By Maxwell Hogue,
Junior Strategist
Australians’ attitudes towards home cleanliness, air quality, and indoor living have been greatly challenged and changed considerably in the last 12 months.
With the hygiene focus precipitated by the pandemic, the homecare category has been at the forefront of our minds — and it’s seen a significant boost in presence and sales.
According to Supermarket Scanner data from April, the monthly spend on cleaning products rose 50 per cent as Australia entered lockdown.
Besides the increased demand, there’s also been an increase in the emergence of homecare brands championing solutions that are eco-friendly, multipurpose, and premium.
Such brands are evolving the look, feel, and role of cleaning products.
Reliable Meets Natural
Nielsen’s 2019 Global Homecare Report shows that, among Asia-Pacific consumers, effectiveness (61%), multipurpose (47%) and ease of use (56%) were benefits that ranked highest when purchasing all-purpose cleaners.
And according to Wunderman Thompson, after experiencing a world of medical-grade protocol and standards, consumers will also expect designs and services that safeguard us at the highest level.
In August, Jenni Middleton, Director of Beauty at trend forecasting company WGSN, told Vogue, “Consumers want proven performance benefits, and certainly post-pandemic, we will be seeing an increase in clinical, science-backed brands that can evidence claims.”
With the surge in demand for sanitation products, single use plastic waste has seen a major increase, in the form of masks, gowns, soap bottles, and disposable wipes.
Despite this surge, consumers’ commitment to sustainability remains strong.
Long story short: it’s a complex time to be in the homecare business.
What allows a brand to truly stand out in the cleaning space is sustainably-minded science.
While we do desire science-backed products, what allows a brand to truly stand out in the cleaning space is sustainably-minded science — an ability to strike a balance between eco-friendly and effective.
The rise of Koh, the incredibly popular “cleaning ecosystem”, best represents the shift towards simple, practical, natural products. Koh offers a refillable spray, developed alongside UNSW’s Green Chemistry Team, that can be used throughout the home.
As Koh can attest, the amount of research and development required to develop a green cleaning solution is significant. Sitting in the adjacent personal care category is Ethique, which pushes this point further. The brand’s shampoo bars contain three-times the concentration of its bottled rivals, albeit without any problematic chemicals or animal cruelty.
Better Living Through Cleaning
The connection between messiness and mood is very real, and has has led to emerging players in the homecare space creeping into the functional home
decor space.
A survey of 2,000 Americans by local online marketplace OfferUp found that 70 per cent of respondents said tidying their home offered them “a feeling of accomplishment”; 61 per cent said it made them feel “de-stressed”; and 54 per cent said they experienced “relaxation”.
Besides the mental health benefits, which can’t be overlooked in 2020, cleaning products are also assuming new lives and roles in the home (a place where we’ve all spent a lot of time this year).
The look, feel, and role of cleaning products is evolving.
Trends intelligence agency Stylus predicts that as co-living increases and home spaces continue to shrink, cleaning products will be reframed as functional accessories, largely because there’s nowhere to hide them. Thus, looks are important. Dyson’s cordless vacuums and air purifiers are excellent examples of such dust-busting objet d’art, serving as both a display of affluence and tidiness.
Cleaning systems are beginning to play a similar starring role in people’s interiors. Premium products like Cove’s stainless-steel bottles and Koh’s “Diamond Sponge” are luxe offerings that are also part of the everyday cleaning ritual. These aesthetically-minded solutions not only keep the house in order but also help give users a sense of calm, control, and even Instagrammable house pride in the unpredictable climate of 2020. For devotees, they are colour coordinated magic in a time of potentially unclean chaos.
The key to building loyalty in this category, which has understandably high expectations and has changed greatly this year, is striking the right balance. But it’s a tall order: look and feel, luxury, sustainability, convenience, ease of use, effectiveness — all of these areas must be considered.
Homecare brands will continue to evolve their functionality and find new ways to embed themselves in people’s lives. The battle to adapt to and even influence the hygiene habits of this generation is just beginning.
