I guess the most important question for a brand team is: who buys our products?

It’s time to change your toys? One of Durex’s ads displayed alongside our product range in our Mannheim Germany office

It seems to be a very simple and down to earth question at first, but you’ll be surprised at how tough it is when you try to answer it. So one afternoon the Durex brand team sat down to try and figure out who actually buys our products and the ones from our competitors. Similarly, how does our target group differ from the one of our competitors? And if we knew this, is it then possible to make assumptions of how we can expand our product portfolio to satisfy the needs of our competitors’ target groups?

The debate already started when we decided on the method of analyzing: bottom-up or top-down? Do we discuss each product and derive ‘the perfect consumer’ with her/his specific needs? For example do men and women differ when it comes to condoms? Do people in relationships or singletons purchase different condoms? Or does it just depend on each individual consumer’s characteristics and not on their ‘life situation’?

Or does it go more like this: How many people in Germany are in between the age of 15 and 65? How often do they have sex per week/month? And how often do they purchase condoms?

At the end of the day both research methods have their pros and cons. And we did not come to a final statement or to a final research question, unfortunately. But I guess that some things DO take time (although in the FMCG universe, we’re all about being really fast, fast, fast!). And since the consumer is the most essential building block of our Durex brand, there need to be a hell lot more hours and brainstorming invested into analyzing. Before I started at RB, it always seemed so obvious that brands knew about who their consumers are. I guess now that I’ve experienced what marketing is, I guess this is only partly true and it actually requires a lot of hard work. But all this hard work all ends up in opening new possibilities.

Our finding of the day: We need support from our sexual & wellbeing category department to see how best to brief market research agencies and how to structure surveys – “dry” stuff perhaps, but definitly necessary!

Some of Durex’s product range in Germany

Have you ever really wanted to make a difference, to do something that matters, to do something BIG?

German students have a  fantastic opportunity to do just that, by taking part in an amazing competition which challenges entrants to create a simple yet innovative idea to save children’s lives in Angola, one of the poorest places in the world.

The competition is being run by RB Germany together with Save the Children. Student groups are invited to plan the whole project and manage it like a real business case.
It needs to be realistic and efficient. Entrants also need to show strong problem-solving skills, sharp analytical skills and persuasiveness.
Projects will be rated by KPIs (key performance indicators) such as how well the project fits the region, how well social networks are used to raise awareness, how efficient the money would be used and, of course , the quality of the idea.

And the winners will be given the opportunity to visit Angola and see first hand the projects that Reckitt Benckiser is implementing there.
The winners’ idea will also be documented throughout as a case study for corporate social responsibility e.g. for universities.
This scheme follows a tradition of collaborations between RB and Save the Children in finding great projects that impact and really make a difference to the children who need help the most.
The closing date for entries is the end of March 2010 and they will be judged by experts at Save the Children and Reckitt Benckiser colleagues.

If you want to join in, you can find all the information on the Do Something Big website. The site is German only however, as the project addresses German students.
Plus you can even help just be subscribing to the newsletter – Reckitt Benckiser has pledged to add 1 Euro to the project budget for each e-mail address subscribed to the newsletter.

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So don’t wait – DO SOMETHING BIG!