Procter & Gamble Case Study – Groom with a View
Procter & Gamble Uses a New Way To Study Consumers’ Morning Routines
BACKGROUND In 2009, Procter & Gamble partnered with Qualvu on a qualitative research project using mobile web-cams to learn more about how consumers use their products as part of their morning routines. By seeing their products used by real consumers in the privacy of their own bathrooms, P&G sought to gain insights to grow their brands.
METHODOLOGY Qualvu’s Videodiary Platform was deployed for consumers to record their activities as they got ready for the day. Qualvu sent participants a mobile camera and tripod stand to record their routines as much as modesty would allow. Once the videos were submitted, Qualvu’s team of researchers organized the video and prepared an online report that any interested P&G member could review.
STRATEGY The research study Qualvu undertook required 13 men and women from around the United States who were willing to record the mundane morning rituals all of us go through every day of the week. The participants were asked to give a “tour” of their bathroom and to record their morning routine over a four-day period. They were also asked to answer a four-part series of questions. Participants logged on to the Qualvu Portal, received their questions via video from the researcher, and then simply took their mobile camera into their bathrooms. Qualvu’s asynchronous technology allowed participants to view questions and answer when they saw fit, giving the participant the freedom to answer on their own time from the convenience of their own home in a candid, relaxed setting. Qualvu compensated participants for this extraordinary openness, and for their time, by letting each participant keep the mobile camera.
Qualvu’s streamlined process allowed for a quick seven-day turnaround from recruitment of participants to reporting to the client.
“We knew we had some challenges in filling this project because of the nature of the study, but because of our asynchronous video platform and the comfort level participants felt in opening up a usually private part of their lives, we received remarkably deep and valuable information,” said John Williamson, Qualvu CEO.
From the P&G side, it was important to get national reach without travel, so the Videodiary Platform was ideal. Charlie Rader of P&G said, “Nobody is getting into someone’s bathroom at 6:30 in the morning to watch the routine. You guys [Qualvu] are built from the ground up for video. The quality of the video Qualvu received from participants was excellent. Having a panelist know how to take a good video is really important, and Qualvu does that well. They’re an end-to-end solution.”
