I Heart Henry the Hippo

Posted by lehufschmidt at 2:18 PM

I may be the first 27 year old to admit this, but I love Huggies Cleanteam line of products, specifically Henry the Hippo Hand Soap (though I thought he was a dinosaur). While foaming hand soap may not be a new innovation, Kimberly Clark (producer of Huggies) has innovated the packaging to different its product. Targeted at kids, the soap dispenser (Henry the Hippo’s head) will blink for 20 seconds to remind kids just how long they need to wash their hands. This new packaging innovation meets parents’ need to (1) get their kids to wash their hands more often to prevent the spread of germs and (2) teach their kids good hand washing habits.


All too often, we only think of innovation in terms of new products. Clearly, Innovation can take many forms, including packaging, marketing, pricing, and distribution.


Here’s a big thanks to the KC recruiting team, for sending us all a bottle of Henry the Hippo Foaming Hand Soap!

 

5 comments:

  1. Adam B. Needles said... November 18, 2008 at 1:28 PM

    Laura, this is a great post. You are right about their innovation. They have done nothing to the soap; instead, they changed the presentation and the customer experience. The resultant 'package,' tough is something substantially new and substantially impactful on teaching kids about cleanliness. Great consumer-insight-driven innovation by Kimberly-Clark.  

  2. Heather Holtsberg said... November 30, 2008 at 9:47 PM

    Great post, Laura! As we heard from the Unilever team when we were in India together last January, hand-washing can be a life and death issue for many children. Please see the attached link for more details on what Unilever is doing in India:

    http://www.unilever.com/ourvalues/environment-society/case-studies/health-nutrition-hygiene/india-lifebuoy-promotes-handwashing-soap-improve-health.asp  

  3. Kirtman said... December 1, 2008 at 1:41 PM

    Laura, love the post. The reality is that this packaging innovation is sometimes the only innovation companies can to do to a product because they cannot change what is inside that bottle. When I worked at Anheuser-Busch, this is was my reality. I could never change the taste of Budweiser or Bud light, so every innovation within the company in regards to those products have to do with packaging. When you look at the innovation in the beer business amongst the big players, it is entirely focused on packaging innovation. Coors Lights now is touting its vented can and Miller now has a new 16 ounce aluminum bottle that has a twist off top. Nothing has changed within the bottle and nothing every will. The customer base is too large to change the taste of Coors light or Millet Lite. Coke tried to do it, and we all know how huge of failure that was. Long live packaging innovation.  

  4. Schwald said... December 1, 2008 at 5:56 PM

    I think what is so profound about this post is the subtle insight that the innovative packaging changed the user experience and behavior. Two things that we all know are very hard to do but, if done right, can make a huge impact. It will be very interesting to see if competitors follow suit or doctors, parents and child experts really get behind this.  

  5. Jeffrey Xie said... December 18, 2008 at 5:25 PM

    Sometimes, the innovation could not be dramatical change on a product. Like this product, the packaging improvement by introducing new design really addressed the concern of consumers. it reminds us that seeking innovation is not for seeking innovation but for better satisfying consumer needs...  

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)
 

Est. 2008 | Aric Rindfleisch | Wisconsin School of Business | Banner Image by Bruce Fritz