Childhood Woes – Storytelling

Challenge & Selection    Parents and guardians of children ages 3-12 often deal with issues of underarm odor. Many young  preschoolers and grade-schoolers require deodorants or antiperspirants. As children begin to mature,  hormones change, and they naturally begin to develop bacteria. As they sweat, the sweat dries on their  skin, and the mixture of bacteria, dirt, and sweat results in underarm odor. Puberty also leads to the  growth of underarm hair where bacteria can build up. If the child has underarm hair, they will have  armpit odor, especially when they sweat. Children may be caught unaware by this developing change,  which can lead to embarrassment and insecurities. Parents spend time struggling to console and protect  their children from teasing and ridicule due to underarm odor.     Parents need a solution that is affordable, non-irritating, and child-friendly for preschool and grade-school  aged children. Gentle enough for young skin, chemical free, contain no added alcohols or harsh ingredients,  not harmful if ingested or improperly used, and that is all-natural.     I will start this process by using the Storytelling Design Tool. Storytelling is a great tool to use because it  gets to the human side of individuals. It allows us to put people and their experiences first and gives us  the opportunity to show a personal connection to the ideas we are sharing.      Application    I began the empathetic process of learning more about my consumers through telling my story and  showing that I could personally relate to their situation. I have been a parent of small children who  suffered through the challenges of stinky underarms. Although they were bathed and wore clean clothes  daily, I began noticing a musty odor in my toddler’s underarms which became more intrusive as they  aged. Baby powders only temporarily masked the smell. Besides initiating dietary changes, which upset  them, I purchased adult strength deodorants and antiperspirants that caused breakouts and irritations  making it difficult for them to adopt the habit of using it daily. My children also had insecurities, suffered  through embarrassment, and were hesitant to participate in activities which caused heavy perspiration  and underarm odor. I became concerned about their self-esteem and emotional state-of-mind.     Sharing my story allowed parents to have a more open and honest conversation with me and allowed me  to listen to their stories. I used their feedback, both verbal and non-verbal, to make observations about  their wants, needs, and thought processes. As parents, we all have the same concerns…what can I do as a  parent to ease their daily stresses, make their lives better, and allow them to enjoy being a child.      Insight & Approach    My investigation uncovered a lack of child options and nearly every consumer deodorant product currently  on the market has been developed for adults. I also found that parents have been using adult formulated  deodorant and antiperspirant products on children which has caused major underarm breakouts and skin  irritation. The insight I have is that I need to provide a product that could be used safely on young,  sensitive underarms. My consumers need an affordable all-natural, long-lasting organic deodorant for  children.

Upon completion of my Learning Launch, I created a blend of organic odor absorbent and all-natural  fragrant ingredients that were gentle enough for use on children’s underarms. I determined that I needed  participation from a group of individuals in order to orchestrate small hands-on experiments. I was able to  enlist support from a group of fifteen parents for initial testing of my prototype over a four week  timespan. I scheduled two separate interviews with each. The first was prior to initial product use to  discover any known child allergies which could interfere with testing, to become aware of issues with adult  antiperspirants if currently used, to provide the tube of deodorant, and to instruct parents to monitor how  their child liked the product. The second was at the conclusion of the four week period to gather data such  as whether the child remembered to use it daily, how their skin responded to using it, and whether it  actually controlled their sweating and odor.    The pilot contributed to favorable consumer responses which has allowed me to consider travel size  deodorant tubes that pre-school and grade-school students could store in backpacks to use after PE,  outside play, activities and sports. It would also allow parents to store them in purses or personal bags for  portability convenience.    I believe storytelling is the best approach to take for this ideation. Who actually wants to share family  secrets openly and honestly to the world? Getting into the minds of consumers on such a sensitive subject  can be very uncomfortable and such an invasion of personal privacy. Being empathetic towards my  consumers and sharing my story allows comfort levels to increase, thus allowing more sharing of their  deepest thoughts.

