Building a better brand

For the ambitious revamping of its Cottonelle bath tissue line, Scott Paper Co., started from the bottom up. With the help of a qualitative research technique that turns consumers into product designers, the Philadelphia firm radically changed the product's packaging, positioning and identity.

The end result is the Advanced Personal Hygiene line, which Scott introduced nationally in July in a bid to increase its share of the $3.4 billion bath tissue category. The line includes three products, all bearing the Cottonelle name: a hypo-allergenic bath tissue free of inks, dyes or fragrances; a bath tissue with micro-fine baking soda (that "neutralizes and reduces odor"); and moist personal wipes with aloe.

The products are designed as a two-step approach to personal hygiene in which consumers are urged to use one of the toilet papers in tandem with the moist personal wipe for maximum personal cleanliness.

Lest you think that that sounds like overkill, there's research to back it up. (Isn't there always?)

In talking with consumers, Scott found that 60 percent of the population felt additional cleansing was necessary after a visit to the bathroom, indicating that existing toilet papers weren't doing the job. "Additional cleansing" included everything from wetting the toilet paper or using a disposable wipe to showering afterwards.

These findings, in the context of the country's increased health consciousness, indicated to Scott that new products designed to meet this need could help reposition the Cottonelle line based on hygiene rather than that old standby in the toilet tissue business: softness.

Brainstorming sessions had produced a number of ideas on how to reposition the line, says Joan Bassett, senior research manager, Scott Paper. "We tried to get all the best thinking available, no holds barred. Everything was fair game. From that we pared it to a manageable few that were judged to be distinctive while still meeting a consumer need based on our earlier learning," Bassett says.

Focusing on something other than softness was an excellent way to differentiate Cottonelle from competitors, says Rob Wallace, president of Wallace Church Associates, the New York firm that handled the packaging redesign work. "We had an opportunity to rebuild a brand. The only thing we wanted to maintain was the brand name, because Cottonelle had strong recognition and we wanted to literally build it around consumers' evolving needs and talk to them in a way that they had never been talked to before--about personal hygiene as opposed to softness.

"It's toilet paper, after all. You're not supposed to think too much about it. It was a one-attribute category. The challenge was to find a new attribute to talk about that would be meaningful to consumers and leverage that to separate Cottonelle from the competition in a value-added way."

Build the ideal product

For preliminary testing of the advanced personal hygiene concept and others, Scott Paper talked to consumers in 1994 in three cities in the east, midwest and west, using Building Blocks, a qualitative research technique created by New Directions Consulting, White Plains, N.Y.

Building Blocks is designed to get consumers to build their ideal product, says Jane Goldwasser, principal, New Directions Consulting, by asking for their input on its attributes, advertising and packaging.

When consumers first arrive at the interviewing location, they are told what their task is and how their input will be used. During what is usually a two-hour process, respondents visit a series of stations, each focusing on a separate aspect of the product. There they respond to some kind of stimulus, such as a mock up of an ad or a potential package, noting their responses on a self-administered questionnaire.

After visiting all of the stations they are debriefed and their responses reexamined to allow them to shape their opinions into a cohesive product. Of course, they're also asked about purchase intent for the product they've created.

The Cottonelle tests included stations for positioning, products, aesthetics and brand imagery. At the brand imagery station, for example, respondents analyzed five photo montages presenting themes like "shower fresh" and "hygienic." Next they rated their initial response to each image and described the person who might find the images appealing. They then ranked the images in their own personal order based on how they fit with their choice of positioning and explained why they liked their favorite. Finally, using a list of words and phrases, they checked off those they felt best described the image they liked the most.

Clients learn firsthand

As part of the Building Blocks process, clients are asked to sit at each of the stations - along with a trained market researcher - to observe and talk to the respondents as they complete their questionnaires. This allows them to learn firsthand from consumers and probe for more information. For the Cottonelle project, people from marketing, marketing research, advertising, packaging and product development manned the stations.

This up close and personal learning was extremely helpful, Bassett says. "I have been in research for a number of years and I have to say it was an energizing experience to watch people who don't normally talk to consumers one- on-one get a chance to do so," Bassett says.

"People came away with a lot of good ideas, a real clear understanding of what the consumer was saying. It was a very powerful tool. It also allowed us to look at all of the elements of the bundle in relation to one another. We got consumer input on aesthetics, imagery, packaging, all at once, related to one another, as opposed to doing it sequentially."

"Sometimes when a new client is told that they'll have to talk directly to consumers, they kind of freeze," says Goldwasser. "But we have never failed to find that people do a good job and learn a lot more than just sitting behind the mirror. In a lot of client organizations, the people on the team who are responsible for the advertising or packaging, for example, never get to talk to consumers. But this technique gives them an opportunity to get direct feedback."

Clients at first sit at the station that represents their particular area of interest or discipline. In later sessions, they are invited to sit at a different station, so a packaging person will move to the advertising station, for example. This helps build a team-like atmosphere, Goldwasser says. "At the end, the team owns the product. You may be responsible for the advertising, but if you know more about the other aspects of it and how consumers feel about the other aspects, you'll do a better job."

A fringe benefit, is that consumers have fun, too, Goldwasser says. "They get empowered and involved. They work hard but they have a good time doing it. One respondent told us, 'This is the first research I've participated in that I felt that people cared about what I had to say.' "

Do something quickly

The technique was a time saver, Bassett says. The interviews were conducted over four days. Within a week, after crosstabbing, Scott had actionable criteria to work with. "It provided a lot of information in a short period of time. I estimate that it shrank this phase of the project by 75 percent. That was really significant because we delivered on our goal of speed-to-market for an improved Cottonelle."

All parties involved in the research stress that the information obtained from the Building Blocks sessions wasn't viewed as projectable. "We don't promise that the technique will find the perfect combination of elements. But out of the elements under consideration, it can identify the ones that work best together," says Hank Goldwasser, principal, New Directions Consulting.

Though Scott turned to several other methods to fine-tune the concept and its execution, the Building Blocks work served as an excellent starting point, Bassett says. "For an early stage development I think it was a key piece of the reaming. Lots of tests have diagnostics but you don't get to probe why and in this case people really did get to do that."

Rob Wallace: "At a very early phase, it provided input for the product aesthetics and ultimately for the package design and advertising. The Building Blocks study formed a basis for how Wallace Church went about developing the packaging, what colors would be meaningful, what kind of style, image, personality. It was the same with the advertising. If you look at what's on the shelf today the bundle that was launched was very much a result of what consumers told us in the Building Blocks study.

"I don't think we could have gone this far from the base equity to where it is today without the research proving to us that that's how far it had to go in the consumers' mind. It was a great way to get a lot of information quickly and it provided us with the ammunition to go to top management and say this not just an evolutionary fix-it, this is a radical restructuring of your brand. This research approach gives you a good idea of where you are, where you can go and where you can evolve to beyond that."

Bassett says it was a lot of fun working on the Cottonelle project. Early indications -- including what Bassett calls "phenomenal" acceptance from the trade -- are quite promising. "It was one of the most energizing projects I've worked on in my career. We accomplished so much in such a short period of time while really keeping in touch with the consumers, which is a researcher's dream."