Flymo
Innovating new Lawnmower designs to gain European market share
Ethnographic Research
Design Sprints
Prototyping
Strategy
Marketing Coms
The Challenge
Flymo had great market share in the UK for its range of lawnmowers and garden care products. However, the brand had found it difficult to gain share within European markets. This led Flymo to question whether the product range was suited to European markets or if other product developments might be required.
What was the problem in European markets and could we find a solution?
The Journey
Understanding the current state
We used a combination of in-home product placements of Flymo products and Soundings® interviews in Germany as a test market. Soundings is our proprietary methodology that is a hybrid between in-depth qualitative methods combined with the confidence of quantitative numbers.
What were the findings?
User observations revealed significant differences between the UK and other European markets approaches to garden equipment.
• Garden sizes tended to be larger in mainland Europe and therefore mowing in straight lines was considered relatively easy and straightforward.
• The hover mowers ability to get into tight corners and deal with unusual lawn shapes was less relevant motivating for German consumers.
• They preferred to use wheeled mowers which they consider to be easier to manoeuvre than hover and able to collect heavier grass loads.
• German gardeners had a different approach to lawn trimmings – their summers were drier and hotter than the UK so that they often left cut grass trimmings on the lawn as a protective mulch.
• Consequently, the advanced grass collection systems in Flymo products actually prevented them from undertaking their preferred behaviour.
Outcomes
Collaborative Design Sprints to prototype solutions
A new range of wheeled rotary mowers was developed for Northern European markets. These new mowers were positioned as light and easy to use but capable of handling larger lawn sizes. They also had a number of grass collection options to enable gardeners to choose their preferred method of working.
Innovation and strategic postioning
The Flymo brand was able to support a range of garden care equipment far beyond electric hover mowers and increased its market share has a consequence of the new innovations.