Kimberly-Clark + UserTesting

Kimberly-Clark’s well-known global brands, including Huggies, Cottonelle, Kleenex, Depend, Poise, Scott, and U by Kotex, are an indispensable part of life for people in more than 175 countries.

Historically, Kimberly-Clark ran in-person studies to understand the preferences and behaviors of shoppers and users. But most shoppers today include digital resources—not just to shop, but to review and compare their options. The rapid changes in digital shopping caused Kimberly-Clark’s Marketing, Research, and Product Design teams to look for a better solution to test buyer perceptions. They needed an insight solution built for speed, efficiency, ease of use, and global scalability. And it needed to deliver a strong ROI.

Kimberly-Clark selected UserTesting because it delivered on all those requirements. The company uses the platform today as a means of scaling human insight to increase shopper and consumer understanding and improve decision making at all levels. Employees quickly run studies without having to deal with the traditional time, costs, and effort associated with recruiting participants for testing. Kimberly-Clark completes studies within hours, from start to finish.

According to Andy Ford, Global Head of UX and Product Design, “Consumers are doing a lot of research about our products, wanting to understand if that product’s the best fit for them and the things that go into those products. So digital plays a huge role in influencing pre- and post-purchase behaviors. The great thing about UserTesting is that it allows for us to test many different markets and many different iterations.”

Studies with UserTesting have uncovered numerous valuable insights and led to new and improved processes, go-to-market strategies, and great user experiences for Kimberly-Clark. Here are just a few examples:

• Discovery that a popular TV commercial didn't resonate similarly with online viewers. Audiences are different everywhere—and sometimes the audiences differ simply based on the digital channels they access.
• A woman indicated that shoppers look for social validation while they’re shopping for household items, like tissue and toilet paper—shoppers consult social media in unexpected ways.
• A young father explained that he didn’t know how to put diapers on his son. Seeing instructions on a website helped to humanize the brand and address the nuances of the buying journey.

Kimberly-Clark attributes research cost savings of 30X after implementing UserTesting, compared to traditional in-person methods. More importantly, the company's resulting market success ties back to its improved shopper and consumer understanding across 175 countries.  Company-wide access to human insights from UserTesting helps position Kimberly-Clark as UX leaders, poised to succeed for another 150 years.