from Unilever addresses the growing customer need for laundry detergents that are quick and easy to use. Learn how social-first marketing is creating demand and how cutting-edge technology is enabling its worldwide rollout.
Under our Dirt Is Good brand (also known as OMO, Persil, Surf Excel, Breeze, Rinso, Ala, and Skip), we introduced Wonder Wash, our largest Home Care innovation to date, about a year ago. This is our first liquid laundry detergent that is specially made to operate in short cycles, as short as 15 minutes, in response to consumers’ increasing demands for convenience and speed.
On the strength of unheard-of customer demand, it not only fills a significant market gap but also represents the quickest implementation of an innovation from our Home Care division. The entire company has stepped up since the roll-out, from our customer teams interacting with merchants to our supply chain teams increasing output.
Dirt Is Good Global Marketing Director Nadine Slyper states: “Wonder Wash is a great example of Unilever’s GAP 2030 strategy in action. We unlocked a truly global consumer insight and used science and technology to develop an innovation that creates a new sub-category. As well as applying the power of AI to transform our operations, we’re also tapping into new audiences and talking to them in innovative social-first ways.”
Since discovering that 80% of customers in major international countries use their washing machine’s short cycle option at least once a week, Wonder Wash has been the largest disruptor in the laundry industry for decades. We discovered that fast washes are being used on loads that show little to no obvious stains. On average, 70% of filth on clothing is now invisible due to shifting lifestyles and occupations; this is brought on by dust and perspiration, BrandSpur news brand reports.
Additionally, consumers may face unique difficulties as a result of the growing popularity of synthetic apparel, such as sports and athleisure wear, since the synthetic fibres tend to retain odours that are challenging to get rid of.
Continuing, Slyper went on to say: “In line with changing lifestyles, we’re seeing consumers increasingly use short cycles to do their laundry.
“However, regular detergents aren’t optimised to perform in short cycles. So we designed Wonder Wash to really deliver against what consumers are looking for even in the shortest cycles,” Slyper added.
The Marketing Director added that, after its initial debut in April 2024, we want to roll out to 20 markets in 20 months. It has already entered eleven markets and is the category’s fastest-growing innovation. It has helped OMO rise to the top of the liquid detergent market in the UK, France, and Turkey. This is due in part to drawing in new customers, such as empty nesters, Gen Xers, and pre-family households.
We’ve modified our supply chain to meet demand spikes as Wonder Wash proved to be an immediate hit with customers in every launch area.
By utilising cutting-edge technology like artificial intelligence, we were able to treble the capacity of our production line in just six months. The team accelerated lead times and increased productivity by optimising plant assets and processes through digitisation. Another important factor has been the quality of our partnerships.
Working together with clients and suppliers, we created processes that increased productivity and sped up manufacturing. This guaranteed that we could easily fulfil the increased capacity requirements.
Slyper added: “Supply chain plays an integral role in creating unmissably superior brands that solve consumers’ real and evolving needs. This fuels the growth of our business.”
To introduce Wonder Wash, we have revised the laundry category communication guidelines. We needed a completely new method of reaching this new generation of consumers, which this innovation allows us to tap into.
Slyper had this to say about the launch: “The successful launch in multiple markets demonstrates the product’s potential for further global expansion. Plans to enter more markets next year present significant growth opportunities.”
