Contextual Product Research in London

While Kimberly-Clark is a worldwide leader in paper products like paper hand towels, a fiercely competitive marketplace exists for those products. Paradoxically, consumers hardly spend a second thinking about the very hand towels they are using that Kimberly-Clark and their competitors are locked in battle to get stocked into prominent public spaces and buildings throughout the world.

How does a company like Kimberly-Clark compete in a market where the product is invisible until there is a problem, where innovative solutions are leap-frogged by competitors, and where the fight to win market share from competitors is complicated by the realities of the distribution network and maintenance contracts?

Kimberly-Clark hired Matter.

The project was to understand the context of purchase, use, and maintenance of various forms of paper dispensers and other hand drying methods in offices, manufacturing environments, and high traffic areas.

Matter visited hospitals, office buildings, museums, aquariums, and factories in the U.S. and U.K. to get an international perspective. Locations included the new Georgia Aquarium and the Tower of London. Matter researchers interviewed and videotaped distributors and maintenance management companies, shadowed and documented washroom maintenance workers through their daily shifts, and observed washroom patrons washing and drying their hands in public restrooms.

All of this data was collected and analyzed, and concept directions for new products and services were created and presented.

“I have partnered with Matter to conduct qualitative research in various segments. I have presented them with challenging, non-traditional requests and they have been extremely flexible and service oriented. What I have liked about them is that they always delve beyond the basic objective of the project and provide great actionable insights. You always get more than you expect. Their strengths lie in their user friendly reports that have high impact, their creative capability with traditional research methods, and their ability to get the job done without having to look over their shoulder all the time”. – Sumita S. Prathap, RD&E, Kimberly-Clark Professional

Project Photos