- Gillette – Duracell: Sparkling Sales
THE CHALLENGE:
Duracell, a product line of shaving giant The Gillette Company, has been an innovation leader in the field of compact electrical storage devices. However Gillette, a company that has always put great importance on listening to the consumer, had begun to notice a re-occurring complaint from owners of power-hungry digital cameras.
“I wish my camera didn’t eat batteries!”
Gillette began to ask itself questions. Was it their batteries that the cameras were ‘eating’ or poorly-made dollar store batteries? Why weren’t consumers purchasing the company’s Duracell Ultra line, which was designed for high-drain devices? It was in an effort to answer those questions that Gillette turned to Synecticsworld.
THE PROCESS:
Dividing into twelve two-member teams, Gillette staff visited consumers’ homes and, with the homeowners’ permission, went through their ‘junk drawer’, only to confirm their suspicions that it wasn’t the longer-lasting Duracell batteries that were causing consumer disappointment. Returning to the Synecticsworld-led process for unlocking hidden truths, Gillette began to look at the problem of short-lived batteries from different angles:
- “Digital cameras are eating batteries!”
- “Batteries are like food… junk food… quick filler!”
- “Customers can’t keep up with their food needs!”
- “Food = life!”
Gillette quickly began to understand that customers were focusing on the problem of short-lived batteries and not approaching their frustration from the perspective of “why don’t I give camera the best nutrition?” which would, of course, have been to use the Ultra batteries or even the regular Duracell line.
THE RESULTS:
Building on that insight, Gillette used the power of metaphors to redesign battery packaging so that the battery package looked like, what else? A nutrition bar.
Food = energy, Duracell = energy.
Makes perfect sense.
