Why benchmark testing matters during detergent development
Developing a detergent without a meaningful performance benchmark can make it surprisingly difficult to know whether the formulation is actually getting better.
A prototype may clean effectively in isolation, but that does not tell you how it compares with the products consumers already use, whether a reformulation has genuinely improved performance or whether the formulation has reached the level required for commercial launch.
Benchmark testing gives detergent development a reference point. When it is designed properly, it can help define the development target, identify performance gaps and guide formulation decisions throughout the project.
A benchmark gives development a measurable target
A product-development brief often contains statements such as:
- “perform as well as the market leader”;
- “improve on our existing product”;
- “deliver premium performance”;
- or “match the category benchmark at a lower cost”.
Those objectives sound clear, but they only become useful development targets once the relevant products are tested under controlled conditions.
Know what you are trying to beat
If the objective is to outperform a competitor, the first step should be to understand how that competitor actually performs.
Benchmark testing establishes a performance reference against which prototypes can be measured throughout development.
This can reveal which aspects of the benchmark are particularly strong, where it has weaknesses and which areas of performance are most important for the new formulation to address.
A benchmark can prevent unnecessary development
Sometimes the target is closer than expected.
A prototype may already perform comparably with the selected benchmark across most of the test, with only one or two areas requiring further improvement.
Without comparative testing, the formulation could continue to be changed unnecessarily — potentially increasing cost, introducing instability or weakening performance that was already acceptable.
“Premium” needs a reference point
Terms such as premium, high performance or market leading are difficult to translate into formulation decisions without a measurable comparison.
Benchmarking turns those broad commercial objectives into something a development team can test and optimise against.
A benchmark transforms “make it better” into a measurable development objective.
Choose the right benchmark
Benchmark testing is only useful if the reference product is relevant to the development objective.
The biggest brand in the category is not automatically the right benchmark. A suitable reference should reflect the market position, product format, consumer expectation and performance target the new formulation is intended to address.
Match the benchmark to the commercial objective
If the goal is to create a premium product, the benchmark should represent the level of performance expected in that segment.
If the objective is to develop a value product, comparing only against a premium market leader may create an unnecessarily expensive development target.
Likewise, if the project is a reformulation of an existing product, the most important benchmark may initially be the current formulation rather than an external competitor.
Possible benchmarks include:
- the current commercial formulation;
- a market-leading competitor;
- a strong product within the intended price tier;
- a client’s internal reference formulation;
- or several market products representing different performance levels.
Consider more than one competitor
Testing several relevant products can provide a much better picture of the category than relying on one competitor alone.
A market leader may perform exceptionally well on some stains but only moderately on others. Another competitor may have a very different performance profile.
Looking across several products can help identify:
- the realistic performance range within the category;
- which products are genuinely strong;
- where the market leader has weaknesses;
- and which benchmark best reflects the product position being targeted.
Product format and use conditions matter
The benchmark should also be appropriate to the conditions in which the new product will compete.
A concentrated laundry liquid, powder, capsule or low-dose formulation may not necessarily be best evaluated against a product designed around very different dosage or consumer-use assumptions.
The same applies to dishwashing and other cleaning categories, where product format and use conditions can strongly influence the relevance of a comparison.
The right benchmark is the product that gives development a meaningful target — not simply the most recognisable name on the shelf.
Use benchmarking throughout development, not just at the end
Benchmark testing is most useful when it is built into the development process rather than treated as a final pass-or-fail check.
If the benchmark is only tested at the end, the development team may discover too late that the formulation has been optimised in the wrong direction or that important performance gaps remain.
Using the benchmark throughout development creates a continuous reference point.
Establish the starting position
Early benchmark testing can show how far the initial formulation is from the target.
This may reveal that the product is already competitive in some areas while significantly weaker in others. That information can help focus development effort where it is most likely to deliver value.
Compare meaningful formulation changes
As prototypes are developed, selected formulations can be tested against the benchmark to determine whether changes are producing genuine improvement.
This helps answer questions such as:
- Did the surfactant change actually improve cleaning?
- Has a cost reduction weakened performance?
- Did improving one stain category create a disadvantage elsewhere?
- Has the formulation now reached benchmark performance?
