Unilever Confronts The ‘Chairdrobe’ As Consumers Rethink Laundry – Video

While Millennials may be known as one of the lazier generations, a new aerosol spray from Unilever may help them become even more lethargic. For more on the story here is Zachary Devita.

“It depends on how exhausted from work I am and if I plan to wear them again,” said the 35-year-old retail clerk.

Marketers at consumer goods giant Unilever are calling it the “chairdrobe” – the heap of lightly worn clothes that often ends up crumpling one’s go-to garments.

It’s a familiar sight in the bedrooms of some 60 percent of millennials – 22- to 37-year-olds earning more than a quarter of the world’s income – who approach laundry differently from other age groups, Unilever’s market research shows.

That’s a pain point for the company, maker of Omo, the world’s second-biggest detergent after Procter & Gamble’s Tide. Tide, also known as Ariel, has 14.3 percent of the global laundry care market versus Omo’s 5.2 percent, Euromonitor International says.

For decades, Unilever and P&G have pitched new and improved laundry detergents and fabric softeners, primarily to women using washing machines. But millennials are less loyal to traditional brands and have new demands, including that products save time and be environmentally sustainable.