How a Fabric Care Brand Reinvented Itself

The Challenge

This global fabric care brand was widely perceived as traditional, knowledgeable, reasonable, practical, honest, and nurturing. It had built its equity on trust and functional reliability, with no negative associations, yet it lacked emotional magnetism. It was respected, but not deeply loved.

Over time, the brand’s long-standing promise of softness began to feel limiting. As it expanded into new regions and formats, its message fragmented. Benefit pillars varied, from softness to freshness to fragrance, depending on the market, which often led to confusion rather than clarity. One of the brand’s greatest assets, fragrance, was still treated as a secondary feature, not a central emotional driver.

This disconnect was embedded in the product itself. The core packaging design, with baby imagery, pastel tones, and floral iconography, signaled safety and gentleness. It spoke to tradition, not aspiration. It was designed for caregivers, not individuals. While it made sense within a legacy of “family-safe softness,” it fell short of connecting with modern consumers seeking self-expression, indulgence, and sensory elevation.

The brand needed to evolve. It began to imagine a new emotional territory, where fabric care was no longer about chores, but about confidence, mood, and well-being. No longer a product for laundry, but a ritual for the self.

To bring this ambition to life, the team partnered with Hotspex and adopted the Motivational Framework to define a Red Thread: a cohesive emotional narrative that could connect every touchpoint of the brand experience.

The Strategy

The transformation began with a bold redefinition of purpose. The brand moved beyond softness into a richer emotional space, where fabric could hold memory, meaning, and mood. This shift was grounded in emotional architecture, using the Motivational Framework and Red Thread to align strategy across regions and roles.

Creative campaigns embraced a more cinematic and sensorial tone, intimate, human, and emotionally resonant. The narrative pivoted: from product use to personal empowerment, from utility to identity. A new tagline captured this essence, reframing the wash as a moment to feel something, not just achieve something.

The packaging redesign brought the shift full circle. The old codes of safety and motherhood gave way to bold, modern femininity, elegant florals, and variants named after moods rather than chores. The new pack evoked the world of luxury skincare or fine fragrance, not household cleaning. It was sensorial, refined, and globally scalable.

The impact was measurable. Perceptions shifted meaningfully: +13 points in “Interesting,” +9 in “Cool,” +8 in both “Creative” and “Different,” and +7 in “Fashionable.” The brand didn’t lose its trust equity; it simply expanded into a more expressive, magnetic space.

The Results

The shift drove real impact. The brand became the fastest-growing in the manufacturer’s portfolio. It gained over 4 million new households in the U.S. and saw sustained revenue growth between 4% and 13% across European markets, proof that the repositioning resonated across cultures and contexts.

By replacing rigidity with emotional coherence, the brand unlocked global flexibility. Each market could activate different benefit expressions depending on maturity, without ever breaking the emotional thread. That’s what turned a household product into something personal.

This wasn’t just about making laundry better. It was about making life feel better.

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