Original title: Uphold "curiosity" to break the industry routine Curious about how to continue to raise the ceiling of diapers with "extreme ingenuity"?
Looking at the various sub-categories of mothers and babies, diapers have almost become the most volatile industry, and the competitive pressure of the Red Sea track, the anxiety of the disappearance of traffic dividends, and the sense of urgency brought by the entry of emerging brands have triggered the market to "pan the sand" over and over again. Among them, only enterprises that have worked tirelessly and studied with extreme ingenuity can grasp the initiative in the industry reshuffle.
As a long-term red brand that ranks among the No.1* in China's diaper market, and is also a practitioner of continuous exploration of scientific research and innovation, curiosity is undoubtedly the best annotation of "intensive cultivation and steady progress". On May 9, Curiosity Ningxia Zhongwei Desert Star Hotel successfully held the "Spotlight Curiosity Star" 2024 Brand Ceremony, allowing many consumers and channel providers to feel the high potential energy of brand development at close range, while continuing to raise the ceiling of the industry with extreme ingenuity.
Diapers have entered a new cycle of involution
Count the 46-year evolution and growth history of the head brand
It's hard to imagine that with a small piece of baby diapers as the core, curiosity has dominated the Chinese market for 46 years.
In the field of economics, there is a well-known economic effect known as the "Veblen effect", that is, the higher the price of a commodity, the more favored it is by consumers. This means that consumers are willing to pay for products because of the sense of identity, invisible superiority, and value breakthroughs at the technology and service level brought by the brand, which is a good explanation of why curiosity can continue to move through the cycle.
From the perspective of commercial product development, the competition between the head diaper brands is nothing more than whose R&D results are more cutting-edge, whose product differentiation selling points are more unique, and who can win the favor and recognition of more consumers, and whose position in the industry will be more stable. With the decline in the birth rate of the population and the reduction of the diaper market, the low threshold of the industry and the difficulty of innovation in research and development have prompted many brands to seek survival space in the "low level" market, and even suffer from elimination.
In the eyes of curiosity, diapers are not only disposable daily necessities, but also the love and responsibility of accompanying and caring for the baby day and night. It is reported that most of the curious factory employees already have their own families and babies, they are both producers and consumers, and the sense of responsibility of "being parents" prompts the whole company to abide by the original intention of "making a better diaper", and each employee is like "producing diapers for their own babies to produce each diaper". What's even more heart-warming is the design of the baby photo wall on both sides of the passage of the factory workshop, where the smiling faces of innocent and pure children inspire employees, so that they are full of hope and expectation, and convey their love and care for their babies by creating more extreme product quality. To this end, in the process of product research and development, Curiosity has always been curious to constantly ask themselves, from the pursuit of the "self-torture" of the stronger dry effect of the core, to the "ultimate breakthrough" to explore the more comfortable feel and durability of the rubber band, and persistently be more serious about every detail. In order to avoid any defective products from entering the market, Curiosity is to control from the source, and the factory takes the lead in introducing intelligent automation into the production control system.
In order to accurately understand the changes in the consumption psychology and needs of young parents, Curiosity has carried out a number of research and observation actions so far. It is understood that each of Curiosity's products has undergone thousands of baby simulation tests, and every year it will give the baby a real try-on diaper, so as to confirm and understand whether the "theoretical" good products are really "practical". In addition, the brand will also continue to optimize the product system through face-to-face interviews with mothers, big data real-time listening to user feedback, etc., to truly optimize the product system and bring forth the new.
What's more noteworthy is that the market value of curiosity lies not only in its products, but also in the historical accumulation and value concept behind the brand. As early as 1978, Curiosity invented the three-dimensional wrapping system for the first time, breaking the market convention and creating category innovation, and in the 46 years after entering the Chinese market in 1997, Curiosity has gained a number of firsts in China's infant diapers, from 2017 to anchor the subdivision category to become the first in China's pants diaper market share, to 2020 continue to occupy the first place in China's diaper market share, step by step to start the industry's popularity, and establish an indelible brand impression in the hearts of consumers.
At a time when business development and social well-being are deeply integrated, Curiosity is also actively practicing its social responsibilities and devoting itself to public welfare undertakings with sincerity. On the one hand, Curiosity continues to focus on the well-being of infants and young children, supports UNICEF's "Promoting Newborn Health and Early Childhood Development" project in China, and continues to promote early neonatal basic health care and early childhood development services in central and western China, and works together to improve the health and lives of children aged 0-3 and their caregivers in relevant areas. On the other hand, the brand cares about women's health and development, and provides warm care for women of all ages through menstrual science courses, sanitary napkin donations, and entrepreneurial capital support.
Long-term efforts have results, and positive feedback from the market is undoubtedly the most powerful proof of brand value. According to industry research data, at the level of brand awareness, if the diaper brand is mentioned, 91 out of 100 mothers will say curious; At the consumer penetration level, 63 out of 100 babies have used curiosity products.
