I first heard about this product through a classmate. We were randomly put into a group together for a project management course. We had to come up with our own project and we considered doing something with SmartKlean. It was the first I had heard of it. My group member who introduced this idea said that it worked and he was telling all his friends about it. When we asked him where he had heard about this product from he mentions that he heard about it from his room mate.
Even though this classmate was a friend and he had mentioned this awesome product to me, I automatically was skeptical about this product. I realized that I was skeptical because it sounded too good to be true.
I did more research into this product and found their website to be clean, inviting, and most of all, touches on almost all aspects of sustainability. (www.smartkleancanada.com)
The most interesting things I found while researching this mysterious ball were:
1. This companies complete dedication to sustainability. They not only make the dedications of “Economical, People-Friendly, Earth-Friendly and Authentic” they also go through the notions of explaining each one. For example for the Earth-Friendly one, the mention how they do not ship through e-bay or Amazon.
2. Vloggers and testimonials of all kinds supported that this product works. I guess my skepticism stemmed from how this product was almost too good to be true. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcrEwct5wY0
3. I could potentially spend $12.73 on 96 loads or $48.41 for 365 loads…
… or I could buy a SmartKlean now at London Drugs or off of their site for $25.
This goes back to class as to how we talked about how in The Green Marketing Manifesto by John Grant he mentions that your product comes first and green comes second. The fact that this product works is amazing. The fact that it has sustainability bonuses is even more amazing.
Anyway – I am sold. Are you sold?
Hi Veronica,
Funny you chose this product, because I actually had a similar one at my Mom’s place for about a year and indeed, it is great before even being green. But we had the same questions: should we trust this new brand or should we just assume it isn’t going to be an effective product, since many green products have disappointed us before?
What always amazes me is that small companies are establishing themselves in the sustainable products market, and although they might not grow very big, they keep making efforts in the right direction. This makes me think of Unilever’s efforts, as an opposite kind of company. The company definitely has a huge, quite bad, impact on both the environment and society (through labor), but it is trying to use its capacity as a tremendous company to actually engage in sustainability. I read an article explaining how Unilever’s CEO is actually trying to make a change, and improve the quality of Unilever’s products, especially by thinking of launching new brands with green products. And we all know that bigger companies have larger means to achieve their goals.
So whether big companies are the only (or better) solution to solving the issue of mass production of polluting products, or not, I don’t know. But I am always amazed by the bravery of small companies to try to make it as a green company, although they are quite vulnerable compared to their bigger competitors on the market.
Here’s the article, if you would like to learn more about Unilever’s efforts (and problems, as well): http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/10188164/Unilever-plans-to-double-its-turnover-while-halving-its-environmental-impact.html
Constance
Hi Veronica, this looks like a great product – here’s something along similar lines you might enjoy: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mackenziekruvant/disappearing-product-packaging-will-blow-your-mind
As always with innovative new products, the challenge is changing consumers’ existing habits and getting them to switch over to something totally different. Then if you succeed at that, there’s another challenge: some evidence suggests that buying green products makes people feel virtuous and gives them ‘license’ to do bad things after like cheat and steal! Check it out: http://environmentportal.in/files/Do%20green%20products%20make%20us%20better%20people.pdf