How ‘Design Thinking’

transformed ‘Febreze’ into a $1

Billion Brand
One of the P&G’s scientists accidentally discovered a chemical, that
would draw the scents of any object into the chemical’s molecules. He
sprayed the chemical over the smelly fabrics, used socks, and carpets,
and was pleasantly surprised to see that the unpleasant smell was gone
when the mist dried. P&G saw a huge potential in the chemical, with an
opportunity for wider applications

The P&G team observed that people who visit bars were leaving their
jackets outside to avoid the smells due to smoke, and alcohol. The
market research confirmed that there was an immense requirement to
mask pet smells in homes.

P&G named the product as “Febreze” and launched it in a test market

to validate the research and assumptions — They came across a user,
whose job profile was “Park Ranger”, her job was to trap a lot of
skunks. Due to her job profile, everything in her life smelled like a
skunk, be it the clothing, curtains, bed, socks, or room — Owing to this,
She did not have any love life. She had tried all kinds of cures — special
soaps and shampoos, unfortunately, the problems persisted. After
using the Febreze, she almost cried and thanked the team for helping
her love life. The skunk smell was gone.

The story was so inspiring that the P&G team felt that the product
would be a huge success — A colorless, odorless liquid that would wipe
out any foul odor without any stains.

So, the P&G team positioned Febreze as a product that would allow
people to rid themselves of embarrassing smells. They ran
advertisements showing how people could mask their pet smells over
home furniture -

“Sophie will always smell like Sophie, but my Sofa does not have
to smell like Sophie?” — The advertisement message

P&G launched the product, ramped up production, distributed

samples, stacked up containers in all stores to provide a visual trigger,
and spent a lot on advertisements.

Sales never picked up — the sales dwindled day by day and the Febreze
team was looking at a bleak future after 6 weeks of launch. So, why did
the product fail? How did they overcome it?

In-Depth User Research

Steve jobs “I have always found that you have to start with the
customer experience and work backward to the technology. You can’t
start with the technology and try to figure out what to sell. I have
made this mistake probably more than anybody else. I have got the
scars to prove it. So we started with: what incredible benefits can we
give to the customer? Where can we take the customer?”

As a designer, whenever we come across a need or pain, we try to

classify the need as People Problem or Situational Problem. The
trouble with a situational problem — The user may not feel the need or
pain if the situation changes and designing a product to meet just one
situational problem would result in failure. The “Park Ranger” scenario
was a Situational problem and not many users would face that type of
scenario.

Pet problem — People love pets — If there is a need here for a ‘Febreze’
product, then we could term it as a ‘People Problem’ — It needs
detailed deep research to understand the need. You would love
somebody as they are. After seeing the terrible results, the P&G team
went ahead with in-depth research to understand why the product
failed. They visited a woman’s home who had nine cats. Though the
house interior appeared clean and organized, the pet smells on
curtains, and furniture was overpowering for the research team, but
the lady could not detect the smell. After a series of research with pet
owners, the team realized that most of them did not feel the “Pet
Smell” as a major pain. Many of them could not detect the smell as
they were getting used to their scent. Scents, in fact, fade with constant
exposure. There was no trigger to make users buy the Febreze product.

EMOTIONAL MIND or RATIONAL MIND

“Febreze” advertisements were all talking to the rational mind and not
to the emotional mind. The rational mind is not at all connected to our
senses and only the emotional mind is connected to our sensory
organs. The rational mind did not detect the pet smell and it never felt
there was a problem or a need. The communication should appeal to
both rational and emotional minds.

ELEVATE THE USER

The golden rule in communications — is “Never say the customer is
wrong” — If you were saying that your room smells bad — You were
blaming the customer that he was unable to keep it clean.

Will you admit that your house stinks?

Pets are loved, pointing out problems with pets is the wrong concept to
promote the product. You should turn the problem into an aspirational
statement, and motivate him as if your product is trying to increase the
sensory experience to a higher level so that it could benefit the user and
the people around.

