On-site research with tradesmen frees WD-40’s new-product efforts

Editor’s note: Cara Woodland, formerly with Innovation Focus, a Lancaster, Pa., research firm, is head of the customer behavior and insight division at Psyma International Inc., a King of Prussia, Pa., research firm. Lauren Bierbaum is an ethnographer at Innovation Focus.   

Over 83 percent of households have a can of WD-40 somewhere within their home. The all-purpose cleaner, protectant and lubricant in the familiar blue and yellow container has been an integral part of daily work for the professional tradesman and the average homeowner for over 50 years. The product is marketed in over 160 countries and had sales of $263.2 million in the 2005 fiscal year. The past long-term success of the WD-40 company stems almost entirely from the company’s flagship, the WD-40 brand.

This golden-egg brand had little innovation in its first 40 years. In 2003, San Diego-based WD-40 Company started a project to reinvigorate the brand. A cross-functional team, internal and external to the company, gathered to look at those who used the largest amounts of WD-40 - professional tradesmen. The team participated in site visits with mechanics, landscapers, construction workers and other small-business owners to observe and talk about their use of WD-40-type products. These methods allowed the team to immerse themselves in the end-users’ environment, truly understand the context of product usage and determine ways in which lubricant products met, or failed to meet, their daily professional and at-home needs.

Interesting discoveries

The WD-40 core team made a number of interesting discoveries throughout the ethnographic research. One insight was discovered through making an analogy to another customer need after observing a mechanic. While showing the team his toolbox, the mechanic discussed how he cut his larger tools in half to get into the tight engine compartments of foreign cars. “If you’ve been working on something for an hour, then you just cut the tool to get it in there,” the mechanic said. Even with the tool cut in half, its size was hard to manipulate in tight spaces. Similarly, despite having a small can size, WD-40 could not actually be applied in tight spaces. Furthermore, the core team discovered that the amount of WD-40 applied was often more than needed in those tight spaces, which caused drips and messiness. For the mechanic, this resulted in his customers getting the lubricant on their clothes and then complaining to him.

Participants in the ethnographic study reported a need to “direct [the product] where it has to go” and a desire for a “nozzle hose,” which could be “used to spray on specific areas of the machine.” Participants remarked that they adapted the current WD-40 delivery system - an aerosol spray can with a thin straw attachment - to suit their own needs. Another small-factory worker had rigged a soda bottle with a dripper to apply a small amount of lubrication to a rotating wheel every so often. The core team recognized a disconnection between their product’s myriad of uses and the actual application of that product in the field.

Another key insight from the site visits was from the excavator, who leaves his “tools,” such as back hoes and tractors, outdoors throughout the year and unsheltered from the elements. In his case, he was not using WD-40-like products as a lubricant, but rather a protectant for his company’s investments. In fact, he was using cans and cans of the product at one time to spray down his pistons, snow plows or other expensive assets. In his words, “I like to overdo it. Preventative maintenance is well worth the money. I’d rather spend a $1.29 for a can than $5,000 for a new piston. I don’t have a rule of thumb, but I use a whole can.”

Finally, the core team heard from the road construction worker about his frustrations with WD-40-like products. He used WD-40 to penetrate rusted sign bolts or to remove road tar from tools and often required the use of the signature WD-40 red straw. As a construction worker, he was required to work year-round in some extreme outdoor conditions, and when it was freezing outside he was bundled up with layers of clothing. During these times, it seemed the straw often disappeared and, if did happen to be found, his heavily gloved hands fumbled with the thin straw when trying to insert it in the can nozzle. His description of the frustration was much more colorful than the excavator. Although we can’t reproduce it here, suffice it to say that the description definitely stuck with the core team, and they knew they had to fix the issues with the straw disappearing and its difficult nozzle connection.

As a result of the core team’s ethnographic research many themes emerged. One key need was to package WD-40 in a way that allowed multiple ways of delivering and applying the product. The WD-40 product needed to be applied in small and large amounts for the mechanic and excavator, produce a wide-area spray for the excavator and also precisely reach targeted and tight areas for the mechanic and factory worker.

