How Dropps got its eco-friendly cleaning products into Target
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Cleaning company Dropps hit shelves in Target this week, hoping to capture market share in the competitive category by offering a “greener” alternative. And one of the first ways it’s hoping to catch shoppers’ eyes is with its paperboard, trapezoid-shaped container next to the plastic tubs of laundry and dish pods.
“It is paperboard within a sea of plastic,” said CEO Alastair Dorward, “and the unique form and the shape really presents an excellent billboard on shelf.”
Dorward joined the Modern Retail Podcast to talk about the company’s expansion plans as Dropps made its Target debut online and in stores. The over-30-year-old company makes pods for dish and laundry that are USDA-Certified Biobased, Leaping Bunny Certified and wrapped in a biodegradable film.
The launch also includes a new 4-in-1 Plus Oxi Biobased Power Laundry Detergent Pod that’s exclusive to Target and Dropps.com, as the company looks to compete with legacy brands that offer “tiered” pods for different uses.
Dorward said Dropps is looking to find a mass audience after nearly two decades of direct-to-consumer operations. The former CEO of Method, Dorward took the helm at Dropps about two years ago and worked to take the product from its DTC origins to mass retail.
The so-called “green cleaning” category is expected to grow as customers look for more non-toxic ingredients in product purchases. Nielsen IQ found that 45% of consumers want to buy products that have antibacterial properties, non-toxic ingredients and disinfectant abilities, for example.
Here are some highlights from the conversation, edited for length and clarity.
Taking a DTC brand into mass retail
The mission was to really transform what [founder Jonathan Proper] had created into something bigger and better, but based on his initial principles and philosophy. And I think job No. 1 was to really work on the product’s efficacy and make it on a par with a Tide or a Cascade in the respective laundry and dish categories. Because if we’re to compete on the retail shelves with these major players, we have to work as well.
The next task was to really start taking our learnings and success from the online channels, whether it’s our own subscriber base or our success at Amazon, and establishing proof points in regional grocery with partners like Wegmans and Meijer.
Designing packaging that stands out
When Jonathan [Proper] invented the pod, it was with this idea that finally you could leave plastic jugs [of liquid detergent] behind and move to a different form. However, the industry kind of said, ‘Well, we’re going to go from plastic jugs into plastic tubs and plastic bags.’ So some of the environmental and sustainability benefits of the original innovation were kind of lost in translation. But we stayed true to that and through our e-comm days. We were in small boxes that were designed to be most efficient in e-comm. And as we were transitioning from e-comm-only to omnichannel, we wanted to stay true to that heritage.
And we took encouragement as we looked into what the laundry category is like in Europe. I’m from Scotland, and I was walking in the beautiful city of Dundee and saw the entire laundry category in pods is in boxes. So, it’s very clear that this is something that can be done.
Whether or not pods are good for the environment
Not all PVOH [Polyvinyl Alcohoyl, a plastic polymer] is created equally, right? You have some PVOH that’s used in fishing tackle that you see on the beaches and snarling around seabirds, and clearly there is some PVOH that has a negative impact on marine life. The PVOH that is selected for pods and that we pick is fully biodegradable, both short-term and long-term, and we have a rigorous certification process.
The second step in PVOH is to recognize that the higher the biobased [percentage], the better, right? You want your PVOH not coming from petroleum but from a renewable feedstock. And we’ve seen some great innovation there. … There’s been some confusing or misleading science that has been introduced into the consumer world – I think once it’s understood that a PVOH film actually comes from an organic or plant-based feedstock, that perception can start going away.
Ultimately, we’re probably two or three years away from a world where the best films are actually something like seaweed-based or whey-based. So, there’s a ton of innovation there.