Downy
Fabric
Softener
When fabric softener starts losing its shine, how do you make people care again?
THE SITUATION
This wasn’t just a project—it was my capstone, the final challenge of my college years 🎓. And what better topic than dating?
Let’s be real—dating apps are everywhere. There’s an app for casual hookups, an app for serious relationships, an app for niche communities… and people just download them all. The problem? Choice fatigue. With so many options, dating apps start to blend together, making it hard for any one platform to truly stand out.
Enter Hinge. Unlike swipe-heavy apps, Hinge is all about “Designed to be deleted”—but how can they get more people to see them as the go-to app for finding real love? That’s exactly what I set out to uncover.
THE CHALLENGE
The dating app market is oversaturated, so Hinge needed a game plan to rise above the noise 🔊. My mission? Develop a full-scale marketing strategy to position Hinge as the top dating app for people looking for something real ❤️.
THE SITUATION
Procter & Gamble dropped a bombshell—Downy fabric softener sales were on the decline 😱. This had never happened before, and of course, it was a top priority to fix it. The rise of minimalism, increased prices everywhere, and a chorus of voices questioning the need for fabric softeners all contributed to the slowdown. To top it off, there were still a decent number of people who didn’t even know what fabric softener was. Yikes. This led the clients to push for a fabric softener-focused campaign to help turn things around.
THE CHALLENGE
Before we could dive into any campaigns, we needed to get the full picture of consumer sentiment on liquid fabric softeners. The challenge? We had to gauge how people felt about Downy and its competitors, all while understanding what barriers were standing in the way of sales. The goal: Reignite interest and drive purchases of Downy fabric softeners.
THE STRATEGIC APPROACH
I kicked things off with social listening 🎧, pulling data from platforms like X/Twitter, Reddit, TikTok, and more. I sifted through tons of user comments, pulling screenshots of verbatim feedback to get a sense of what consumers were saying—both the good, the bad, and the ugly.
I organized everything into easy-to-understand topics so that the Brand Strategy Director wouldn’t drown in data. Then, I looked at reviews to get additional insights on Downy and its competitors like Suavitel and Snuggle 🧴. All of this helped highlight where Downy could stand out and where we could make some noise.
THE RESULTS
The Brand Strategy Director was all smiles 😊 after reviewing the social listening deck. While there wasn’t a ton of hard data, the screenshots of real consumer feedback hit home. We identified key barriers and found topics that resonated, giving us a clear direction for messaging across multiple channels 📢. The deck provided the insights needed to tackle fabric softener myths and reignite interest in Downy! Let’s get those sales back up!