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2/13/2025

The Art and Science of Improving Everyday Household Products

Five various colorful bottles of laundry detergent and a box of fabric softener stand next to each other against a white background. To the right, black text says “Downy protects the clothes you love.”

This blog post is guest authored by Sundar Raman, Chief Executive Officer, P&G Fabric and Home Care.

This post is also part of our series on P&G’s Integrated Growth Strategy. Click the links below to read the other stories in this series:

Our mission is simple: to improve the lives of the people we serve through superior products. We achieve this by understanding the pesky challenges you face every day from keeping your clothes smelling fresh, tackling tough kitchen messes or dealing with stubborn food residue on your favorite dishes. We call these challenges "jobs to be done."

Our goal is to deeply understand the “jobs to be done” and insights behind them. When we do, we can unleash our creativity and expertise to design innovative products that outperform anything else on the market.

We gather insights through various methods, including our “Connected Homes” program. Powered by smart sensors in the homes of consenting shoppers, we gain valuable insights about people’s habits and practices in the context of their real lives. We feed these insights into proprietary models that help us shape future products and services.

We also use these insights when we collaborate with partners. Smart technology is revolutionizing the appliance industry. With the introduction of AI and features like sensors, washing machines can accurately assess load size, fabric type and soil levels. By teaming up with experts in the washing machine industry, we can create solutions that enhance your laundry experience and simplify your life.

This consumer-driven approach to innovation has been the backbone of our success for many years. Here are two examples of how this is coming to life within Fabric and Home Care at P&G:

Cascade Platinum Plus

A blue, green and white plastic box. The front label displays a dishwashing detergent pod with the name Cascade Platinum Plus in red and white text. The box is displayed against a green background.

Contrary to popular belief, the dishwasher is designed to be more efficient than washing dishes in the sink. According to Energy Star, certified dishwashers use less than four gallons per cycle. The sink uses four gallons of water every two minutes. But just how many dishes do you need to make the dishwasher a more water efficient choice? Cascade found that the average person spends 15 seconds handwashing a dish. In that time, the sink uses half a gallon of water. That’s why running your dishwasher with as few as eight dishes is all it takes to save water and energy.

Cascade Platinum Plus ActionPacs has hard-working scrubbing and rinsing built right in, so you can skip the pre-rinse, skip the soak and skip the scrub.

Downy Beads

Keeping clothes smelling fresh throughout the day is a key job to be done. We discovered consumers often run out of scent beads before their detergent, leading to less-than-fresh laundry. Enter Downy Unstoppables — a game-changer for your laundry routine.

Five various colorful bottles of laundry detergent and a box of fabric softener stand next to each other against a white background. To the right, black text says “Downy protects the clothes you love.”

These innovative scent beads are designed to enhance the fragrance of your clothes, delivering long-lasting freshness that can last up to 12 weeks. Incorporating Downy Unstoppables into your wash is simple: just shake the desired amount into the cap, then toss the beads into the washer at the start of each load, before adding your clothes.

With Downy Unstoppables, you can enjoy the confidence of fresh-smelling garments all day long, making laundry day a breeze and ensuring you always feel your best.

These innovations put the consumer at the heart of all we do. We are committed to delivering you product solutions to get the job done every time, every day. We want you to experience the value you gain from buying and using our products. Our hope is that you come back and choose us again and again.

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