Over the next 12 to 18 months, Mintel predicts that household care will shift from selling cleaning products to managing household outcomes.
As connected appliances, automated services and home-management platforms become more capable, consumers will increasingly delegate household decisions and tasks. For household brands, this creates a significant challenge: the companies shaping purchasing decisions may no longer be the ones manufacturing the cleaning product.
Consumers Delegate the Outcome
Consumers do not ultimately want laundry detergent, surface cleaner or dishwashing liquid. They want homes that are clean, healthy, comfortable and easy to manage.
Maintaining a home increasingly involves products, appliances and technology working together. As consumers look for ways to reduce the time, effort and decision-making involved, they are becoming more willing to hand routine household tasks to smart appliances, automated platforms and service providers.
The conditions for this shift are already emerging: Sixty-seven percent of US adults agree that they see a future where their home anticipates their needs.
Rather than waiting for consumers to identify a need and choose a product, connected household systems will increasingly anticipate problems, coordinate solutions and complete tasks on their behalf. Tide Cleaners, for example, uses app-connected lockers to coordinate laundry drop-off, cleaning, collection and return across locations including apartment buildings, offices and campuses.
Control Shifts Beyond the Household Brand
Traditional household brands risk losing direct consumer influence as connected appliances, retailers and service platforms increasingly determine which products are used, how they are dosed and when they are replenished.
The future competitor may be the appliance manufacturer, retailer or service platform that controls the household relationship. As a result, data about household routines will become increasingly valuable. Businesses that can anticipate needs and coordinate the response will be best positioned to strengthen both the consumer relationship and the commercial opportunity.
Jamie Rosenberg, Mintel Principal Strategist, Global Research and Insights, said:
“Consumers don’t ultimately want more cleaning products. They want homes that are clean, healthy, comfortable and easier to manage. Increasingly, they will look to connected appliances, services and platforms to reduce the effort and decision-making involved.
“This will change the basis of competition in household care. As household systems become more connected, success in household care will increasingly depend on who owns the household relationship, not who supplies the cleaning product.
“The most important strategic challenge for household brands is remaining part of the household decision-making process as home-management systems become more connected and automated.”
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