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Field Report



Cleaning up, naturally



By Larry Arway



In this era of glitzy, flashy, eye-popping packaging, the lineup of Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day products has kept its uncomplicated natural look, which now distinguishes it on the shelf. Made with naturally derived, eco-friendly ingredients, the labels reflect the values of its namesake, Mrs. Thelma Meyer. Deb Ausen, marketing production and project manager for the company, says, “Our customer base is very knowledgeable and very conscious about environmental issues.”
Headquartered in Minneapolis, MN, USA, the Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day product line has 23 different SKUs, with three fragrances of each: lavender, lemon verbena and geranium. And 18 of the Mrs. Meyer’s SKUs are labeled products, making a total of 54 pressure sensitive labels for the brand and another five printed corrugated carton SKUs.

“Our brand is uncomplicated,” Ausen says. “We use plant-derived surfactants and essential oils for cleaning potency and fresh fragrances.” About the packaging she says, “Consistency is key. Everything has to match, whether it is the flexo printed labels or the offset printed recycled cardboard containers.”

“We do have a dedicated purchasing team to order labels in like sizes, which lets us achieve economies of scale, including maximizing quantities per die size, etc.,” she notes. “Our printers will keep inventories, so we can place optimal size orders, gang up sizes, and make group runs on the higher volume items. Our dish soap and our countertop sprays are used daily, so naturally they are among the best sellers.”

The products are available across the US. The highest volume distribution, Ausen says, is at high end grocery and natural food markets.

Mrs. Meyer’s is open in listing product ingredients so that customers know just what they’re using in their homes. In Ausen’s words, “We share our ingredients because we know our customers have an earth-friendly conscience.” Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day products are made of plant-derived ingredients and contain no solvents, phosphates, ammonia, petroleum distillates, or chlorine.

When a natural ingredient cannot be found that performs to Mrs. Meyer’s product high standards, the company does use ingredients that are synthetic but have a proven history of safety and efficacy in use for people and their environments. All of the liquid cleaning products are biodegradable and are packaged in recyclable high density polypropelene (HDPE) containers. The powdered products contain minerals which are not biodegradable, but they will decompose and break down into harmless products, and they are packaged in recycled cardboard containers.

The products are manufactured using cosmetic-grade essential oils for fragrant freshening and cleansing properties. And they are aromotherapeutic — which the web site says “is a big fancy word for great smelling and healthy!”

A privately owned company, Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day was founded by Monica Nassif, one of Mrs. Thelma Meyer’s daughters. Thelma is quoted on the web site as saying “I cleaned my own home for over 40 years and believe me, if I had these products back then, it would have made our chores more enjoyable!”

For more information, visit www.mrsmeyers.com.

Larry Arway recently retired from Standard Register, where he worked for 35 years in a variety of positions, among them sales promotion manager, product manager, label marketing manager, and technical consultant. Over the years he was involved in the design and development of new products, and has worked closely with many of the major consumer and industrial products companies in North America. A resident of Dayton, OH, USA, Arway can be reached by e-mail at bellafish1@sbcglobal.net.