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developments were informed by the market research techniques
that P&G pioneered during those years.
In 1930, for example, P&G enlisted college-educated
women to go door-to-door and conduct surveys of members of
the company’s core market—homemakers—about their views
on household products. This and other research practices
proved so useful that P&G more than quadrupled the budget of
its market research department between 1930 and 1942—
despite the difficult times.
Today, the use of these market research techniques is com-
monplace. However, it is rare that—when the economy fal-
ters—companies continue to invest in such techniques as heav-
ily as P&G did during the Great Depression. Indeed, just as
many managers will quickly trim their R&D spending, so will
they just as quickly take the knife to the market research budget.
But a lack of consumer understanding—especially when those
very consumers are undergoing major shifts in preferences—
can put a company at a serious disadvantage to competitors that
continue to robustly develop new products based on changing
customer needs and behaviors.
The Huggies brand launched by Kimberly-Clark in 1977—
a period of double-digit inflation—was developed after com-
pletion of a major study on consumer preferences. This resulted
in a dramatically new diaper design that more closely matched
the shape of babies, employed new elastic materials, used tapes
that could be refastened, and provided extra absorbency. The
higher manufacturing costs associated with the new design
necessitated a 30 percent price premium over other diapers, a
difficult prospect during those inflationary times. Despite that
obstacle, however, the superior quality of Huggies led to quick
growth in market share: starting from zero in 1977, market

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