Research Outline

Customer Journey - Female Adult Diaper Consumers

Goals

Understand the customer journey of female consumers who purchase adult diapers, in particular, those purchasing any of the product lines of Always Discreet, Always Discreet Boutique, and Depend.

Early Findings

Challenges in Understanding the Customer Journey

  • It is difficult to fully gauge a customer's journey when buying female adult diaper products due to the stigma associated with incontinence.
  • Stigma makes it difficult for some incontinence sufferers to discuss solutions to best suit their needs and Kimberley-Clark Corp estimates that this results in only half of the adults affected buying the right product. Proctor & Gamble, however, estimate it to be closer to 10%.
  • In fact, many keep their condition secret from even their closest family members.

Customer Journey - Female Adult Diaper Consumers

  • A woman may take some time, even months, before deciding that they should buy adult diapers.
  • During that time they may choose to research online to learn about the types of products available.
  • Buying it for the first time can be daunting, packaging labels may be too discreet, which can make the customer embarrassed because they have to spend more time trying to understand the different products and some end up leaving before making their purchase.
  • Some women find that choosing the wrong adult diaper for their lifestyle can "erode their confidence and femininity."
  • Finding the right product can be life changing: “Always incontinence underwear is awesome, and I like that they now have the boutique line [featured above] – they are a little sexier. My stepdaughter and I were talking about how cute they were and that they make me not feel like an old person, just someone who wears disposable underwear.”

Summary of Early Findings Relevant to the Goals

While we were able to find some insights offered by the manufacturers themselves based on their customer studies, there appears to be limited information directly from the consumer themselves. As our findings outlined above, this is likely to be based on the stigma associated with needing to use the product. However, it may be possible to infer more about the customer journey by focusing on articles by manufacturers, product reviews and by diving articles published by health organisations. We propose the following continued research to provide additional insights.