Despite holding roughly 60% of the market, the brand has never ceased innovating. Now, Procter & Gamble is betting that the future of laundry products lies with "laundry sheets".
Procter & Gamble has officially launched a new form of detergent product, Tide Evo laundry sheets, which are now fully stocked and available at major retailers.
As the dominant leader in the US liquid laundry detergent market, Procter & Gamble understands that consumers have strong preferences regarding laundry product usage.
Every new product launch by the company is a carefully calculated commercial gamble, and the risk is especially high for a new iteration of its flagship Tide brand. When company executives and research scientists presented their latest development, Tide Evo laundry sheets, to the sales and marketing team of the Fabric Care division, they were met with waves of skepticism.
After spending years convincing consumers to adopt Tide Pods in the past, why would the company take the risk of launching another new product now? What are the differentiating advantages of this product?
Victor Aguilar, the executive responsible for the company's $2 billion annual R&D budget, recalled that the journey from technical realization to commercial mass production involved years of internal debate and repeated negotiations within the team.
The Tide brand currently offers detergent in powder, liquid, and pod forms; the new laundry sheet format is now being added to this lineup.
Procter & Gamble is the world's largest consumer goods company, with brands like Downy fabric softener, Pampers diapers, and Charmin toilet paper all leading their respective segments. The company has a principle that all new employees must remember: if any company is going to disrupt our industry, it must be Procter & Gamble itself.
In fiscal 2025, the Fabric and Home Care segment generated 36% of the company's revenue, with total annual revenue reaching $84 billion. On supermarket shelves, Tide's iconic orange packaging firmly occupies the core position in the laundry aisle. Analysis of Nielsen data by Citigroup shows that Procter & Gamble holds approximately 60% of the US detergent market share, with the Tide brand alone capturing nearly 40%.
For most Americans, the signature scent of clean laundry is the smell of Tide. It is for this reason that Procter & Gamble spent over a decade perfecting this new Tide laundry sheet, ensuring optimal product performance before bringing it to market.
After seeing the new product, executives from competing companies expressed confusion: it is a flexible, white, square, 3-inch fiber-based laundry product with a texture similar to a fabric cushion.
Competitors were puzzled not only by the product's form but also by its pricing: a box of Tide Evo is priced at almost double the cost of Tide Pods and is significantly higher than store-brand liquid detergents. However, all companies are closely watching consumer market feedback.
The Origin of Development: Planning Began Soon After Laundry Pods Debuted
The concept for Tide laundry sheets can be traced back to shortly after the launch of Tide Pods in 2012. At that time, Procter & Gamble senior R&D executive Lee Ellen Drexler stood with two top scientists, Paul Trokhan, the core inventor of Bounty paper towels, and Mark Sivik, who developed the grease-cutting technology for Dawn dish soap, in front of a whiteboard. They set the R&D goal: to create a new form of Tide detergent with comprehensively upgraded stain removal and odor elimination performance.
Trokhan had developed the micro-structured, layered softness technology for Bounty, while Sivik had developed the powerful grease-cleaning polymer technology for Dawn. The team hoped to leverage the advantages of these two technologies to break through the limitations of existing laundry products.
The Tide Evo laundry sheet is made of a 3-inch flexible square of fiber material with a texture like a fabric cushion.
A major motivation for the development was to overcome the technical limitations of laundry pods. Conventional pods have only three separate chambers encapsulating different chemical ingredients, which mix and react upon dissolving in water to provide cleaning power. Adding more cleaning functions is not possible by infinitely increasing the number of chambers, as the pod would become too large and impractical.
Drexler recalled, "We started anticipating how consumers' lifestyles would change in the future."
At that time, athleisure wear and various synthetic fabric garments were becoming increasingly popular. These fabrics have hydrophobic properties, similar to oils, making odor removal more difficult compared to natural fabrics like cotton and linen.
Furthermore, the new Tide product had to deliver superior cleaning performance in cold water washing scenarios. Procter & Gamble anticipated that with rising energy prices, more households would choose cold water laundry, a trend later confirmed by market developments.
Simultaneously, home washing machine capacities were increasing, meaning more and dirtier laundry per load. Many large-capacity front-loading machines have removed internal agitators, relying solely on the tumbling of clothes for cleaning, which places higher demands on a detergent's cleaning power.
Drexler also noted the pain point of transporting and carrying bulky traditional Tide products and hoped to develop a lighter-weight product. The new product's small size, with paper-based packaging, could also appeal to eco-conscious consumers, attracting those potential customers who were hesitant due to the large size of jugged liquid detergents or plastic-packaged pods.
A Century-Long Tradition: Adhering to a Strategy of Self-Disruption
The company's philosophy of self-innovation dates back to William Cooper Procter, grandson of a co-founder, who led the company from 1907 to 1930. He stated, "If the soap industry is destined to be disrupted by new products, then it must be Procter & Gamble that carries out this change. Competitors are striving to break through; we must seize the initiative of change first."
Before Tide's official launch in 1946, Procter & Gamble already had two detergent powerhouses: Duz and Oxydol. During the accelerated development phase of Tide, the then-CEO was warned that Tide's launch would likely cannibalize sales of the other two brands, but management still decided to push forward with the new product.
Upon its release, Tide laundry powder significantly reduced the time spent on hand-washing and soaking clothes and, unlike competitors of the era, did not leave soap scum on fabrics. Within a decade of its launch, the company's net profit tripled.
