Client: Dirt Devil
New Product Development
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Business Issue
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Pulse Home Products, the parent company of both Dirt Devil and Breville, wished to extend the Breville brand into floorcare electricals in order to capture a share of the higher value end of the market.
It was felt that Breville will have more credibility entering the market at over £100 compared with Dirt Devil as a result of a ‘halo effect’ from the quality of its kitchen electricals products. However, a kitchen electricals competitor, Morphy Richards, has also diversified into floorcare recently and has struggled to compete successfully due to its low end products not being sufficiently differentiated compared and with too high a premium charged for its top end products.
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Pulse wanted to gain an understanding of the decision making process for floorcare products. In particular, it wishes to find out triggers to purchase in addition to identifying any potential needs in floorcare which are not currently being met. It also wishes to see what, if any, potential a Breville floorcare product may have.
Process:
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One of the main objectives for this project is to understand attitudes towards the Breville brand and how a Breville product would translate into the floorcare sector. As this would require more in-depth questioning, we undertook a series of qualitative group discussions to gather this data.
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Although Pulse has access to a wealth of market data, it has little information on the triggers to purchase for floorcare products as well as on identifying unmet needs. Therefore, we undertook an ethnographic stage asking consumers to produce ‘video diaries’ both of their usage of floorcare products in the home and of the purchase process. Consumers would be given video cameras and asked to film the process of using their current floorcare product within their home while commenting on the process.
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User Prototyping workshop discovering desired product attributes
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The Discovery stage:
Phase 1
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Focus Group ​
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We conducted a total of 4 groups among a broad audience of 25-55 year-old males and females who had bought floorcare products in the last 3 months. All respondents would be non-rejecters of the Breville brand. We would aim to recruit at least two respondents in each group that had purchased a Breville kitchen electricals product in the last 6-12 months.
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Each group lasted for approximately 2 hours and would be attended by 7-8 respondents. Groups would follow the course of a detailed discussion guide (to be developed on commissioning). At this stage we
envisage that the following topic areas would be covered:​-
Attitudes to floorcare
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Product experience and product ownership
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Brand awareness and perceptions (including Dirt Devil)
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Market segmentation (brand and product)
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Needs within floorcare not currently met
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Detailed discussion of Breville brand
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Fit of Breville floorcare products within product range – including awareness of / attitudes towards
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Morphy Richards floorcare products
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Propensity to purchase
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Background & personal details
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Focus Group Insights
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In general, respondents used their floorcare products on a regular basis – usage ranged from daily to weekly
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However, usage dependant on circumstances – i.e. floor type, number and type of pets, children etc
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Women more likely to use floorcare products on a daily basis – however men mor likely to use for heavier duty cleaning, e.g. car or DIY
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Vacuum cleaners favoured over carpet cleaners / multi-functional products – perception of carpet cleaners being difficult to use and taking too long to dry and expensive
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Consequently, carpet cleaning generally outsourced to commercial cleaners
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Handhelds perceived to lack power therefore only used for specific applications within the home or car – often with disappointing results
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Bagless generally preferred to bagged cleaners – considered less hassle and more hygienic to clean
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In general, bagless uprights preferred
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Some concerns over dispersion of air from the back of upright products causing dust to spread
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With regard to unmet needs, general desire for lighter, more powerful vacuum cleaners
Discovery Stage:
Phase 2
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Ethnographic Research
We asked the subjects to display the variety of uses for their floorcare product (be it a vacuum cleaner, carpet cleaner or other) in addition to showing how easy or difficult their product is to use. We asked them to comment on the types of cleaning that would benefit from new floorcare applications - both floor cleaning and elsewhere in the home. Video diarists were then asked to purchase a floorcare product and film the process from decision to purchase; documenting all the relevant milestones in-between, e.g. looking for information on products, browsing, point-of-sale etc. Diarists were not given a specific budget for purchase as we wanted them to decide how much to spend on the product. However, we provided an incentive which would contribute to the purchase. In addition, we asked different diarists to purchase from different retail outlets (e.g. Currys, Argos, Supermarkets etc) in order to see how, if it all, the purchase process differs by retail destination.
