LITTLE MISS Laundry 

ON THIS EPISODE OF GO-TO-MILLIONS: 

The One With 3 North Stars In The Sky

(AKA, catch me sharing 3 Brands, Strategies, Campaigns, Tactics, Creative (and/or so on and so forth) every Sunday.

1. Tide PODS (Product Market Fit, Reputation, Execution, If You’re Not First, You’re Last, Education).

As we know by now, first is indeed not the worst. 

In Marketing, and as we continually Go-to-Market, we MUST KEEP TRACK OF OUR POSITION.

I prefer GOLD > SILVER (in jewlery , but also in trophies!)

We wanna win! Not once, but constantly. 

NOT TO BRAG, but I have been 5’6” since I was 7 years old.

You know what that means? 

BASKETBALL WAS MY BITCH. ‍  

I WAS BASICALLY SHAQ. 

Picture me towering a foot over the competition from 2nd – 6th grade. 

(This is my soccer era, but you see she’s giving ~SHAQ~)

Gold medals ONLY. 

I was obsessed with basketball (had a Lakers mural panted in my bedroom, had only purple and yellow furniture, would ask for signed Kobe merch for Hanukkah, etc etc.)

But, as luck would have it, the other girls grew. Your girl? Nope, still 5’6”. 

Turns out, I wasn’t Shaq. I was just tall. I didn’t have the actual talent to match the lucky hand I had drawn.

Pretty quickly, the days of Travel Baketball were O. V. E. R. 

Height was my ONLY ADVANTAGE. I actually was kinda slow lol. A bit timid. A bit lacking in the hand-eye-coordination department.

When we took height out of the equation, I couldn’t even be a benchwarmer on the teams I used to play for. 

Why do I bring this up? 

It doesn’t matter how good you used to be. 

It doesn’t matter how much you’re currently winning by. If you don’t BOX OUT, you will eventually go from Starter → Benchwarmer → A fan in the stands. 

So Ari, what the fuck does this have to do with laundry? 

With Tide PODS?

Thank you for asking! 

Tide (specifically the PODS) was the only detergent that I had ever used. 

I legit came from 2 Tide-exclusive households (my parents are divorced, hence the two houses lol). 

Anywho, both my mom and my dad ONLY BOUGHT TIDE DETERGENT.

And, I’m not sure if you can tell by now, I’m definitely no Martha Stewart. When it came time for me to buy my own detergent, I didn’t bat an eyelash. 

Tide EXCLUSIVELY (the PODS – because if you grew up using the PODS how would you know how to measure? You wouldn’t (or at least, I wouldn’t lol). 

I probably do 1 load of laundry a week. I’ve been doing my own laundry since I was in the 4th grade.

So from 2004 – 2022, every load of laundry that I had ever done was done using Tide PODS. 

You see, there wasn’t an inch of space in my cart for another detergent. The thought quite literally never crossed my mind. 

Until one fateful day in May, 2022. 

I was honeymoon shopping! 

I was going hard in the paint (like I do) and bought all new swimsuits for my honeymoon in Italy. 

I was milking the occasion – shopping my little heart out. 

I bought 4 swimsuits, and 1 of them was priceyyyyyyy. 

Like stop in my tracks, hesitate, sweat as you hand over your credit card as you checkout pricey. 

But, I did it! I pulled trig on the most expensive swimsuit I had ever bought. 

But, for my new fancy swimsuit, I soon realized that any old soap wasn’t going to cut it. 

My new swimmy deserved the best. What detergent should I use on my new (over-priced) swimmy? Were my Tide PODS the best choice? Were they too harsh?

So, I hit Google. 

“Best travel sized soap for washing swimsuit in sink”

I’m not a great homemaker (I know this), but I do know that you can’t use a POD in the sink. 

So, Tide = out of contention. DONZO. STREAK BROKEN. 18 YEARS OF DETERGENT DOMINANCE WRUNG OUT TO DRY. 

Tide didn’t BOX OUT. They didn’t educate me (their LOYAL but clueless consumer) about how to incorporate Tide products into ALL OF MY DETERGENT USE CASES. 

Enter: The Laundress. 

WHAT TO DO: 1. Thank your lucky stars if you’re the industry leader as you Go-to-Market. 2. Claw your way to the top if you’re not currently first to mind. 3. Once you get to the top, EDUCATE your customer about every.single.product.that.you.have.that.they.might.one.day.need 4. Never rest – there is always someone gunning for your starting position.   

2.The Laundress – Delicate Wash (Branding, Publishing, Competition)

I’ve already told you my life story (Shaq-sized child basketball star from a divorced household becomes averaged-height adult with a shopping habit). 

So, let me keep this brief. In my quest for swimsuit safe soap, all signs pointed to The Laundress. Less than 5 minutes into my quest for travel-sized-hand-washing-detergent-for-fancy-swimsuits, I hit the jackpot.

She arrived (via Net-a-Porter) in a couple of days. She works really well. I love her (the soap, I mean).

I was now running my very own 2-soap household (Tide PODS for the washing machine, The Laundress Delicate for hand-washed delicates).

The Laundress was right where I needed, when I needed, with social proof that convinced me that my new swimmy was safe in The Laundress’ grips. 

I was sold. 

But, I wasn’t done sowing my wild detergent oats… 

WHAT TO DO: 1. Incentivize reviews (the best, most effective social proof there is). 2. Never under-estimate the power of a listicle – people love recommendations! Making decisions alone is scary. 3. Play in the right sandbox (The Laundress’ presence on the Net-a-Porter site convinced me to purchase. Sure, it’s better for traffic to hit on your brand’s owned DTC website (better margins, better data). But, it’s best to get the customer to actually CONVERT – and to meet them where they are (for me = that means purchasing on a site I knew well and trusted).  

3. Dropps – Pod, Clean & Crisp (Packaging, Eco-Conscious, Amazon Cannibalism, Cross-Category Expansion). 

So, now it’s the present day. July 2022. 

I’m back from my honeymoon. I’ve gone back to using my Tide PODS. 

Then, something peculiar happens. 

I run out. I used my very last POD.

I go on Amazon, ready to order more. But, this time, things are different.

I’m different. 

I’m not the naive 4th grader I once was. 

I have options, baby!!!

The rest, as they say, is history. I browsed. I read articles. I read reviews. I visited my share of detergent websites. I was SHOPPING.

Which, as you know, is my THING. 

And, after much consideration and approximately an hour of exploration, I found it.

Dropps. It was love at first 100 reviews read. 

Eco-friendly. Quick to ship. PODS!!!!!!

Well, let me tell you – I’m hooked. I can confidently say that I will never buy Tide PODS again. Those days are O. V. E. R. 

The Laundress + Dropps FOREVER (or at least, for now). 

WHAT TO DO: 1. Buy Dropps. 2. If 2 products are comparable, pick the eco-friendly version (AKA Dropps > Tide PODS)

GO-TO-MEME:

GO-TO-MEMEx2: