Consumer behaviour in laundry washing

Consumer behaviour in laundry washing Preliminary short summary of survey of European behaviour 2015 Farnaz Alborzi Angelika Schmitz Rainer Stamminger

Recruiting of participants in 11 EU member states By Toluna: Professional market research company Panels of registered consumers in most of the participating countries Responsible for translations, recruiting and fulfilling quotas for each country Requirements for participants: All own washing machine Substantial involvement in laundry washing Gender: more than 50% women Household size and age: 1-person-/ 2-/ 3-/ 4-/ >4-people household 20-39 years / 40-59 years / 60-74 years Representative in hh-size and age distribution to national statistics (Eurostat) 24.06.2015 Questionnaire washing behaviour 2015 2

Weighting Institut für Landtechnik According to the number of households of each country compared to the sum of all investigated countries Calculating EU average results Contribution of participating countries Country Panel Valid data* Households (Total) Contribution to total results % Czech 300 240 4.502.431 3 % Finland 300 267 2.579.781 1 % France 600 530 27.106.517 16 % Germany 600 508 40.656.000 23 % Hungary 300 221 4.105.708 2 % Italy 600 414 25.007.000 14 % Poland 600 458 13.567.999 8 % Romania 300 211 7.470.429 4 % Spain 600 453 18.083.690 10 % Sweden 300 272 4.725.279 3 % UK 600 502 26.414.000 15 % to represent 82% of all households in EU-28 SUM 5100 4076 174.218.834 100% * Consistency check (preliminary) 24.06.2015 Questionnaire washing behaviour 2015 3

What are the main features you would take into consideration when buying a new washing machine? Please choose the six most important features and sort them based on importance from 1 to 6. allocation of points: 1 (first priority) = 6 points 2 = 5 points 3 = 4 points 4 = 3 points 5 = 2 points 6 (last priority) = 1 point 24.06.2015 Questionnaire washing behaviour 2015 4

24.06.2015 Questionnaire washing behaviour 2015 5

n=4076 24.06.2015 Questionnaire washing behaviour 2015 6

Average wash cycles per week per household is 4.0 n=4076 24.06.2015 Questionnaire washing behaviour 2015 9

Calculated with nominal temperature n=4076 24.06.2015 Questionnaire washing behaviour 2015 11

? n=4076 24.06.2015 Questionnaire washing behaviour 2015 12

Can you recognise energy-saving programme on your washing machine? How do you identify the energysaving programme? (Multiple answers allowed) Average EU Average EU n = 4 843 n = 4 843 24.06.2015 Questionnaire washing behaviour 2015 16

Summary Most important features of a washing machine Low energy and water consumption and associated bills Purchase price Simple and easy to use Expected rinsing results and washing performance Average load capacity of washing machine is 6.5 kg Average wash temperature per cycle is 40.4 C 64% of all washes are cotton wash programmes Eco programmes are 16% of the total number of programmes, but about 1/3 of all cotton 40 C and 60 C programmes 54 % of household in average use energy saving programme A lot of misunderstanding of what energy saving programme can deliver Consumers are interested on finding washing performance and consumption values per cycle additionally on the label. Some interest also on life time of the machine. 24.06.2015 Questionnaire washing behaviour 2015 21

Thanks to for supporting this research. 24.06.2015 Questionnaire washing behaviour 2015 22