I’m not alluding to any mid-afternoon,post-lunch slump in activity here butinstead to the trial launch by SCJohnson of a concentrated form of itswell-known North American Windexbrand of glass cleaner (p 3). WindexMini is a concentrated refill thatcomes in the form of a slim pouch,which uses 90% less plasticpackaging than the standard 26 fl ozspray-type bottle for its normal-strengthcounterpart, the company tells us.The idea is that the consumer takes aclean, empty Windex spray bottle,pours the contents (3.6 fl oz) of therefill pouch into it and tops upcarefully with 22.4 fl oz of tap water togive a standard-strength solution. Sothree easy steps – snip, pour, fill – givethe same final cleaning product butwith lower cost to the environment as itavoids the weight/cost of transportingthe water (and carrying it home fromthe store) and reduces the amount ofplastic going to landfill. SC Johnsonestimates that if only 20% of theapproximately 21 M bottles of Windexglass cleaner sold each year wererefilled in this way it would save350,000 lb (c 160 tonnes) of plasticand avoid transporting 735,000 gallonsof water. It also reckons that eachspray bottle should be robust enoughto be refilled about seven times.

This seems such a logical idea fortoday’s increasingly green-consciousconsumer that I was surprised thecompany referred to the launch as aninitial test to ‘challenge consumers’resistance to such products’. In thepast 4 or 5 years since the launch ofultraconcentrated liquid laundrydetergents [Focus on Surfactants, Jun2007], these products have become

so familiar that I would have supposedthat the same basic notion wouldeasily translate across to othercleaning products. I’d certainly giveWindex Mini or a similar product a go ifit were available in the UK. But it seemsthat, while the average house-wife/husband is perfectly happy to measureout the required dose of laundry liquidor fabric conditioner and then let themachine dilute and disperse it, they findtaking the time to dilute a premeasureddose too inconvenient! Many previousattempts to launch concentrated formsof cleaning products have failed toappeal to customers. Can thisendeavour succeed where others havefailed?

To help determine what will makeconcentrated refills an acceptablechoice via this trial launch, SC Johnsonis selling Windex Mini directly onlineand then inviting purchasers to use thesame website to post comments andcritiques about their experience withthe product. To date this has generateda good amount of dialogue, with thecompany taking the time to respondindividually to both positive andnegative feedback. And it seems theapproach is proving successful, atleast in getting people to try theproduct; the website reports that in thefirst 30 days after its launch, theconcentrated refill sold faster than anyother Windex product sold online. Ireally hope SC Johnson can work outhow to ‘crack the code’ and gain thenecessary customer acceptance forthese concentrates. I suspect successor failure will ultimately come down tothe marketing strategy!

Caroline Edser

A MONTHLY REPORT FROMCAROLINE EDSER

OCTOBER 2011

In this issue

RAW MATERIALS 2OleochemicalsEthoxylates

SURFACTANTS 2-3Wheatoleo expands Radia

Easysurf range

ASSOCIATED PRODUCTS 3

Dow’s opacifier facilitates creamypersonal care products

APPLICATIONS 3-4Personal care productsCleaning productsOther: New fluff pulp debonder

from Evonik

MARKET REVIEWS 4

COMPANY RESULTS 4-7Recent financial figures from

Rhodia, Reckitt Benckiser,Henkel and others

COMPANY NEWS 7BASF, Purac mull sustainable

succinic acid jv

EVENTS 8

S U R F A C T A N T SFOCUS ON

S U R F A C T A N T S S U R F A C T A N T S S U R F A C T A N T S S U R F A C T A N T S

AN INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER MONITORING TECHNICAL AND COMMERCIALDEVELOPMENTS FOR ALL SURFACE ACTIVE AGENTS ISSN 1351–4210

IT CAN BE HARD TO CONCENTRATE!