The ‘hot’ ticket to going green: Don’t use hot water!
November 18, 2009 by Tom GuayPosted in: In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, News
Here’s proof that you don’t have to reinvent the wheel to get on the green bandwagon with a “new” product.
Check out how Procter & Gamble’s reshaping its image with a new version of an old standby: Tide laundry detergent.
Take home lesson: Tweak production of an existing product, then put your energy into rebranding and marketing the green version.
Introducing Coldwater Tide! Ta Da! Hmmm … So you’re not bowled over by this revelation? Easy to see why as cold-water detergents have been around for a long time. But that’s not stopping P&G from embracing innovation and catering to energy- and green-conscious shoppers.
The important thing to learn from P&E’s example is that the company is reinventing how it sees itself and how it responds to the growing demand for all things green.
Benefit to the consumer is two-fold because the buyer not only feels good about buying something green — that works just as well as standard products — but more importantly, the buyer is saving money by washing in cold water. That’s a win/win for the customer, and P&G keeps a green-leaning customer by offering a new twist on an old standard.
There’s also a warning here to competitors who don’t react to the green movement because P&G is raising the awareness of all customers that generating hot water at home is a huge contributor to electric bills and greenhouse gas emissions!
Note: P&G’s not shy about letting its customers post negative reactions to the new product. On the Coldwater site, most customers post rave reviews, but one was disappointed and gave the green product a low 1 score. P&G let the negative review stand. That customer can continue purchasing P&G’s standard hot-water version of the detergent.
Tags: Coldwater Tide, energy-conscious, green consumers, Proter & Gamble, rebranding
GreenandMore.com
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November 20th, 2009 at 7:07 am
I have been using cold water to wash my clothes for years. Unless you are trying to get a very bad stain out of something white you don’t need hot water. Thank you P&G for making people more aware.
November 20th, 2009 at 12:20 pm
This is nothing new! They are just jumping on the bandwagon to promote an old product. While trying to tell you that it is new. Most “green” products are not new they have been around a long time. There are a lot of people that have been “green” before it was cool. Only then it was either just trying to get by, or just trying to conserve limited resources. Try to come up with something new.
November 20th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Karen, You shouldn’t use hot water to get a stain out. The high temp of the water sets the stain in the material. Use cold water for your stained garments.
November 25th, 2009 at 4:27 pm
regarding getting stains out – it actually depends upon the stain, the type of fabric and how long it has been there. some stains will not come out with cold water and you need hot – sometimes hot water does set the stain. my experience is that products like Zout or other stain removers really help with stains regardless of the water temp.
December 3rd, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Inovation is always a wonderful tool and great if afordable, but please stop with the craziness to be green. The environment is not burning up as the President and so called scientist claim. they can’t even produce the documents to support there claim becuase they said it got lost when we moved to a new building. Yup – that’s what I call – applying IT management skills. A subject as critical as this and no-one backed up the data. Hmmm OK
December 4th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Agustin,
Tobacco producers claimed for decades that there was no data to back up the claim that smoking cigarettes was bad for one’s health, and they had so-called experts support their position. I think it’s now generally agreed that they were wrong.
The debate about whether or not pollution and other consequences of human activity are contributing to global warming has been going on for years and will probably continue long into the future. There is data out there to support both sides of the debate. In the end, at some point probably far down the road, it will become obvious which side was actually right, but for now it would appear that the real “craziness” would be to jump to the conclusion that we don’t need to worry about being green precisely because it is “a subject as critical as this”. The cost of taking the anti-green approach and then finding out at that point down the road they were wrong could be catastrophic.
And congrats to Tide for finding a way to encourage people to save money and possibly help the environment at the same time. How can that be a bad thing?
December 29th, 2009 at 8:48 am
[...] green version. That’s what Proctor & Gamble did with its popular Tide laundry detergent. They’ve turned it into Coldwater Tide to cater to the green-minded, energy conscious [...]