Having worked on projects in the laundry cleaning category coming up with new product innovation aint no walk in the park. All brands clean well and innovation tends to focus on improving performance on types of stains, or cleaning at low temperature. We’ve got more formats than we know what to do with (powder, liquid, capsules, tablets etc.) We’ve got colour care, sensitive skin…
However, the Method brand have taken innovation in this category to a whole new level. They’ve left Ariel/Tide and Persil/Omo to slug it out with the own label brands for the mainstream and come up with something new. The brand sells beautifully designed, eco-friendly cleaning products with a funky personality. Sausage/function: check. Sizzle/personality: check. They are in the US and now coming to the UK. I like them even more as the marketing guy, Tom Fishburne , is the genius behind the brandcamp cartoons.
What’s interesting about Method is the way they have taken the idea of eco-friendly cleaning (Ecover) but made it sexy not worthy. Can they actually pull off the same trick in cleaning that Green & Black’s did with organic chocolate?
5-minute workout: rather than competing head to head with the competition in an innovation arms race, what would a totally new form of brand look like? As a start, what would the Green & Black’s of your category look like?!