By March 2020, as a result of the outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, hand sanitizer revenues rose by 1.425 percent relative to the previous month (February), according to the Nielsen survey on developments in the FMCG sector. The demand for face masks, another prevention product, rose by 40% and the demand for handwash by 86%. Thanks to COVID-19, fear was rife in people’s minds.
They started searching for items to sanitize objects other than their palms. It was the time that Marico introduced a fruit and vegetable cleaner, and surface disinfectants which eventually became more common, and the newest weapon in a customer’s germ-killing arsenal today is a fabric sanitizer.
Washing with detergent alone is not effective in the elimination or inactivation of enteric viruses. Anxiety and fear are the two most common mental reactions to the pandemic. This emotional response needs to be addressed in marketing messages, says Gauri Chaudhuri, co-founder at Brand Innerworld. The pandemic has, indeed, made the consumers extremely conscious of bacteria and viruses. Dettol and Lifebuoy both have a laundry sanitizer. Savlon and Godrej have launched a version called a fabric spray, which is a mist that can be sprayed on clothing.
In an article published earlier in September, former adman Rajesh Gangwani claims that most consumers agree that they do not influence what’s going on outside. It compares the launch of laundry sanitizer to the release of laundry goods earlier this year.”Now, people are so aware of what they are doing that if they were to apply another part to the washing method and say that it kills germs, they would accept this option. They don’t know where the virus is, how long it resides on the soil, within the tissues, and so on.
Chaudhari also points out that many multiple drug-resistant bacteria also survive in the washing cycles, causing several problems in the homes having elderly, or sick people. Sunlight is another natural disinfectant, but the monsoon season poses certain limitations. There is no denial of the fact that the user will go down post-pandemic, but surely these brands will remain in homes, depending on the overall experience with them. She adds that using these products may become a habit if these brands do not cause any inconvenience, such as fading of color of clothes, itchiness, or any other problem.
Akali, who has collaborated with companies like Ranbaxy, believes that this sort of substance is a kind of redundancy in terms of germ-killing as within a wash germs get killed. Akali continues, however, that the customer has been dealing with a pandemic for about six months now and is specific about the kind of goods he/she wants. The pandemic has taught them that they are vulnerable to good health and sanitation.
