Commentary
The future of home care is
probiotics (why would I lye?)
If you think about the “products” your ancestors may have used to clean around the
house, you might well cringe at the narrow choices: Hot water, pure bleach, lye soap,
apple cider vinegar. In the 19th century, poisonous mercury was used to rid beds of
lice and bedbugs. Lye-based laundry detergent was made from “precious urine collected
from chamber pots”—apparently it had (or has) fairly good stain removal and pre-soaking
properties. Yikes.
Things changed dramatically in the 20th century and these days, there is a seemingly
endless choice of products for every room of the house and for every consumer preference.
As consumers see higher ingredient disclosure in the food and personal care categories,
they now expect the same from household brands. According to market research
firm Mintel, transparency will move beyond regulations to become an opportunity to
brands are responding with proof of provenance, ethics positioning and the buying up
of smaller, “Green,” niche cleaning brands.
Fragrance also plays a big part in consumer preference. Still like old-fashioned,
pine-scented cleaners? You can have them—but you can also have bathroom cleaners
that smell like lavender, coconut, thyme, basil, juniper, cherry-almond and grapefruit.
And we won’t even get into air fresheners, where the scent offerings make for endless
fragrance combinations that make room freshener shopping a seasonal event as well as a
lifestyle choice.
Still getting used to probiotics in your yogurt? Well, now they’re in your cleaning
products, as well. According to Mintel, probiotic home care will evolve based on the
recognition that bacteria should not always be destroyed. Its research indicates that consumers
believe that exposure to some germs is healthy, are concerned that disinfectants
destroy good bacteria and would pay more for products that clean with good bacteria.
A new generation of products featuring probiotic technology, including odor neutralizers
and bed purifying sprays, is emerging. Sprays containing millions of powerful
live and active microbes, antioxidants and enzymes that neutralize odors and disinfect
can be spritzed directly onto surfaces. Mintel suggests an opportunity to re-position
probiotics as next-generation disinfecting products that use a more preventive means of
controlling germs.
Let’s also not forget prebiotics, which can keep cultures alive for more beneficial
household plumbing maintenance and have potential to maintain a home’s microflora.
The mind starts to reel with all the information, science and choices available. Read
more about it in our Household Care feature on p.14, including Hero Clean Odor
Eliminator in a spray—“a probiotic refresher for longer term odor control.”
6 Spray December 2018
SPRAYTechnology & Marketing
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Volume 28, No. 12, December, 2018
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grow consumer engagement
and loyalty, citing
SC Johnson’s What’s Inside
program. Consumers think
cleaning brands should
make it clearer how safe
their ingredients are and
feel it’s worth paying more
for “natural” products,
said Mintel. In addition
to increased science-based
ingredient transparency,
Editorial Director
Photo courtesy of Vertie Lee