Neutrogena gets it right

Common morning scenario for men: shower, shave, get dressed, look in the mirror and see an irritated neck, or the raw, red swelling of an ingrown facial hair. How well does the personal care industry address this problem? Well, in the shaving aisle, they have… shaving cream. Razors. Aftershave. Individual products but no solutions. Enter Neutrogena. Five years ago, the West Coast office of the agency I worked for designed a new site for Neutrogena where you could see the entire range of products in one place. At the store, they had a shampoo in the shampoo aisle, a moisturizer here, and another product over there. The website became a brand-unifying location where none had existed before.

Now Neutogena has brought that same kind of thinking to men’s toiletries. They have grouped men’s shaving and facial care products into two lines, Razor Defense and Skin Clearing, clearly aimed at what men see in the mirror. And they’ve changed the merchandising , so now when I go to the shaving aisle, I find everything that support my needs – skin wash, shave cream, facial moisturizer, etc. – grouped side by side. The scenario-driven product line names (Razor Defense, Skin Clearing) are featured prominently on the packaging, making them easy to recognize and buy. And buy them I do, because they’re not just easy to buy, they work.

It's a great example of what Mohan Sawhney, McCormick Tribune Professor of Technology at the Kellogg School of Management suggests as the outcome of the application of a “customer value mindset.” Professor Sawhney has proposed that solutions that are based on the customer’s definition of value are better positioned to create and deliver superior value to customers, and thus enable marketers to sell more deeply to existing customers. Neutrogena has accomplished that goal with me, and as far as I can see, it’s because they started their process by uncovering just what it is a man experiences in the mirror every morning, and then designing and marketing products based on that insight. Way to go, Neutrogena.