Finally, the diarists were asked to film themselves using their new product and give comparisons with their old product and to see if any needs are still not being met by their new product.
We recruited a total of 5 video diarists, a male / female split aged between 25-55 across a range of SEGs.
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Ethnographic insights and Quotes
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“I use the VAX downstairs on the stone floor as it is heavy to cart up the stairs and I use
the upright for the carpets upstairs” -
“They have become lighter and more powerful and they have got better at not loosing the
attachments” -
“It’s all bag less now “
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“I like bag less as you can wash them out when they are dirty”
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“Sometimes the air that blows out of the hoover can blow the dirt away that you are trying
to clean up. You need to be able to put something on the upright hoover to suck the air
away” -
“(Handhelds) are useless, I must have 5 or 6 in the space of a few years. They never pick
up, they clog up, you take it apart, you empty it and in the end it just sits on the wall” -
“One problem I have, if any attachment comes out a lot of dust comes blowing out of
there…they’ll have to put a stop on it or something” -
“It’s a bit unhygienic, it goes everywhere…you’ve got about 3 or 4 weeks worth of rubbish
in there, you tip it all out, you’re breathing it in”
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Define:
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During the definition phase we utilised a number of models and processes including Kapferer Brand Identity Prism, user purchase journeys and competitive mapping to define the triggers, needs and problems.
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We used this to fuel the Ideate session.
Ideate:
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User Prototyping Workshop
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Respondents asked to design a brand new floorcare product - designed to reflect
current unmet needs now and in the future
User Prototyping Workshop Insights
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The ideal product involved an automated product using controls – however,
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perception among respondents that this type of product is not currently available
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Variety of designs – however most met the following needs:
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Automation of product – leading to less effort
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Lighter weight
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Power
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Cordless
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Cleaning in corners – genuine edge-to-edge cleaning
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Clear switching of floor types
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Function controls at hand level
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No marking on floors
Results:
1. Floorcare purchase impulsive, even distress driven and heavily influenced at point of sale
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Low involvement purchase
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Some limited research conducted pre-purchase either through internet or store visit
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Price band and broad product type determined prior to purchase
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However, consumers more likely to have clear view on what they don’t want to buy informed by negative product experience
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Consumers then heavily reliant on information at POS to guide final product selection
2. Low expectations of floorcare product performance
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Most expressed some degree of dissatisfaction with floorcare products (usually loss of suction)
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Floorcare products felt to have limited and quite short lifespan
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However, recognition that superior performance possible but at a price and therefore some trade off performance against cost
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3. Fairly consistent criteria used in product selection
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Consumers have a fairly well-developed product vocabulary
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After price, power is the first criteria because power (wattage) = suction
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Other criteria used are weight, suitability for different floor types and cord length
4. A number of un-met needs exist in the market​
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- ​Chief amongst these is an affordable machine that performs well over time and does not lose suction​
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Clear and easy to understand settings for different floor types including laminatesNon-marking wheels for solid floors
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Ability for genuine edge cleaning and to clean into corners
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5. Market felt to be crowded with little differentiation
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Dyson stands out as distinctive/unique brand
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Other brands have less well-defined values
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Given this, brand provides secondary reassurance once product features have been assessed rather than driving purchase
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This provides both an opportunity for new entrants and a threat in terms of failing to establish a distinctive offering (`doing a Morphy’)
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6. Clear consumer permission for Breville to enter floorcare
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Consumers confident that Breville could produce floorcare products
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Brand heritage lies with small domestaic appliances so some tendency to favour hand-held products
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However, hand-held sector lacks credibility so important to have full range of products
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Breville expected to combine effective cleaning with innovations around ease of use
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Although unaware of brand relationship, existing Dirt Devil stick vacuum product felt to serve as a prototype example for Breville product
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Breville brand capable of supporting products within £50-£100 range with a limited cross-over into the £100+ category