Walking a fine line

In the nearly 40 years since its introduction, Oilatum soap has never had a bad year. Recommended by dermatologists to patients with dry, sensitive skin as a gentle cleansing agent, the brand has earned a loyal user base. Though the brand doesn't benefit from splashy ad campaigns-its maker, Stiefel Laboratories, promotes the soap primarily through physician referral-Oilatum continues to compete in pharmacies and drug stores against brands with much more marketing muscle behind them.

In recent years, despite Oilatum's steady performance, Stiefel began having inclinations that a packaging change might be worthwhile. First, it had been nearly ten years since the last packaging change, and Stiefel had questions about the aesthetic appeal of the current box, a functional, medicinal-looking light blue container that prominently displays the Oilatum brand name and the line "For dry, sensitive skin."

Second, questionnaires inserted into Oilatum packages over a two year period revealed that a percentage of the soap's users bought the soap on impulse and not as a result of a doctor's recommendation and Stiefel suspected that a redesigned package might attract more impulse purchases, says Michael Martinolich, marketing and advertising services manager, Stiefel Laboratories.

"The package insert questionnaire indicated about a ten percent impulse purchase, and we thought that if we could enhance the packaging we could increase that impulse purchase even more. If we could do that with a minimum of an investment in packaging, we thought that would be advantageous, even though the ethical promotion of our products through dermatologists would remain our thrust. We're in an odd situation, because most of the competing products are consumer-oriented products and that means that packaging is changed quite frequently. But our decision to change packaging wasn't a reaction to competitors. We just felt that it was time to do it," Martinolich says.

New designs

In the Spring of 1990, a research project was undertaken to test two new designs against the existing package. In updating the packaging, Stiefel had to walk a fine line to avoid alienating current users while attracting new ones. "Because such a high percentage of patients use Oilatum over and over again, we didn't want to change the package so drastically that they couldn't find the product on the shelf," Martinolich says.

Data from the questionnaire indicated that the typical Oilatum user is a woman, 30+ years old, with sensitive skin. Respondents from this group-half Oilatum users and half non-users-were recruited in mall intercepts for the research.

Joan Treistman, partner, Treistman & Stark Marketing, Inc., Edgewater, New Jersey, designed the research for the Oilatum project. She says that because of the multiple objectives involved in the packaging change the research employed multiple methodologies. Some of those objectives included: keeping current users happy, gauging any potential downsides that might result from a packaging change, and increasing the aesthetic appeal of the packaging.

"We put together a methodology that would treat each of the issues individually while at the same time giving us the option of examining everything from a holistic point of view as we put the data together," Treistman says. "We used eye-tracking to document the attention dynamics of the package on the shelf in terms each design's ability to direct consumer attention to specific elements on the package. We used the l-scope to determine the speed and accuracy of brand and product information registration. And then we used a verbal interview to uncover each package's effectiveness in terms of aesthetic appeal, brand imagery, and purchase interest."

Simulated store shelf

Each of the designs were tested in a simulated store shelf planogram to determine how quickly the Oilatum box was seen and how long respondents looked at it. Second, consumers viewed the designs separately to determine the points on the packaging they noticed first, second, etc.

"The focus of the analysis was to make sure that the high level of commitment that users had was maintained by any new package," Treistman says. "It's not unusual for people, particularly in a product category such as this, to have very high standards and strong feelings for the product. Any change to the packaging was bound to have some influence on the current franchise and Stiefel had real concern not to generate any downside risk with the current franchise. We looked for any falloff as a consequence of a new package and we were satisfied that that didn't occur."

Treistman says that testing the product on the shelf in a competitive environment is crucial. "I don't think oftentimes that marketers recognize the context in which the package performs. If more of the people who make decisions without the benefit of research were to look at their package on the shelf in a competitive environment, they'd have a more realistic sense of what the package has to achieve if it s going to break through the clutter and direct attention to the information that the marketer has decided is vital to influence brand sales."

Direct and indirect competitors

Oilatum has direct competitors within its product subcategory (a complexion bar soap intended for dry sensitive skin) but it also vies indirectly with soaps designed for more general use, such as Neutrogena, Treistman says. "On specifics, some of those other brands might not consider Oilatum a competitor but it is part of the mindset. It's not the kind of product that all people necessarily come to the store looking for. The point of sale is a key area for a product such as this to generate initial trial and as a consequence that made the visibility of the package on the shelf that much more of an important criterion in the evaluation of the results.

"For the consumer, the package represents the product, for better or for worse, and any of its benefits. So for Stiefel, that package may be the only piece of communication they have with the consumer."

Therapeutic image

Though the intention was to modernize the design, Treistman says that Stiefel and the designers were careful to preserve the soap's therapeutic image. "You don't want to give up the notion of the product's effectiveness when you change the package, so that becomes a pivotal area when you do the research. You don't want to tamper too much with the brand's image and lose any of the value of what the original package said to consumers about the product's capabilities."

It was important to determine that the new package was easily read and that the brand name, content, and main benefits of the soap were communicated clearly. "We were concerned with two issues: one, that consumers would get to that information and two, that that information would register quickly and accurately. Beyond that we wanted to be certain that the packages communicated the image of the brand that was desired by management, consistent with marketing strategy and in addition that the package had aesthetic value and ultimately that it stimulated purchase.

"You don't expect going in that the non-user is going to rate the product as highly as the user will, but what you want to see is that the new packaging generates a stronger appeal among nonusers and the new package doesn't put off the current franchise. The results told us that we were indeed able to meet those standards."

Modern-looking

Stiefel gave designers latitude to create designs that were clearly different from the existing package. The only prerequisite was to keep the Oilatum name in a similar script style. Ten possible designs were submitted and through meetings, that number was cut to the two designs that underwent testing with consumers.

The design that "won" and is now on the shelf with some slight modifications is a contrast to the previous design. It's a modern-looking, peach colored package that features the Oilatum name in striking blue script similar to the typography used on the old box. In addition, the Stiefel brand name is much more prominent. Previously it was tucked in the upper left hand corner of the box. On the new design, the Stiefel logo is in gold in the center of the front face. "The new package will give Stiefel the opportunity to create more brand equity. The gold seal works very nicely because it adds something to the image of the product. In the research we investigated whether that seal was a distraction from other information and as a result some changes were made so that it doesn't detract from other information," Treistman says.


Soap


The new box is also more in harmony with the peach colored bar of soap it houses, which was another of the manufacturer's goals. "Stiefel felt that they had a very handsome soap bar that wasn't complemented by the original exterior package. One of the important steps in the research was to show people the bar of soap and find out how consistent they felt the package was with the impression that the soap bar gave them," Treistman says.

Change not necessary?

For a time, it appeared that a packaging change might not be necessary, as the existing package was scoring a close second in the testing. In the end, the research showed that one of the newer packages did better in the shelf setting than the other two designs.

"The research told us that the position of all these different elements on the front panel is very important to how the customer reads the package. Since we didn't want to upset our current users, the Oilatum logotype is the biggest element in the center of the box and right above that is the corporate logo. The older package said the product was for 'dry, sensitive skin' but the research showed that the phrase 'moisturizes dry sensitive skin' was more meaningful for people," Stiefel's Michael Martinolich says.

100% improvement

Because the new package was introduced in January of this year, Martinolich says it's a bit early to tell from sales how the change has affected Oilatum. "But the physicians we have talked to have said that the new package is a 100% improvement over the old design, which gives the physician a feeling that they're recommending a better product."