Design Thinking for Innovation Alex Perez

Reflection

Storytelling and Visualization in marketing for the bleach industry

Challenge & Selection

Working for the leading brand of bleach in México, we developed a case to build upon

brand values and product performance in order to maintain leadership considering we had a

90% of penetration in the Mexican households. Taking into account that bleach is considered a

commodity (a low price and poorly differentiated product), there was a challenge of keeping

white brands at bay while keeping our current consumers. The case would detail a deliverable

that would help us trigger further actions for this challenge. Even tough bleach is a product

commonly used in Mexican households due to its multi-purpose benefits such as: disinfecting

surfaces (bathrooms, toilets, counters and floors), disinfecting fruits and vegetables, purifying

water and whitening clothes. These benefits were widely known in the Baby Boomers

generation, but nowadays the millenials don’t fully know the many benefits of the product due to

the many alternatives in the market and many misconceptions around bleach (such as alleged

toxicity or it being highly damaging for clothes). The challenge was to find a way of

communicating with those consumers and deliver the benefits of bleach in their home.

The tool selected was Storytelling, in order to map all the brand’s touchpoints with their

consumers and define which of them would be the communication hub for all the brand’s

benefits. Besides, Storytelling allows us to discover underlying or unseen causes to the problem

that can really connect with an audience.      Application

Normally brands take upon themselves to communicate their benefits in the way that you

would tell in a TV commercial: fast and clear droplets of information that you can fit in 20 or 30

seconds. Sometimes they tell stories, sometimes they tell facts, but overall you don’t get much

space to share details. In order to apply the Storytelling tool we had to also use the Visualization

tool to map a consumer journey not as a purchase funnel that ends with them buying the

product, but as an information funnel where people (not consumers) make a research to

discover solutions to their problems. In this sense, we established that Millenials, being a highly

connected generation, use the internet as their principal source of information -besides TV isn’t

a hot medium for them as it was for older generations. We mapped platforms such as social

media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram), video (YouTube) and search engines (Google, Bing) to

establish which roles they provide in their daily usage and define that search engines are the

primary platform when someone wants an answer to a specific issue. Having done this, we

partnered with Google for a deep dive on all search terms related to bleach in México to classify

and identify key drivers for the category and what aspects of the applications of bleach were

unclear. We discovered that a large number of queries weren’t properly about usage and doses,

Design Thinking for Innovation Alex Perez

but about the composition of bleach, how it's made, how it works and more technical features.

This made us rethink the way we would’ve conceived the campaign in order to address the

challenge. We would still communicate the benefits and ways the product could be used, but

had the start with basic information that people wanted to learn. There was no point of just

telling how many cups of bleach you need to disinfect a floor if people first want to know if

bleach is toxic or biodegradable in order to be sure they are willing to buy the product. With this

research we were able to take this journey into the official website to tell a story about bleach:

what is it, how does it work and the main uses that would connect with the different products.

We also added a myth-debunking section inspired by many queries found on Google such as “is

it true that bleach pollutes water?” or “is it true that bleach can dissolve clothes?”. Another

important section was derived from this investigation to tell the story of how bleach has been in

our households for the past hundred years helping us battle bacterias and viruses as the main

disinfectant in the world. Following the same Storytelling formula, we tried to steer away from

just providing fact sheets and plain benefits and created a visual section that included a grid

comparing the number of cases of popular diseases in México with the max occupation of

popular venues in the country such as the Chapultepec Park, the Zocalo or the pyramids of

Teotihuacán. This gave an introduction to talk about how bleach works at a molecular level

against bacteria and viruses and more technical aspects of how the formula works.      Insight

What we discovered with this process is that there is more than meets the eye when we

define a challenge or problem. If it wasn’t for the deep dive into what people were actually

searching, we never would’ve identified that newer generations didn’t understand the value for a

product as bleach given that neither us nor the competition was providing this kind of

information for our consumers. Due to the presence of bleach in many households for so many

years, we rarely questioned ourselves about what kind of concerns triggered an understanding

of the product.      Approach

Even though I’m confident that using a mix of Storytelling and Visualization were the

right tools to develop this proposal for the challenge, we could’ve reinforced the project with the

Mind Mapping Tool with real customers. At the company we have a lot of information and

studies about the category and consumers, but this project would have provided an opportunity

to incorporate new insights from consumers beyond the data available on our U&A studies.

Provided we had more time, a Launch Tool would’ve helped us make beta testing for the

website and launch various sections while checking the website data to understand which

sections were more interesting.


