A big mess - what do children like about it?

Children have their own logic, their own sense of right and wrong, fair and unfair. It is fascinating to peek into their world. Mess is a child's best friend. I used to always wonder why. Then one day, I stopped wondering and asked a child and this is what emerged. LISTEN IN

The shape of a sound & the taste of a colour

Can you taste the colour blue? Or what does the flavour 'salty' feel like when you touch it? The ability to think of one sense using another or simply put marry two sensory experiences is synesthesia.  It is believed that people who can do that are 'gifted' with this ability. It is also believed such people are mostly right-brain dominant or 'creative' as we know it. 

A friend who plans to pursue her Phd on this subject, and I got talking about this. Our hunch is that synesthesia is a possibility for everyone of us...albeit in a subconscious frame of mind. 

Why do we make this assumption?

Color synesthesia

One of the first few projects that we did at illume was explore the way Indians think about color to arrive at color codes that wereuniquely Indian (unlike the ones you find documented that have a western bias)

Our journey took us to Benares, Chennai, Delhi, Jodhpur, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune 

We tried asking regular (who are not explicitly gifted to think about colors in a multi-sensory way) consumers about how their mind imagines certain colors and the conversations we heard were fascinating.

The meaning in the ‘fill it-shut it-forget it’ routine for a washing machine detergent user

The task: Identifying emotional triggers to position a washing machine detergent brand

The approach : individual subconscious interviews using specialist methods for exploring product sensorial and emotional payoffs

The challenges:
The window of interaction with the product – less than two minutes.

The target were the front loading users who had little or no involvement with the process.

Washing – a low involvement mechanical task that people would not register / would even be able to talk about consciously.

Illume research revealed:

Women’s brand imprints for detergents  went back to their own childhood when they saw their mother’s hand wash their clothes.  That also imprinted in their mind the proof of the product working and nostalgic connection with the brand. A new entrant would have to work on creating this connection with the next-gen consumer

The range of pay-offs that brands have focused on so far have largely been in one of these areas – liberation from the laundry task as necessary evil, mastery through the efficiency routine and family care through task integration

The positioning space – ‘Revitalize your external self’

An excerpt from the illume interview

‘Wearing washed clothes make you feel the same like you have just gotten out of a shower…so you feel very fresh, very energetic. The clothes make you feel fresh for a longer period of time. We have washing machines since it is very difficult to wash clothes everyday and to the perfection that you would like it.  If you go out for a whole day of work, you come back feeling all sweaty and tired in all the pollution. Feel very tired and exhausted. The clothes also have a certain odor.. The clothes also seem worn out. They have been through a lot the whole day...a lot of hard work. They are also very tired and wilted. The clothes also feel like they need a good wash. Like we feel like getting into the shower and the clothes also feel it. So one would want to get rid of the clothes one has been wearing so I would put it into the machine. And the next morning, like you feel refreshed…you get the same clothes back as if those were new. The clothes feel very rejuvenated and fresh and ready for another hard day’s work’.