On April 6, 2023, Lion Corporation (President: Masazumi Kikukawa) will launch SOLFAN Airis laundry water, a new style of fabric softener with a pure, clear water-like texture.
Lion is driven by its purpose, “Make a difference in everyday lives by redesigning habits: ReDesign.” Since its emergence in the 1960s, the fabric softener market has grown steadily, and today about 80% of households use fabric softeners.*1 The market is currently split into two submarkets comprising products for deodorizing and products that provide long-lasting fragrance, qualities that are being commoditized.
Given the circumstances, Lion has opted to focus on changes in consumer mindsets and physical needs, creating an option other than simply deodorizing or providing long-lasting fragrance, looking to transform the chore of laundry into a better habit.
Lion’s research indicates that approximately 60%*2 of people value a sense of freedom from laundry and other chores and approximately 77%*2 value time spent feeling relaxed and calm. These results reflect a shift in mindsets following the pandemic, namely the acceleration of a trend in consumer preferences towards freedom and liberation. In addition, people want more than to simply complete chores, they want a better process, with approximately 65%*2 of respondents emphasizing that laundry should be more enjoyable and approximately 43%*3 desiring better-quality laundry products, even if they are a little more expensive.
Based on the potential of these consumer desires, Lion has developed a new concept for an airy experience that makes laundry and everyday life more freeing and relaxing—SOFLAN Airis, a new fabric softener offering a “laundry water” sensation. A clear liquid as pure and freeing as water, SOFLAN Airis is designed to provide a light and airy sensory experience. In addition to its innovative transparent appearance, SOFLAN Airis perfumes the air like a gentle breeze, makes clothes feel comfortable and soft, and the bottle design brings a decorative element to the laundry room. SOFLAN Airis provides new sensations in a complex way, delivering not only a high-quality finish, but also an emotional experience as it generates a relaxing, positive atmosphere encompassing both the mood and the air itself during the laundry process.
*1 Laundry survey (September 2022, Lion survey n=2000)
*2 Laundry behavior survey (May 2022, Lion survey n=201; Importance of fabric softener)
*3 Laundry behavior survey (May 2022, Lion survey n=201; Feelings about regular laundry)
April 6, 2023 (Thursday), Nationwide
| Product Name | Contents | Retail price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SOFLAN Airis Patio Balcony Poolside |
Bottle | 480ml | No recommended retail price |
| Refill pack | 850ml | ||
(1) A laundry water fabric softener offering a new sensation, a liquid as pure and clear as water
An airy experience that permeates not only completed laundry, but also the air and the feeling of doing laundry itself. This new product offers three new sensory experiences in the realms of smell (fragrance), touch (comfort) and sight (design).
◆New sensation: Provides a continuous fragrance experience that changes the air in your laundry
・Two manufacturing methods that create a continuous fragrance experience that starts when doing laundry
・A variety of fragrance options to pick based on the day’s mood
◆New sensation: Creates a comfortable experience with a light and airy feel on the skin
・Airy feel formula
We radically revised our liquid formula, adopting Lion’s newly developed proprietary special silicone for the primary component instead of the previously used cationic surfactant for convential products. This has enabled us to achieve the previously unattainable light and airy feeling. The difference is clear from looking at friction measurments and user feeling surveys.
◆New sensation: Realizes a bottle design that is transparent and refined
・Highly original clear liquid and bottle
We chose a transparent container so you can see the clear liquid at a glance, and the fragrance is visible. Just placing the skeleton design structured bottle makes it feel like a cool breeze is coming into the laundry room.
・Square bottle shape that makes you want to arrange them together
Most fabric softeners are packaged in round bottles, but SOFLAN Airis has multiple fragrance variations to suit the mood of the day, so we chose a square bottle shape to make it easier to line them up together. The bottles line up perfectly without any gaps, making the laundry room look more polished.
(2) Promoting Sustainable Environmental Initiatives
・Offering fabric softeners compatible with “one-rinse cycles
In addition to being suitable for one-rinse laundry cycles, its water-like texture leaves no residue on the washing machine detergent compartment.
・Bottle packaging uses biomass PET*4
Lion is using biomass PET in containers and packaging in order to contribute to decarbonization and the realization of a resource-circulating society and to address environmental issues worldwide.
*4 Only refers to the bottle, excluding the nozzle, cap, etc.