POINT TO DESTINATION
To develop a habit of using a product — there should be a cue that
triggers an action and there should be a reward so that a craving for a
reward could be developed after repeated attempts. What was the cue
for Febreze? Pet Smell? The smell of a pet was a gradual process and
the cue was not exactly defined or clear to the user. It was not an
absolute point. Even if he was aware of the cue when he should start
using the product(The action)? There was no proper guidance on when
to use the ‘Febreze’ product, even though a user buys the product —
The cues were wrong and there was no clear indication when to take an
action(Use the product). “No Smell” was not the destination. If the
right destination and the path are not defined, then the product would
fail.

BRIGHT SPOT
In User Research — One of the requirements is to look at users beyond
the target segment — Extremes, Outliers, or Non-Customers. If the
product was already launched, we would try to understand and learn
from people who use the product regularly(They may be outside the
target segment) — Which could be called “Finding the
BrightSpot”(Chip and Dan Heath used this term in his book “Switch”)
— P&G team came across one such user — A woman with 4 teenage
boys. The woman loved ‘Febreze’ and used it every day. She had no
pets. No one smoked. The rooms were clean, and tidy, and no smell
whatsoever. The teenagers never kept their rooms clean. So, she used
to clean the rooms, and to end the cleansing ritual in a nice way, she
would spray the “Febreze”.
VITAMINS or PAINKILLERS
This scenario struck a chord with the research team — They started
observing many people who kept their houses clean and tidy — the
team was moving in an opposite direction now. There was another user
who after cleaning the clothes, folded them nicely, then sprayed the
smooth comforter with a smile. Spraying was a mini-celebration for
their work accomplishment — a way of feeling proud of their work. It is
like having a sweet or dessert at the end of a spicy dinner.

Another user after smoothening the bedspreads, and pillow, neatly

arranging them — there was a smile, a relaxed, happy feeling in them
and was proud to see their handiwork. After tidying the kitchen, and
wiping the counter clean — there was a smile, a relaxed feeling in the
user. The users treated cleaning as a ritual.

P&G team observed that this target segment was a massive one. But
there was no pain to be solved — People were not looking for any
options to end the cleaning ritual. A tablet need not be a painkiller — It
could be a Vitamin too, but over a period of time, not having vitamins
could turn into a pain. P&G team realized that ‘Febreze’ need not be a
pain killer(For removing bad smells), but could be a Vitamin(Not
solving pain, but providing energy-boosting the visceral experience).

FORMING HABITS
To create habitual experiences, we need to focus on behavior, not on
attitudes or beliefs — Attitudes and Beliefs keep changing over a period
of time and difficult to utilise. But behaviour can be habituated.

Habit is activated by a cue that is associated with a context. As soon as

a consumer sees a cue, an action happens, resulting in some reward,
which further becomes a craving after multiple repetitions and the
habit forms.

‘Febreze’ could be used(action) at the end of cleaning ritual(Cue) —

The cue and when to take action was very clear, unlike the earlier
scenario — after wiping the kitchen counter, after folding clothes, after
neatly arranging bed spreads.

Here, the communication was not blaming the customer — not telling
them their house is unclean — The communication was to elevate the
user’s experience, to make something appear cleaner, to give more
credibility to their cleaning ritual, to become an add-on sweet
ingredient for their prepared food. It was no more about eliminating
bad smells.

Design for Observability — P&G team added perfume to ‘Febreze’ to

enhance the user’s visceral experience and user aspirations. It was a
pleasant feedback mechanism to show the work done in right way.A
pleasant smell would immediately attract the other people’s attention.
It was an easy way for a user to show their sense of cleanliness to
others in a subtle way.
Design for Craving — The pleasant smell at the end of cleaning brought
the relaxation and the pride for the users — Over a period of usage, the
mind began to relate smell as the completion of cleaning ritual —
Without smell, the users felt like the work was not completed — the
craving was being developed. Once craving was formed, it forces the
user to form a habit of using the product every time they clean clothes,
kitchen, carpet, curtains.

Once the craving began, even when the bottles ran suddenly dry — the
bottles were designed in such a way that people could use diluted
perfume in the container to spray over laundry clothes.(Temporary
solution).

CONCLUSION
With deeper observational research, P&G team could convert a market
disaster into a successful product. This case study shows that a product
need not necessarily solve a pain point to become a successful one.
Communicate proper cue, what actions, when to take actions to be
communicated effectively to make people use the product. The reward
systems need to be emotional as well as physical.