A magic wand for the do-it-yourselfer
Many people are under the impression that
drycleaners use some sort of magic wand to get rid of stubborn
stains. Of course, they don’t know about the spotting
board in the back of plants and the dozens of chemicals that
must be applied with scientific precision.
However, if a stain-lifting magic wand did
exist, surely it would be a high-selling, easy-to-market
product.
Procter & Gamble is banking on that
idea. The home cleaning industry giant has blueprinted the
design for a product that supposedly eradicates most garment
spots — not by magic, though it does use a wand, along
with a special liquid and ultrasonic waves.
The company recently licensed out its Tide
brand — for the first time ever — to Applica
Consumer Products, a Miami Lakes, FL-based company that makes
small household appliances under brand names like Black &
Decker, Windmere and Littermaid.
Applica will begin marketing and
distributing the “Tide Buzz Ultrasonic Stain
Remover” home appliance in May.
The product uses a pen-sized ultrasonic
hand wand powered by Black & Decker. It features two
buttons: one which sprays a special Tide clear liquid onto a
garment stain, and the other which activates ultrasonic
“shock” waves designed to loosen the spots and push
them through the fabric into a “stain-catching”
pad.
According to Chris Mitchell, the director
of communications for Applica, Tide Buzz has had good stain
eliminating fortune with all kinds of garments.
“It’s safe on all types of fabrics, whether
it’s a blend, straight-up cotton, polyester...
whatever.”
“We’ve tested it on chocolate,
mustard, ketchup, grease, motor oil, pen,” he added.
“We’re not fooling anyone. There are some stains
that are more difficult than others, but by using the solution
in combination with the ultrasonic energy, we’ve had
really great success in removing just about any imaginable
stain, including red wine and lipstick.”
At the product’s official web site, www.
tidebuzz.com, it also lists
other stains that it can remove, including tea, coffee, blood,
grass, butter, gravy, clay and curry.
Once stains become set, on the other hand,
the process might prove less successful.
“It will work on some set
stains,” Mitchell noted. “There are variable
factors that go into it. If you spill red wine on a white shirt
and it’s a stain the size of a softball, and then you let
it dry for six months without treating it — now
it’s a set stain. That might be difficult. But, if the
stain’s more like the size of a dime and it just
happened, yet you pre-treat it — that might have a better
success rate.”
The Channel 10 news network in San Diego
recently reported similar results when it tested the product
using two twin boys. They were given the fun task of
deliberately staining their clothes with mustard, ketchup,
grape juice, lipstick and ink.
A control group of clothes — where
the stains were not treated at all — were washed
immediately with the majority of the stains remaining fixed on
the garments.
Conversely, the other set of stained
clothes remained in a laundry basket for days before they were
treated by the Tide Buzz device. It worked on all but two
stains. Both the ink and mustard stain simply were unaffected.
When the news team made a second ink stain on a garment and
treated it immediately with the wand, it “almost
dissolved.”
Though the results were a little mixed,
the family was overall satisfied with the product.
Starting May 1 of this year, consumers can
expect to pay a suggested retail price of $49.99 for the Tide
Buzz wand, some cleaning fluid and five pads. Ten ounces of
replacement fluid and a set of five pads will also be available
for a price tag of $4.99.
It remains to be seen how big of a market
there will be for a $50 stain removal appliance that works on
the majority of recent stains, but Adam Kaplan, vice president
of finance at Applica, isn’t worried. He informed a
reporter for the Cincinnati Business Courier that he expects
Tide Buzz, along with the company’s Home Café
brewing system, to generate total sales ranging between $50 and
$60 million in 2004.
Tide Buzz will be readily available in
mass merchant discount specialty stores all over the
U.S., including Wal-Mart, Kohl’s, Target, Linens ‘n
Things, and Bed, Bath and Beyond.
“From a marketing standpoint, where
is the product going to be located?” asked Mitchell.
“We’re still fine-tuning. The retailers are
fine-tuning, as well. For now, it’s going to be in the
appliance section, not the cleaning section.”
He also pointed out that there are no
current plans for Tide Buzz to be marketed as a substitute for
drycleaning.
“We’re not starching.
We’re not refreshing. We’re not pressing.
We’re only removing stains with this product,” he
said. “From what I know and what I’ve seen, this is
not being positioned as an alternative to drycleaning, but I
think that assumption will be made by some people.”
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