- Is further optimisation likely to provide enough benefit to justify the additional cost or complexity?
Avoid chasing small or irrelevant differences
Benchmarking can also help identify when development has reached a sensible stopping point.
If the prototype is statistically comparable with the target benchmark across the performance measures that matter, further formulation changes may add cost or risk without producing a meaningful commercial advantage.
Conversely, testing may reveal a specific remaining weakness that warrants another development cycle.
Keep the benchmark consistent
Where possible, the same reference product and comparable test conditions should be maintained throughout the development programme.
Changing the benchmark partway through can make it difficult to understand whether the formulation itself has improved or whether the target has simply moved.
Benchmark testing should guide development decisions throughout the project — not simply judge the finished formulation at the end.
Look at the performance profile, not just the overall score
An overall performance score is useful, but it can hide important differences between products.
Two detergents may achieve very similar average results while having quite different strengths and weaknesses across individual stains, soils or test conditions.
For example, a prototype may outperform the benchmark on oily soils but remain weaker on protein-based stains. Another formulation may deliver more consistent performance across the entire stain set without being the strongest on any single stain.
If only the overall average is considered, those differences can disappear.
Identify where the benchmark is strong
Looking at the performance profile helps determine which areas of the benchmark are actually driving its overall result.
That information can be particularly valuable during development because it allows formulation work to focus on the areas where a genuine competitive gap exists.
Protect areas where the prototype already performs well
Benchmarking can also help prevent unnecessary formulation changes.
If the prototype is already performing strongly in certain areas, development should ideally preserve those strengths while addressing the remaining weaknesses.
This becomes especially important when formulation changes introduce trade-offs. Improving one stain category may unintentionally reduce performance elsewhere.
Grouping results can reveal useful patterns
Where a broad stain set is used, results can sometimes be grouped into categories such as:
- oily and greasy soils;
- protein-based stains;
- particulate soils;
- starch-based soils;
- or coloured food and beverage stains.
This can make it easier to understand the underlying performance profile and identify which formulation mechanisms may need attention.
The most useful benchmark is not simply the product with the highest average score — it is the reference that helps reveal where your formulation needs to improve.
Use statistics to distinguish real differences from normal variation
Benchmark testing can show that one product achieved a higher average result than another, but the higher number does not automatically mean the product genuinely performs better.
Every performance test contains some degree of natural variation. Differences between stained materials, sample preparation, equipment and individual test runs can all influence the measured result.
Statistical analysis helps determine whether the observed difference is large and consistent enough to be distinguished from that normal variation.
Averages can be misleading on their own
Imagine a prototype achieves an average cleaning result of 71%, while the benchmark achieves 69%.
At first glance, the prototype appears better.
But if the individual measurements vary widely, that two-point difference may not be meaningful. Conversely, if the measurements are highly repeatable, a relatively small difference may provide stronger evidence of a genuine performance advantage.
This is why averages should ideally be considered alongside the variation within the data.
Statistical significance helps establish confidence
Where appropriate, statistical testing can be used to determine whether the difference between the prototype and benchmark is likely to represent a genuine product effect rather than random test variation.
This becomes particularly important as development approaches the benchmark and the differences between products become smaller.
Similar performance can also be valuable information
Benchmarking does not always need to identify a winner.
If the development objective is to match an established product, evidence that the prototype performs comparably may represent a successful outcome.
Likewise, during cost optimisation or raw-material substitution, maintaining benchmark-level performance while achieving another commercial objective can be more valuable than achieving a marginal performance increase.
Statistical significance is not the whole decision
A statistically significant result may still be too small to matter commercially.
For example, a modest improvement might be statistically reliable but require substantially higher raw-material cost or introduce stability or manufacturing complexity.
Benchmark results therefore need to be considered alongside the wider development brief.
Statistics help establish whether a performance difference is likely to be real. The development brief determines whether that difference is worth pursuing.
Use benchmark results to guide formulation decisions
Benchmark testing becomes especially valuable when the results are used to decide what to change next.
Rather than treating the benchmark simply as a score to beat, the performance profile can help identify which formulation mechanisms are likely to need attention and which parts of the existing formulation should be preserved.