Insights into action

Based upon the findings and insights gleaned from the ethnographic observations and interviews, the WD-40 Company core team conducted a brainstorming session to develop new product ideas that could address the concerns of end users. During that innovation brainstorming session, nearly 300 possible product concepts were generated. Among those ideas were three seed concept ideas that seemed most likely to meet the multiple delivery systems customer needed. The first was a targeted precision-point concept - a hand-held WD-40 delivery method that operates like a marker, allowing for highly controlled application of WD-40 to any number of tight spaces. The second concept was a wide-dispersion spray nozzle, similar to fogger products, attached to a larger can of WD-40. The third concept was a hinged straw attached to a can of WD-40, which could be pivoted to be in or out of use depending on customers’ needs. All three of these concepts were nominated by the core team to the final portfolio from the brainstorming session.

As a next step in the product development cycle, the WD-40 Company created digital prototypes of these concepts to test using Instant Response. Instant Response testing is a central-location quantitative and qualitative technique used to evaluate product concepts by a large group of potential customers at once. During the quantitative portion of the technique, respondents are asked to enter Likert-like scaled responses to questions such as product design, packaging, purchase interest and usefulness using hand-held keypads. Instant Response provides immediate quantitative feedback on product concepts to the core team watching in the back of the room. Following the quantitative portion, a subset of the respondents are selected to participate in a short focus group to discuss the data from the quantitative session. As such, Instant Response allows for more probing qualitative feedback as well.

For the Instant Response testing sessions, professional tradesmen were recruited. Machinists, mechanics and other large-quantity users of WD-40 participated in three Instant Response sessions. During the sessions, these end users evaluated the usefulness, uniqueness and likelihood of purchase for a variety of concepts, including the three multiple delivery mechanism concepts from the portfolio of the brainstorming session.

Interestingly, the WD-40 No-Mess Pen prototype, which was a marker-type precision delivery system, fared extremely poorly in the Instant Response sessions. Despite the identification of the need for target precision delivery of WD-40 among this group of end users, the No-Mess Pen was not well-received by them. Focus groups conducted immediately following Instant Response sessions probed the negative reactions. Large-quantity users did appreciate the targeted precision of the No-Mess Pen but saw major drawbacks to its small size - a machinist using gallons of WD-40 each month requires far more capacity for any single job than a No-Mess Pen can handle.

However, the focus group discussions did identify a different, as yet completely untapped, market niche for the WD-40 No-Mess Pen: women with household uses for WD-40. Many of the laborers exclaimed that their wives or significant others would probably use the pen. The pen delivery system made more sense for household use than for machine equipment and the vast number of applications for WD-40 solvent makes it ideal for household cleaning and maintenance. As a result, the WD-40 Company conducted online quantitative research with women and found that over two-thirds of women would buy the product. An initial in-home usage study with over 40 women found that the product should target both men and women but primarily focus on women. The research also found that the pen would be bought in addition to a can of WD-40.

The other two concepts - aptly named WD-40 Big Blast (for the wide-area dispersion spray nozzle) and WD-40 Smart Straw (for the hinged straw application) - had extremely high scores for uniqueness, purchase interest and usefulness. In both the quantitative and qualitative portions of the research, there was an audible sigh of relief when the Smart Straw concept was introduced. This concept was given to industrial designers to determine potential ergonomic designs for the straw. The Big Blast concept went on to the technical development of the nozzle and a qualitative product use and package test to further validate the concept.

Paved the way

After three years, WD-40 has launched all three products. The WD-40 Big Blast was launched in the winter of 2004 into the traditional channels of automotive, hardware and home improvement stores. The introduction was complemented with trade publication advertising and a public relations campaign. Both the WD-40 No-Mess Pen and WD-40 Smart Straw were introduced into the big-box do-it-yourself home improvement stores in early summer 2005 and mass merchants in late summer/early fall 2005.

By using ethnographic and other types of research the company identified and brought to market a host of promising new versions of its bread-and-butter brand. It also brought the voice of the customer into its product development process and paved the way for future innovations.

The three products have been selling well in all distribution channels. At the end of the first quarter, sales were up 14.4 percent in the lubricant market. “We are continuing to make progress in our product innovation program and in growing our fortress of brands,” says WD-40 Company CEO Gary Ridge. “During the quarter we had a positive impact from the new WD-40 delivery systems across the globe. We are on-target with the rollout of these products.”