Hygiene Product Market Research

Focus groups are often the best technique to use when you’re looking to gain in-depth insight from potential or existing customers. In a fundamental market such as hygiene, where household usage is universal, it can be a challenge for new products to gain breakthrough with consumers who can be set in their ways. Therefore it is essential to engage with consumers to find out what they think of what is available and where there are any gaps. Focus groups represent an ideal way to gain this level of insight and also offer the opportunity to test out new product concepts and prototypes.

Our focus groups are often held in public venues in major cities including London, Bristol and Manchester, with participants drawn from our HRA Research Panel. Where there is an existing relationship, we are able to hold focus groups in supermarket training rooms. This allows us to take respondents to the oral, feminine and personal care aisles and get feedback on their decision-making process in a real-life store environment.

We also offer online focus groups when face to face isn’t an option. While oral and personal care product usage is essentially universal, where you have specific target criteria, online focus groups are ideal as they broaden the pool of participants to choose from. They are also an excellent way of gathering insight quickly as the logistical challenges of face-to-face groups can be avoided. Online groups also allow clients to view the sessions remotely, providing guidance on further areas for exploration.

In the FMCG hygiene category, in-depth interviews can be an ideal way of gaining detailed insight from specific consumer groups. With personal and feminine care often very personal experiences in their nature, depth interviews allow consumers to open up and share their genuine views without being intimidated by other group members.

Interviews can also be a great starting point for exploring customer views and pain points for clients using research to help in their Design Thinking process.

Interviews can be held face-to-face, on the telephone, or via Zoom where the ability to gather video clips of key quotes can be particularly insightful.

Personal, oral and feminine care are all categories where brand credibility is key and therefore the in-store experience is central to consumer perceptions of brands. By using in-store intercepts, or ‘accompanied shopping’ we are able to gather in-store feedback on how your brand is being perceived ‘on shelf’ amongst competitors. This can provide valuable real-world feedback that would be difficult to gain through any other method.

Workshops can be an ideal way to stimulate and develop new ideas. We can either run these with clients, customers or a mixture of both. Introducing people from outside of the business is often an ideal way of seeing an issue with fresh eyes and identifying new, unexplored opportunities.

Ideation Groups (or Innovation Sessions) are a particularly great method for starting off the market research process by highlighting areas for further exploration by fully engaging with consumers, particularly exploring what they want category innovation to look like. This is particularly important in the personal, feminine and oral care markets where consumers can often be reluctant to change their ways and often like to see gradual innovation.

Within the oral, feminine and personal care categories, in-home placement is an important component of the research process. With products in these categories used primarily at home, it is important to understand how these products are actually being used in a ‘real world’ environment. This gives a much more credible measure of genuine behaviour than simply asking consumers about their oral and personal care routines or experience with feminine care products. This method is an ideal way of testing out new products and gaining rigorous and reliable feedback.

At HRA, we recognise the value of using video extracts to summarise key research findings – sometimes able to convey more in a few seconds than a whole page of text. Ultimately, market research is all about people and watching consumers speak is the best way of really understanding what they mean.

With our in-house video production capabilities, we can highlight and distil the key video clips for you in an easily digestible format.

Gaining consumer trust is incredibly important in the oral, feminine and personal care categories and therefore in-store presentation is key. The last thing you want is for your brand to be merchandised in a way you hadn’t intended. Using our national panel of fieldworkers we can check up on stores and help iron out any issues.

Market Research Online Communities (MROC) are a popular technique in the feminine, oral and personal care markets. Gaining feedback on products over time is vital to the development and roll out of any successful brand. Online communities are an interactive method, unique in allowing us to gain rich insight into consumer views, as well as the impact of various factors in their everyday lives. By logging on to an online platform over a number of days, respondents are asked to upload images, videos and diary entries, and participate in polls and group discussions.

As well as gaining rich insight into how consumers use products, we can also gather feedback on taste, branding and packaging by sending out samples to community respondents. This allows consumers to try products in their home – something highly valuable in the oral, personal and feminine care categories.

While qualitative research is highly valuable in providing rich and detailed insight, quantitative research is often required when we are looking to gather reliable data from a large sample. This data can help us to make robust business decisions.

When large-scale data is needed, online surveys are an ideal technique to use. Whether you simply want to get a quick sense check or you’re looking for an extensive data set, we can design a bespoke survey to suit your needs. Utilising our proprietary panel, we are able to recruit a sample to mirror your exact target customer audience.

Our rapidly growing proprietary panel of participants is made up of a broad range of consumers spread across the UK. Whether you’re looking for personal care experts or oral care early adopters, we can recruit a sample of consumers reflecting your specific requirements. Our panel is thoroughly screened to ensure our participants are always engaged in whatever research we conduct. We believe in paying respondents fairly and in return expect them to take the time to participate fully. This ensures our research is always delivered to the highest standard.

One of the most valuable outputs of quantitative research is the ability to build consumer segments, all with their own thoughts, needs and habits. Using SPSS we are able to build statistically robust consumer segments from large-scale survey data. This segmentation modelling adds significant value to quantitative research and ensures you have a detailed image of your different customer segments, their thoughts and opinions. With personal care, oral care and feminine care such universal categories, it is vital to understand the key sub-groups of consumers within these sectors.