Focus development on the real performance gaps
If testing shows that the prototype performs well overall but remains weak on a particular soil type, development effort can be concentrated on that specific area.
For example, a weakness on oily soils may point toward the surfactant system or other grease-removal mechanisms, while weaker performance on protein-based stains may suggest a different formulation pathway.
This is more efficient than making broad formulation changes without knowing where the actual problem lies.
Protect the strengths you already have
Benchmarking can also reveal where the prototype already has an advantage.
Those strengths should be treated as something to protect during further development.
A formulation change intended to improve one weakness may unintentionally reduce performance somewhere else, so each development cycle should consider both the targeted improvement and the broader performance profile.
Evaluate cost against performance
Benchmark data can also help with commercial optimisation.
A more expensive formulation may deliver a small performance improvement over the benchmark, while a lower-cost alternative may already achieve the required market position.
In that situation, the question is not simply “Which formulation performs best?” but:
“Is the additional performance worth the additional cost?”
That is where benchmark testing becomes a commercial development tool rather than just a laboratory comparison.
Know when to stop developing
One of the less obvious benefits of benchmarking is that it can help identify when a product has reached the required target.
Continuing to optimise after the commercial objective has been achieved may add cost, complexity or stability risk without delivering a meaningful market advantage.
Benchmark testing is most useful when it helps decide what to improve, what to protect and when the formulation is good enough to move forward.
Benchmarking is not just for new product development
Benchmark testing is equally valuable when an existing product needs to change.
Reformulation, raw-material substitution, cost reduction and sustainability initiatives can all alter product performance, sometimes in ways that are difficult to predict from formulation chemistry alone.
A benchmark gives those changes a reference point.
Reformulation
When an existing product is reformulated, the original formulation often becomes the most important benchmark.
The key question may not be whether the new formulation is better than the market leader, but whether it can maintain the performance consumers already expect while achieving another objective.
Cost optimisation
Reducing formulation cost can create hidden performance trade-offs.
Comparative testing against the current product helps show whether a lower-cost formulation has preserved acceptable performance or whether the saving has weakened an important part of the cleaning profile.
Raw-material substitution
Ingredients sometimes need to be replaced because of availability, cost, supplier changes or evolving ingredient requirements.
Testing the revised formulation against the original can help determine whether the substitution has altered cleaning performance and whether further optimisation is needed.
Sustainability-driven changes
Changes intended to improve sustainability — such as increasing concentration, reducing transported water or changing ingredient selection — can also affect performance.
Benchmarking helps ensure that environmental objectives are not achieved at the expense of the product’s core function.
Ongoing competitive monitoring
Markets do not stand still.
Competitors reformulate, new products enter the category and performance expectations change. Periodic market benchmarking can therefore help established products understand whether their competitive position is being maintained over time.
A benchmark is useful whenever something changes — the formulation, the market or the performance target.
Benchmark testing turns development into measurable decision-making
Detergent development involves a series of technical and commercial choices. Benchmark testing gives those choices an objective reference point.
Instead of relying only on formulation theory, subjective judgement or isolated laboratory results, development teams can measure how prototypes perform against the products and targets that actually matter.
A well-designed benchmark programme can help answer questions such as:
- Is the prototype genuinely improving?
- Where does it still underperform?
- Which formulation changes are delivering meaningful benefit?
- Has a cost reduction weakened performance?
- Is the product now comparable with the intended benchmark?
- Would further optimisation deliver enough value to justify the additional cost or complexity?
Benchmarking provides context
Performance data is much more useful when it has context.
Knowing that a detergent removed 70% of a particular soil means relatively little on its own. Knowing that the current product achieved 62%, the market leader achieved 69% and the new prototype achieved 70% tells a much more useful development story.
The aim is better decisions, not simply better charts
The value of benchmarking is ultimately not the test report itself.
It is the ability to use objective performance evidence to decide what to change, what to protect, where to invest further development effort and when the product has reached the required commercial target.
Good benchmark testing turns product development from “we think this is better” into “we can demonstrate what changed and whether it matters.”
Need to understand how your product compares with the market?
d-labs designs and conducts independent competitor benchmarking studies for detergent and cleaning products, helping clients identify meaningful performance differences, define development targets and make better-informed formulation and commercial decisions.