Design Thinking for Innovation Alex Perez Reflection Storytelling and Visualization in marketing for the bleach industry Challenge & Selection Working for the leading brand of bleach in México , we developed a case to build upon brand values and product performance in order to maintain leadership considering we had a 90 % of penetration in the Mexican households . Taking into account that bleach is considered a commodity ( a low price and poorly differentiated product ) , there was a challenge of keeping white brands at bay while keeping our current consumers . The case would detail a deliverable that would help us trigger further actions for this challenge . Even tough bleach is a product commonly used in Mexican households due to its multi - purpose benefits such as : disinfecting surfaces ( bathrooms , toilets , counters and floors ) , disinfecting fruits and vegetables , purifying water and whitening clothes . These benefits were widely known in the Baby Boomers generation , but nowadays the millenials do n’t fully know the many benefits of the product due to the many alternatives in the market and many misconceptions around bleach ( such as alleged toxicity or it being highly damaging for clothes ) . The challenge was to find a way of communicating with those consumers and deliver the benefits of bleach in their home . The tool selected was Storytelling , in order to map all the brand ’s touchpoints with their consumers and define which of them would be the communication hub for all the brand ’s benefits . Besides , Storytelling allows us to discover underlying or unseen causes to the problem that can really connect with an audience . Application Normally brands take upon themselves to communicate their benefits in the way that you would tell in a TV commercial : fast and clear droplets of information that you can fit in 20 or 30 seconds . Sometimes they tell stories , sometimes they tell facts , but overall you do n’t get much space to share details . In order to apply the Storytelling tool we had to also use the Visualization tool to map a consumer journey not as a purchase funnel that ends with them buying the product , but as an information funnel where people ( not consumers ) make a research to discover solutions to their problems . In this sense , we established that Millenials , being a highly connected generation , use the internet as their principal source of information -besides TV is n’t a hot medium for them as it was for older generations . We mapped platforms such as social media ( Facebook , Twitter , Instagram ) , video ( YouTube ) and search engines ( Google , Bing ) to establish which roles they provide in their daily usage and define that search engines are the primary platform when someone wants an answer to a specific issue . Having done this , we partnered with Google for a deep dive on all search terms related to bleach in México to classify and identify key drivers for the category and what aspects of the applications of bleach were unclear . We discovered that a large number of queries were n’t properly about usage and doses , Design Thinking for Innovation Alex Perez but about the composition of bleach , how it 's made , how it works and more technical features . This made us rethink the way we would ’ve conceived the campaign in order to address the challenge . We would still communicate the benefits and ways the product could be used , but had the start with basic information that people wanted to learn . There was no point of just telling how many cups of bleach you need to disinfect a floor if people first want to know if bleach is toxic or biodegradable in order to be sure they are willing to buy the product . With this research we were able to take this journey into the official website to tell a story about bleach : what is it , how does it work and the main uses that would connect with the different products . We also added a myth - debunking section inspired by many queries found on Google such as “ is it true that bleach pollutes water ? ” or “ is it true that bleach can dissolve clothes ? ” . Another important section was derived from this investigation to tell the story of how bleach has been in our households for the past hundred years helping us battle bacterias and viruses as the main disinfectant in the world . Following the same Storytelling formula , we tried to steer away from just providing fact sheets and plain benefits and created a visual section that included a grid comparing the number of cases of popular diseases in México with the max occupation of popular venues in the country such as the Chapultepec Park , the Zocalo or the pyramids of Teotihuacán . This gave an introduction to talk about how bleach works at a molecular level against bacteria and viruses and more technical aspects of how the formula works . Insight What we discovered with this process is that there is more than meets the eye when we define a challenge or problem . If it was n’t for the deep dive into what people were actually searching , we never would ’ve identified that newer generations did n’t understand the value for a product as bleach given that neither us nor the competition was providing this kind of information for our consumers . Due to the presence of bleach in many households for so many years , we rarely questioned ourselves about what kind of concerns triggered an understanding of the product . Approach Even though I ’m confident that using a mix of Storytelling and Visualization were the right tools to develop this proposal for the challenge , we could ’ve reinforced the project with the Mind Mapping Tool with real customers . At the company we have a lot of information and studies about the category and consumers , but this project would have provided an opportunity to incorporate new insights from consumers beyond the data available on our U&A studies . Provided we had more time , a Launch Tool would ’ve helped us make beta testing for the website and launch various sections while checking the website data to understand which sections were more interesting .