One of the world's largest brands is putting its entrepreneurial chops to the test, taking its experimental app out for a spin in the Chicagoland area.
For about eight months, laundry detergent and fabric care authority Tide has had a full-time, four-person delegation working out of 1871 on Tide Spin, an on-demand laundry app designed specifically with the tech-loving Millennial in mind.
“[Millennials] were starting to uncover savvy ways to outsource aspects of their life — things they’re not invested in,” said David VanHimbergen, Tide Spin’s CEO and founder and a brand manager at Global Tide. “We saw this opportunity for Tide to play in the space, where we provide a service presented through a mobile app to make it very simple for people to outsource their laundry to the experts at Tide with the click of a button.”
The experience looks familiar to anyone who’s used an on-demand app or two. After downloading the app and creating a profile with address and credit card info, users set locations for delivery where Tide Spin vans can pick up their laundry. From there, the company takes it to a facility for washing. In about two days, cleaned garments will be returned to the same location they were dropped off at.
Pickup days vary by location, with delivery included and no order minimum. Wash and fold pricing is $1.59 per pound, while dry cleaning is priced out by item.
Tide’s turn toward intrapreneurship is part of a larger trend of global, established companies amping up their digital tech efforts in order to stay at the forefront of innovation and ahead of scrappier, up-and-coming competitors. Some of the largest companies around (think Google, Apple, and Virgin) regularly turn inward to produce the products we all know and love.
From a business perspective, it matters. After all, disruption — something startups so often tout — often comes at the expense of slow-to-move, dyed-in-the-wool companies like Tide.
To be sure, this isn’t the first time Tide has dipped its toes in ancillary businesses, having launched a franchised chain of physical dry cleaning businesses in 2010. But unlike those brick-and-mortar efforts, Tide Spin is a marked investment in the type of digital technology big brands need to stay defensive against smaller, more nimble players in their respective fields.
Still, VanHimbergen said the Tide Spin team operates fairly independently. Outside of a few sponsor updates here and there, the team is largely given the freedom to go off, operate and learn, he said.
That’s important, because VanHimbergen said the venture is at its core a “learning experiment.” Unlike many of the app's make-it-or-break-it cousins, Tide’s foray into startupland is designed to explore whether or not the Tide Spin model holds the potential to be both profitable and scalable in the first place.
So far, VanHimbergen said that experiment is working.
“We’ve been growing week over week. As long as we see growth there, with a lot of early trials coming back and using us again, that's validating our value proposition which is key to early stage learning,” he said.
Some entrepreneurs will tell you that approach is a 180 from the experience they know well. In place of a traditional startup’s feelings of extremity, risk, and uncertainty comes a sense of security — thanks to both Tide and its parent company, Proctor & Gamble.
But VanHimbergen said the biggest boon comes not in the form of capital, but in the form of brand recognition.
“With the backing of Procter & Gamble, it allowed us some security. And obviously starting from the standpoint of leveraging the brand of Tide, you’ve got a strong opening hand with a customer that comes into this proposition,” said VanHimbergen. “When customers see a potential new laundry service, and it’s from a trusted entity like Tide, there are fewer barriers to come in and try it. For us, that was probably the largest benefit.”
Tide Spin first rolled onto the scene last December in a limited, invite-only beta phase. The app launched in February and is currently available in 14 zip codes throughout the city.
Image via Tide Spin.
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