KIS – An ABM Italia group, manufactures and co-designs domestic space solutions in the plastic industry. They have a great range of products in kitchen storage category and are one of the biggest suppliers in B2B industry. But their laundry category was new with limited thoughts and restricted communication strategy.
The company wanted to develop a product in the laundry section with new thoughts on 'clothing life cycle' in parallel with innovative selling proposition for consumers at the retail distribution chain.
BRIEF
CHALLENGE
This industry is more connected by retail chains and therefore major involvement of company’s marketing/sales is focused on B2B industry. Since the focus is on retail distribution, the company majorly does not control the product placement. This constrains the awareness of the product-feature in the mind of the consumers. The consumer here finds no disparity in the product-line while making a purchase decision and randomly selects the product. Sometimes the decision is even based on the price range in the category. Also, any unusual product in
the market would not be acceptable in this category for tomorrow’s requisite.
Focus points while doing the project were:
- Similar line of products as in the existing market.
- Making differentiation at the point of sale.
- Consumer makes a buying decision in few seconds;
hence product should aesthetically attract the consumer.
- Engage with consumer.
- Make brand awareness in the mind of consumers.
APPROACH
STEP 1:
Starting with analyzing the internal and external factor
of the industry gave an overview of the potentiality
of the market.
To compliment with the above research, a user observation
was made on three different personas of different age groups.
Each persona’s activity was classified with different phases to understand their behaviour well. For example, how does a student respond while partying on daily routine, travelling, etc.
With different personas, different washing habits were realized concerning the factors like: frequency of wash, storage habit, temporary storage, carrying from one place to another, etc.
STEP 2:
Future trends of the housing industry were taken into consideration. This helped identifying for optimum usage in the vertical houses, with limited and prioritized products
in the homes.
With all the following analysis, 'commuting' was the major concern of consumers.
STEP 3:
The primary focus then of the required product feature was to ease the transportation, inside and outside the house. One of the next important required features on the product-line was to break the traditional cycle of laundry process and ease the burden of separation of clothes.
Various different fibers/materials were considered for the product, which would add value & convenience in the usage of the product.
STEP 4:
Along with the new product-line, a communication strategy
was made for differentiation at the point of sale. A 360º strategy was analysed concerning Communication pattern, Distribution method and market Segmentation.
A marketing plan was proposed concerning markets to be active in path to reach the consumer market, planning the differentiation strategy at the point of sale and engagement with the consumer through social media and spreading
brand awareness.
SOLUTION
