The Charmin Restroom

On a recent trip to New York I saw an interesting form of marketing from Charmin toilet paper. In Times Square, Charmin is sponsoring a public restrooms as a gift to the city and to advertise their new roll of toilet paper that is 4 times the size of a normal roll. The outside of the building is painted in the Charmin blue with the logo and pictures of the Charmin bear everywhere, the Charmin song playing, and workers encouraging people to enter. The restrooms aren't set up like traditional stalls, but instead are more representative of a home bathroom. The one exception is that the inside of each stall is covered with Charmin messages. In addition to the restroom experience, there is a display to try Puffs tissues, a stage where someone is teaching kids the Charmin dance, and a Charmin bear with a sled you can take pictures with. Also, as you are leaving the restroom they hand out toiletpaper holder extenders, to allow your toiletpaper holder at home to fit with the new larger roll they're advertising. I thought this was a great marketing move. Everyone in Time's Square wants a clean restroom and it gives everyone a chance to actually try a product usually bought on credence. In addition, it gets kids enganged and having fun. And when you get home from your vacation and are looking at pictures, there is the reminder of Charmin when seeing the picture with the Charmin bear. This one move reaches consumers several times and in several ways.

-Danielle DeBenedetto