TricorBraun continues its commitment to consumer focus groups with a series of groups exploring female consumers' preferences for hair care product packaging, both for in-home use and in smaller sizes for travel.

"Let's face it, women are on the go" says Becky Donner, Vice President of Design & Market Insight for TricorBraun. "Traveling for business, working out at the gym or traveling for a weekend get-away, women want packaging that meets their lifestyle. We wanted to explore their thoughts and preferences in a way that not only allows us to better understand packaging preferences, but also enables us to better identify future design opportunities."

The revelations that come directly from consumers in these groups, about what they prefer and how they use packaging in the real world, are valuable because they drive new designs that produce greater success in the marketplace for TricorBraun's customers.

The most recent series of focus groups at TricorBraun's Design and Innovation Studio in Oak Brook, Illinois explored women's preferences for both full size and portable hair care packaging. Participants were asked to bring their favorite full size and portable hair care packages to the groups and also examined and commented on current in market packages provided by TricorBraun.

"This wasn't speed-dating with packages", Donner asserts. "The participants spent time interacting with the packages and each other. They discussed the importance of various packaging functionalities, the visual appeal and attractiveness of the packaging, and ultimately, how well (or if) the packaging helped the product to perform. At the end, they provided us with written evaluations of the various packaging types which helped us not only to better understand preferences, but also better understand opportunities to address unmet needs."