Unilever
Designing and developing Dove deodorant’s refillable future
With refillable challenger brands and sustainability demands disrupting the deodorant market, Unilever saw an opportunity.
They turned to us to design, develop, and deliver a competitive solution into market. In just six months, we created a refillable antiperspirant and deodorant platform for Dove – one of its flagship brands – before working closely with Unilever’s R&D team and manufacturing partner, PPK, to oversee its technical development and implementation.
Representing one of Unilever’s first reusable products launched at scale, it aims to use 25 times less plastic than single-use pack.
Disrupting deodorants
With around 95 percent of cosmetic packaging discarded after a single use, and ocean-bound plastic set to triple by 2040, Unilever was keen to take radical action. Refillable stick deodorant is one of the fastest-growing segments in the personal care category, led by Wild – then a challenger brand and now part of Unilever. Unilever was focused on launching a refillable stick for Dove that could rival challengers, but with the quality and brand integrity expected of a flagship beauty and wellness brand.
They needed a partner who could move fast, work across disciplines, and deliver a compelling solution that was technically robust and commercially viable. A deodorant that would protect people, profit, and the planet.
We risked falling behind the competition, so we knew we needed a partner who could create a product that balanced sustainability, feasibility, desirability, and viability – and we needed it fast.”
Unlocking fresh thinking, at speed
We formed a multi-disciplinary team of experts in human insights, design strategy, industrial design, mechanical engineering, supply chain, sustainability, and IP to work in parallel.
We look at challenging and complex briefs from multiple perspectives to unlock new thinking. Furthermore, deploying these in tandem adds pace and rigour to our packaging innovation process.”
Through our accelerated packaging innovation process, several interconnected factors had to be balanced: building a picture of the nascent reuse category, sourcing packaging suppliers and components, navigating the intellectual property (IP) landscape, and meeting consumers’ expectations and needs – all while ensuring Dove’s brand integrity.
Drawing on our decades of innovation expertise, our benchmarking of competitor products identified how we could combine Unilever’s and our capabilities to further improve consumers’ experiences. “This led to us co-developing a proprietary, legally distinct solution with PPK, the manufacturing partner”, explained PA’s Webster.
Design and development was technically challenging, requiring several strategic pivots before we arrived at the optimal solution. New material substrates were engineered for both deodorant and antiperspirant refill pack variants, while PPK’s internal mechanism was refined to provide a superior in‑use experience from the reusable case for Dove consumers. The close collaboration between PA and Unilever – combining expertise in design for manufacture, material science, and iterative prototyping and testing – was essential for rapid adaptation and maintaining momentum.
PA provided a broad bandwidth of industry expertise, looking at the challenge from the outside in, to augment Unilever’s internal capabilities.”
Pioneering systemised sustainability
Designing for reuse required a change in mindset and the creation of a packaging system comprising consumable refills loadable into a reusable case.
The deodorant refill is made from coated PFAS-free bamboo bagasse pulp. Bamboo, the fastest growing plant on earth, is highly regenerative. And bagasse pulp, a byproduct of sugarcane processing, is a readily accessible and renewable raw resource. The anti-perspirant refill is made from PHA bioplastic – created using plant feedstocks – which meets higher barrier needs for storage and transportation while also being composable at end-of-life. Each individual refill promises to save 130 g of plastic annually by replacing the plastic the average customer would otherwise use each year.
Available in a range of contemporary colours, the anodised aluminium case includes features like a larger lid and buttons designed for broader accessibility and a cradle for secure refill placement that enhances usability.
“We designed the case to be a visually distinct, premium product – not a disposable pack” explains PA’s Webster. “We used aluminium shrouding an internal plastic mechanism made from a high level of recycled content. This means the solution uses less plastic than competitors, and the shift to aluminium promises infinite recyclability.”
If we are to drive the reuse category forward, we must transition from a focus on individual packs, to systems where the refill and reuse packs are symbiotic.”
Delivering sustainability and scalability
The refillable deodorant system will mark a major milestone for Unilever – one of their first reusable personal care products launched at scale in Europe. It is a sleek, premium, and durable packaging solution engineered for sustainability, consumer appeal, and supply chain scalability while leveraging Dove’s brand values and meeting their sustainability goals.
Designed to last five years, the system could use 25 times less plastic than single-use packs. It’s also cross-compatible with Wild – part of the Dove family – promoting sustainability and consumer choice at scale. When fully rolled out, it promises to remove millions of grams of single-use plastic from the market, as well as changing attitudes towards refillable and reusable products.
This is a big thing for Unilever, and the speed of the outcome is an extraordinary feat in FMCG innovation. PA brought everything under one roof and executed at every step of the way.”
The real joy is that we’ve been fundamental to creating the design, sourcing the packaging supplier, finding opportunities to improve the manufacturing experience, and helping develop the product all the way through to launch.”
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