Consumer goods companies in the West had occasionally used sachets to entice consumers to try new shampoos and laundry detergents. But it was in emerging markets like India that companies realised the full potential of the plastic sachet.
As a mainstream, everyday package, the sachet unlocked enormous multi-billion-dollar markets that had long been out of reach, promising a rush of new growth, courtesy of some of the world’s poorest people, just as sales in developed markets started to slow.
Indian shopkeepers had long found their own ways to make products like soap and laundry detergent affordable for the hundreds of millions of Indians – particularly in the country’s villages – who couldn’t afford a full bar or bag. They opened up 1kg bags of washing detergent powder and sold 100 grams at a time for 1 rupee, dispensed into people’s own containers. They cut bars of soap into smaller pieces, selling these individually.
By the late 1980s, Unilever’s India subsidiary – Hindustan Lever – had begun packaging its shampoo brands Sunsilk and Clinic in sachets that held just enough for a single wash. “There was a realisation in Unilever decades ago that people on daily wages also have the same aspiration as people on monthly wages,”...