The brand ceremony showed its style
Break the routine and start a new journey of exploration of the "Curious Star Universe".
Just as mankind's exploration of the vast desert and the vast starry sky is endless, the "butt" care of the cubs is also destined to be a long journey. Curiosity has specialized in diapers for 46 years, and it is with "curiosity" that challenges the market convention, helps every baby explore the world with high-quality and unique products, and lights up their own "curiosity".
Visiting the scene of the Curious Brand Festival, it is like being in the boundless diaper "Curiosity Universe", and the scene of entering the door is composed of balloons with different questions, which also represents the confusion caused by "curiosity" in the process of exploring the curious diapers: "Are there any diapers that will not stink after pulling?" "It's already a lot of absorption, why is it still leaking?" "What else can be the ultimate care for a newborn baby?" ……
These questions seem to be chaotic and fastidious, but they guide Curiosity to create more professional and forward-looking innovative products on the basis of the industry's universal standards, and successfully embark on a path of quality upgrading of its own. The Curious Studio H sense-first high-end series, which was unveiled at the ceremony, perfectly interpreted the brand concept of "innovating diapers with curiosity" with immersive check-in landscape and real-time interactive experience of technology.
Among them, the curious "Black Label" penguin pants are intensively cultivated on the scale of the senses, and the black and gold display area fully highlights the comfortable feeling of the miracle mousse waist with a delicate and dense mousse waist with nearly zero strangulation marks through the ultra-soft cotton floating device floating in mid-air, and the micron-level elastic fiber device that is different from the traditional rubber band. The transparent screen on the left side of the blue gold display area plays a video explaining the concept of urine partition for users to understand, and the anti-gravity absorption core in the rain house on the right fully verifies the superior performance of the core body of "how the baby can be guided and absorbed" even in a harsh environment, and also allows visitors to clearly and intuitively perceive the infant fart care experience brought by curiosity.
It is not difficult to find that the curious R&D and innovation direction has always revolved around the refined needs of infants and young children, and has achieved the ultimate according to different user preferences and usage scenarios.
Just as the Curiosity Studio H series focuses on the sensory experience of babies and toddlers, other innovative products also focus on moisture dispersion, breathability, non-leakage, and lightness.
In order to let the on-site exhibitors further understand the scientific advantages and selling points of the products, the on-site staff of the press conference also showed consumers the innovative technology applications of other star products of Curiosity through interactive experiments.
For example, the Curious Little Forest diaper has been tested by a thermal imager in the military industry, making the breathable and dehumidifying effect of the "breathing core" visible and measurable, and the heat dissipation speed has increased by 1.2 times compared with the previous generation of diapers, and the air permeability has increased by 400% year-on-year. Behind this, the Curious core version has undergone 5 generations of innovation in 7 years, from the traditional core (fluff pulp), composite core to Sen breathing core, anti-gravity absorption core, constantly updating and improving its absorption speed and air permeability, taking into account the use of the body feeling, Curious to do its best to care for every inch of the baby's skin, so that it can grow up healthy and comfortable.
In addition, the curious dragon pants are the first to specialize in diapers for [Red Seal], curious to find the difference in waist circumference before and after the baby's small nipple belly diet, and relieve the sense of restraint brought by the rubber band through the milk soft bubble waistline, and wear 0 red marks for a long time, which can be done without strangulation. In order to ensure the "0 sense of restraint" of the waist circumference of Xiaolong pants, curiosity starts with the inconspicuous leather band, and tests the comfort and storage activity of the rubber band through the self-developed tension sensor equipment, distinguishing it from the traditional rubber band, and finally achieving the comfortable experience of soft elastic stickers, giving the baby just the right package.
From all kinds of product innovation and R&D progress, it can be seen that "breaking the routine and innovating the definition" is the constant insistence of curiously exploring the diaper universe.
In this event, we not only witnessed the outstanding achievements of the 46 years of curiosity precipitation, but also gave more expectations for the future upgrade and iteration of the diaper market. There is no doubt that in the current process of industry restructuring and value recreation, the basic skills and intensive cultivation strength of the brand are particularly tested. As an industry leader, Curiosity is running its own acceleration with the focus on scientific research and innovation, product iteration and brand building, and I believe that in the future, we will also witness more possibilities for brand development.
*Refers to Curiosity's No. 1 sales volume in the omni-channel baby diaper category, the data is based on the Kantar Worldpanel Index of CCTV Market Research Co., Ltd., for a representative sample of 6,000 babies aged 0-3 in 20 provinces and 4 municipalities directly under the central government except Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Qinghai, Ningxia, Hainan, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, from December 31, 2022 to December 29, 2023 through omni-channel (including direct purchases from merchants, and the channels through which consumers obtain products or services through non-personal purchases) and the data presented by the Category Behavior Study on Purchasing Baby Diapers.
Note: All product performance improvement data mentioned in this article are from Kimberly-Clark laboratories or third-party testing institutions