Beyond findings to true insight – Pampers

Here’s the next post on stories from the Where’s the Sausage? book. This one on true inisght, that we define as:

‘A discovery about your consumer that opens the door to an opportunity for your brand.

Many so-called "insights" in marketing are really findings or observations. They don’t really "open the door to an opportunity", as they don’t go deep enough.To get a true insight nugget, you need to dig a bit deeper and keep asking "why?" like an inquisitive toddler till you hit gold. The word "discover" in the definition captures the idea of really probing and exploring. And definitely doing a lot more than watching a few focus groups.

Pampers is a great example of how powerful a true insight can be. They have re-positioned the brand quite significantly since the days I was a wet-behind-the-ears brand assistant at P&G. Back then, the brand appealed to the fear of parents being crap and letting their baby get wet. It worked well, but was a bit preachy. And very in-your-face on the product story. (Weekly email readers, the ad is here)

The new insight that was the srpingboard for a highly successful
re-launch came from talking to researchers into child behaviour. They
explained that by being dry and getting a good night’s sleep babies
were better able to play, and that this in turn was key to their
development. This lead to an insight of: ‘Babies with healthy, dry skin
are happier….and so better able to play, learn and develop’.
The finding that babies are happier when they have healthy skin
rather than nappy rash was not that new. The trick was unocvering the
deeper emotional significance.

The brand’s idea is now around "Being with you every step of the way with your baby’s development". This brand idea has inspired a range of innovation including Active Fit diapers for young babies on the move, and Kandoo moist toilet tissues kids can use themselves. And this ad shows Baby Dry diapers that flex as the baby sleeps.