Today, 28 May, is International Menstrual Hygiene Day so it’s appropriate that in acknowledging this Cannon Hygiene has debuted its CannonConcept Mini. The company also celebrates this month its 21st year in New Zealand and 60th year globally.
The ‘designer’ CannonConcept Mini is described as ‘cute, it’s compact, it’s pretty and it’s a far cry from what females in washrooms all over New Zealand would have seen 21 years ago!’
The marketer points out that washroom hygiene and sanitary solutions have changed significantly in that time – ‘an evolution highlighted by its latest offering – the CannonConcept Mini.
‘In 1955 Cannon Hygiene pioneered the UK’s first sanitary exchange unit system after spotting an opportunity to move away from the sanitary solution of the time – incinerators (often broken or full) that were “discretely mounted” on the walls of ladies toilets. The Cannon Hygiene sanitary solution proved to be a successful innovation, paving the way for the company’s success.’
Some 60 years later, washroom technology and design has continued to evolve. With space allocated to women’s washrooms becoming smaller, washroom solutions have had to downsize as well.
CannonConcept Mini is said to incorporate all the advantages of Cannon’s standard feminine hygiene units, while presenting a design solution for washrooms with lower usage and tighter spaces. This means that the hygiene unit fits snugly into a cubicle, rather than being an inhibiting item that gets in the way.
What is innovative, design-wise, about this product is its ‘glammed up’ appearance, with the addition of a funky new decal after a lightbulb moment from the New Zealand Cannon Hygiene team.
Debbie McDean from Cannon Hygiene says as women who also work in the business of sanitary hygiene, they were acutely aware of how cumbersome sanitary units can be in tighter washroom cubicles.
“We decided to take matters into our own hands to come up with a sleek and funky alternative for our New Zealand market. We’ve created a unit that’s 60 percent the size of its big sister and shall we say, is quite a bit cuter.”
An all-female design team was put in place to design and test the decal prototype to ensure it was a functional product that could be used to customise the design of the mini units.