Homedics Novelty Massagers
Navigating the razor thin margins of an impulse buy product
Years ago Homedics created and dominated the lucrative low cost massager category. Positioned as an impulse purchase and sold from countertop POP displays at a sub-$10 price point, high volume sales made even thin margins profitable. But over the years rising costs and dwindling demand have chipped away at that, leaving Homedics in need of cost savings and a refreshed look.
Ideation
The original designs had high part counts and "premium" features like lights and chrome finishes. Changes had already been made over the years to reduce costs, but this time a more drastic simplification was needed to maintain the margins. I began brainstorming simpler forms that still maintained the basic format of a grip area and massage nodes. To enhance the value of a more basic form, I proposed integrating another popular category of impulse buy products — seasonal and novelty — by making a cute character of it.
Prototyping
I had an approximate scale based on previous versions, but I created some quick mockups to verify the ergonomics and hand feel. I also used this as an opportunity to compare different numbers of massage nodes.
Seasonal Flexibility
I kept the base form as universal as possible with an eye to providing the flexibility to make seasonal variants. A single set of tooling would be able to support a variety of themes and characters with only CMF changes. The initial pitch to the client included seasonal options like Christmas and Halloween characters, as well as novelty bird and alien variations.
Final Design
The first collection Homedics launched was a trio of Christmas themed characters, aimed at recapturing their stocking-stuffer dominance from past years during the peak holiday shopping period.
Product photography: www.homedics.com