Nearly 40 years later, liquid Tide achieved an upgrade with stronger dissolving power and grease-cleaning technology. After another approximately 30 years of technological攻坚, single-dose laundry pods were officially launched, once again changing Americans' laundry consumption habits.
Aguilar, the head of R&D innovation with nearly 40 years of experience at Procter & Gamble, stated that the core mission of the R&D team is to use technology to reshape how consumers use products.
"If we were in the chocolate business, we wouldn't just launch a low-sugar version; we would develop innovative products like fudge that consumers had never imagined."
Consumer goods follow an S-curve lifecycle: introduction, growth, maturity, and decline. Most products hit a sales ceiling about 14 years after launch. Even with stellar performance from existing hits, continuous innovation remains essential.
Several of the company's disruptive innovations, including Crest Whitestrips and Zevo pest control products, were born at the Mason, Ohio R&D campus, located not far from the Cincinnati headquarters. The campus houses safety testing labs, consumer experience testing rooms equipped with multiple home washing machines, and a row of sealed shower rooms. Researchers observe test subjects wearing swimsuits through one-way mirrors, recording their habits with care products, their feelings about lather, and how often they pump bottled products, aiming to uncover latent user needs.
Procter & Gamble research found that an average person goes through over 50 distinct behavioral steps to complete a single laundry load. This deep user research helps brands uncover potential needs that consumers find difficult to articulate directly.
Maggie Nosan, President of Procter & Gamble North America Fabric Care, said, "Every consumer in the laundry category has their own usage preferences, caring about the appearance, smell, and feel of their clothes on their skin. Even at social dinners, I can easily start a conversation about my work."
Under the leadership of Drexler, Trokhan, and Sivik, the R&D team spent years on repeated trials, finally perfecting a formula that met all the initial goals outlined on the whiteboard. The laundry sheet consists of six layers, incorporating fluorescent brighteners, soap base, stain-fighting agents, and odor-eliminating ingredients. Upon contact with water, the layers activate and work synergistically, delivering excellent cleaning in cold water and occupying far less volume than previous Tide products.
From Internal Skepticism to National Rollout: A Mixed Market Performance
After finalizing the R&D plan, the team presented it to the sales and marketing division, only to face significant skepticism. Multiple rounds of debate ensued regarding the product's differentiated positioning.
Staff from various departments gathered in the product prototyping workshop at the Mason R&D campus, refining the product prototype and packaging design next to a giant testing table. A designer suggested rounding two corners of the sheet for easier handling, and engineers immediately assessed the feasibility for mass production. Someone once proposed packaging it in a Pringles-style cylindrical canister, but the idea was rejected because it would be difficult to retrieve the last sheet.
Product fragrance was also of paramount importance. Loyal Tide users have a very high recognition of the classic scent. The R&D team specially invited top perfumers to create a proprietary fragrance with higher concentration and longer-lasting scent.
Finally, the entire department reached a consensus, and the product name "Evo" was decided through focus group research. A decade after the initial whiteboard meeting, Tide laundry sheets were first piloted in Colorado in March 2024. They are now available nationwide across all 50 states in major US retailers like Walmart and Target. Procter & Gamble has not disclosed sales figures for the product separately.
Procter & Gamble plans to apply the sheet format technology to other categories. Its Olay Waterless Cleansing Melts and water-activated hair care products have already been launched.
Consumer preferences in the consumer goods market can change rapidly. Subtle differences in packaging, dispensing methods, or usage effects can lead to a new product's failure. Now, the company's massive marketing team needs to convince consumers that Tide Evo's product performance justifies its higher price.
Online pricing at a Target store in Columbus, Ohio: a 42-count box of Tide Evo is priced at $19.99, making the cost per load approximately $0.47. An equivalent 42-count pack of Tide Pods is priced at $12.99. Official recommendations suggest using 1 laundry sheet or 2 pods for a regular load. Many consumers have complained about the high price. Online reviews commonly suggest adding perforations to the sheets to allow for splitting and controlling dosage as needed.
Based on Nielsen data analysis, Citigroup analyst Filippo Farni estimates that Tide Evo has captured only 0.6% of the detergent market share in the US several months after its nationwide launch, indicating it is still in the early market introduction phase.
Kristi LeBlanc, head of brand consultancy SmashBrand, stated, "Laundry sheets are convenient to use but not necessarily simpler than pods or laundry strips. This product has a high degree of technological innovation, but it's hard to see what unmet consumer need it solves, especially at a price nearly double that of pods."
Carly DiLucchio, a 25-year-old consumer from New Jersey, is a long-time loyal Tide user whose household has always used liquid Tide. She tried the laundry sheets through a brand promotion. Initially unfamiliar with the new format, she gradually came to appreciate the convenient usage and the rich, long-lasting fragrance. She still regularly stocks liquid detergent but also uses the laundry sheets for washing large household textiles like curtains and cushions.
Market research firm Kantar has been tracking the new product's market performance. Data shows that in pilot regions, the new product drove incremental consumption within the entire fabric care category. Many consumers are willing to pay a premium for innovative products, expanding the overall market size.
Kantar researcher Graham Stamplehurst commented, "A leading brand like Tide can never stand still. Once it becomes complacent, competitors will seize market share."
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