Spotlight: Housewares

Woolite Muscles into the Machine-Wash
Category with a Soft, Wavy Presentation

Everyone knows the Woolite® brand as the hand-washing category leader. In order for this specialty item to break into the competitive machine-washing category, the big question was: What should Woolite look like in a new category? Woolite's parent company, Reckitt Benckiser, put their trust in New York City's One80 Design to walk the fine line between "same" and "different."

The many competitors in the machine-wash category include well-established brands with "owned" colors of bold orange, blue, and red. What would be the best way to translate the Woolite white and blue into an ownable identity in the new category? The Woolite brand presentation had not been tampered with in many years, and the brand owners feared it now looked dated.

Jim Warner, managing director at One80 Design, explains his firm's approach: "The package structure needed to carry the message that this was a new player in the category." For Warner, the task boiled down to "understanding what could go and what could be evolved." To evolve the visual brand equities, even the smallest details were refined or strengthened. Even the logo was "dimensionalized" slightly for the 21st century.

The familiar blue and white bandings were evolved into an iconic presentation on the label, then re-emphasized in the bottle structure. This well-established visual connection between customer and brand had to be exploited to its maximum effect. The bands are symbolic of the brand, as representing both clothes swaying in a tub of water and the mixing of detergent and water.

The structural strategy at Reckitt Benckiser and One80 Design was first and foremost to provide a signature shape that signified the brand. The presentation could not depart too much from its predecessor, because that would confuse the consumer with a message of "different" that would be counter-productive.

The aim was also to add ease-of-use value and connect with consumers on a functional and comfort level. "The whole experience had to be Woolite-ish," Warner says. The handle on the new bottle is thin enough for a healthy amount of space for any hand, and a small notch towards the top allows for a better grip. The consumer can grip a little harder, and when pouring, maybe feel more "in control" of the pour when the bottle is still full and heavy.

The geometry of creating the waves just right was very important, and the designers at One80 are familiar with this type of challenge. They're not engineers who draw or marketers who dabble in structural design. The One80 designers are conversant in structural design and understand the marriage between consumer needs and manufacturing possibilities. The two bottle sizes, 50-oz. and 150-oz., were easy to integrate into current manufacturing capabilities.

Heron Leyser, associate brand manager for Woolite at Reckitt Benckiser, believes the new package communicates the new machine wash category well without losing any of Woolite's time-tested strengths. "It's definitely more modern," Leyser says, "and the very first results are promising."