Arm & Hammer Cleans Up Its Laundry-Sheets Packaging

Church & Dwight’s new Arm & Hammer Power Sheets Laundry Detergent is shaking up the laundry detergent category, as well as detergent packaging. The sheets packs offer an array of consumer and environmental benefits compared with packaging for liquid detergents.

Several smaller detergent brands offer laundry sheets, but few leading brand owners have entered the category. Arm & Hammer Power Sheets launched recently on Amazon and Walmart.com.

Packaging for Power Sheets is a paperboard box, which offers numerous benefits vs. a plastic jug of liquid laundry detergent. Sustainability benefits include the elimination of plastic bottle waste. Additionally, the paperboard box is recyclable.

Convenience is the main consumer benefit. Power Sheets eliminate the drips, spills, and general messiness of liquid detergent. And the compact, lightweight Power Sheets packaging is easy to carry, use, and store, vs. a heavy, bulky plastic jug.

The laundry-sheets format is also well suited to ecommerce, as there is no risk of leaks. The detergent sheets contain no liquid, and they dissolve completely in water, even during cold-wash cycles.

Each box of Arm & Hammer Power Sheets contains 50 pre-measured, concentrated laundry-detergent sheets, which clean 50 medium loads or up to 100 small loads. The sheet format is compatible with both home use and travel.

Laurie Kirschner, senior director marketing, Arm & Hammer Laundry, answers our questions about this innovative product and its packaging in this exclusive Packaging Digest Q&A.

When did Arm & Hammer Power Sheets Laundry Detergent launch?

Kirschner: Arm & Hammer Power Sheets launched July 2023 on Amazon, making Arm & Hammer the first major laundry detergent brand in the sheets-detergent category on Amazon in the United States.

Will you be launching into brick-and-mortar establishments?

Kirschner: We are currently hyper-focused on winning with this new innovation in the largest sheets-detergent market, [the] online market. We will consider expanding distribution to brick-and-mortar stores in the future.

How much lighter weight is the Arm & Hammer Power Sheets packaging vs. a plastic bottle of concentrated liquid laundry detergent?

Kirschner: Arm & Hammer Power Sheets 50 Loads in the convenient lightweight box is 85% lighter than Arm & Hammer Concentrated Liquid Detergent 50 Loads in a Bottle.

How do you differentiate the Power Sheets packaging from dryer-sheets packaging?

Kirschner: The packaging structure for [Power Sheets] was specifically designed to support the two primary benefits of this new detergent sheet form: consumer convenience and no plastic bottle waste.

Arm & Hammer Power Sheets deliver convenience because you get fresh-smelling, clean clothes without the hassles of measuring heavy, messy liquids. The packaging structure itself goes a step further by eliminating the bulky plastic bottle and replacing it with a recyclable, flip-open box. The box is designed for easy storage, stacking, and one-hand dispensing, and the lightweight, compact structure qualifies as Amazon.com Climate Pledge Friendly.

The package was also designed to be flexible in the way that it can be merchandised on-shelf. It can be orientated horizontally or vertically, and it also provides greater options for display than traditional liquid laundry detergent bottles, such as side-kicks, gravity feeds, or hanging bandoleers.

If and when this product is available on-shelf in brick-and-mortar retailers, our research indicates it will stand out well amongst the sea of plastic laundry detergent jugs at shelf. Other laundry products, like dryer sheets, that are also packaged in boxes are generally shelved separately from detergent.

Has there been any confusion among consumers as to what this product is? If so, how do you address that?

Kirschner: Generally, we have not noticed a significant amount of consumer confusion. That being said, with any new product innovation, there is a certain amount of consumer education that is required as adoption of the new product would be a change in consumer behavior.

We have a high-awareness consumer advertising campaign for Arm & Hammer Power Sheets detergent and have a clear callout on the front of our package that identifies the product as laundry detergent.

In addition, the package and advertising have a prominent image of the sheet dissolving in water that also helps consumers understand immediately this is not a dryer sheet.

Who designed the Power Sheets packaging graphics?

Kirschner: Our Innovation Team, along with our design-agency partner CBX, developed the packaging graphics based on the iconic Arm & Hammer design, with additional elements influenced by consumer research.

Are there any inserts inside the box or other special features to the package structure?

Kirschner: There are no inserts inside the box. However, the package was designed to be able to be merchandised vertically or horizontally. This will give retailers flexibility in how they would like to display the product once it hits brick-and-mortar shelves.

Does the Power Sheets packaging need to stay watertight to protect the product until use?

Kirschner: Our package is not watertight, but our formula is able to pass stability testing at various temperatures and humidity conditions.

Kate Bertrand Connolly has been covering innovations, trends, and technologies in packaging, branding, and business since 1981.