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Honeywell's clutter-management products court 'soccer moms'

Innovation brings women to an aisle in the store—auto care—they don’t normally frequent, and integration of a network of vendors gives Honeywell a ‘virtual factory.’

Pw 7993 Blink Honeywell

Honeywell’s Consumer Products Group, Morris Township, N.J., is filling one of these gaps, in the automotive aftermarket aisle. The company has launched a line of innovative products that create a new subcategory—car accessories that help moms maintain order in their vehicles without a big investment in time and money.

Both products and packages in the line, marketed under the Blink brand, are designed in soft colors and gentle curves. These are feminine cues—in stark contrast to the male-oriented rigid shapes, darker colors, and packaging graphics that celebrate speed and grime. Such packages are commonplace in the auto-care aisle.

The recent launch of the Blink line follows 18 months of research and planning, and it results from two significant decisions. First, Honeywell shifted its original focus for the brand from male-oriented to women’s more functional car-organization needs, habits, wants, and purchase behavior, creating products in the right packages to appeal to women. Second, Honeywell, working directly with a few principal partners, assembled the right network of vendors to solve the manufacturing complexities in working with many different product and package components in multiple material types.

Assembling the team

Honeywell selected 4sight (www.4sightinc.com), a product and package innovation firm, as an integral part of its creative team. 4sight, in turn, chose Rand Direct (www.rand-direct.com), a contract packager, to fill, label, cover, and seal the packages—and bring the efforts of all the sub-vendors together. Jim Brown, Honeywell’s CPG director, new marketing, describes the work of these vendors as a “virtual factory” that Rand Direct integrated as “a seamless manufacturing operation.”

The result, Brown, says, is a line of innovative products that help the 24/7 “soccer mom” organize her hectic life in the car while transporting kids to athletic fields and other activities.

Identifying the true target

When Honeywell first approached 4sight to develop the Blink line, the product manufacturer had already developed a packaging brief that communicated to males and cars through “TLC” activities such as waxing and polishing.

“Honeywell told us, ‘We want to sell more products to women. We’re not sure how, but we have this line of auto-care products,’” recalls Stuart Leslie, president of 4sight.

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