Paper Towels

Paper towels are a timeless and useful product that has been used throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The product’s popularity has lead to widespread availability in supermarkets and convenience stores around the world, and there has been much differentiation in paper towels since they were first introduced. Paper towels usually fall into one of three categories: cost effective, performance-based, and specialized needs.

Paper towels are the ultimate in disposable cleaning tools. The roll is made of an absorbent paper and is perforated at evenly-spaced distances so that individual squares or custom-sized lengths can be torn off.

Cost effective options usually lead to an insuperior paper towel product. Cheaper paper towels are made thinner, absorb less, and in many cases it may take more towel squares to clean a spill. Other attempts to make paper towels more cost effective are sales in packages of 2 or more. By bundling rolls together and guaranteeing a bigger sale stores can offer a bigger per-roll discount. Bigger stores and discount stores like Costco and Sam’s Club are likely to carry these larger-quantity packaging options. In larger house holds the volume of paper towel is amplified and also lends sense to purchasing bundles. For those who live on their own in a small apartment, quantity and available space make bundles a less preferable option.

Performance paper towels are thicker, have more advanced more-trapping patterns in the paper, and are available at a higher cost because of the added benefit they provide. Often the benefit here is stressed that one sheet of high-performance paper towels will clean up a spill that a sheet of the cost effective paper towels will not. The bottom line is more money for ease of use. Using a performance towel will make life easier and is therefore worth the extra money. Although on the shelf it is clear the high performance rolls are more expensive, at the end of the day less sheets are used so the real cost benefit is unclear. The on-shelf price is significant enough for many customers however.

Specialized paper towels are available to further differentiate the selection available to consumers. Rolls made from recycled paper have found an eager consumer base. They provide mediocre performance but the customer can help out with environmental problems by engaging in a purchase. Paper towels are also available with kids in mind. Many rolls come with cartoon character prints for households that have children. The prints and benefits of each roll apply to so many different mindsets and needs and so many different consumers. Brawny for example focuses on the toughness of its product. Those who spend countless hours cleaning up in the kitchen and have a difficult time doing so would find such a tough product to fit their needs. Others might prefer a scented towel, a floral pattern, or have their kids in mind when they purchase a cartoon pattern. The same person might transcend over different rolls through age, financial status, and mood.

Looking at a product that has had so many years to develop expand, differentiate, and reinvent itself provides such a mature view of products and consumerism. Something that has one use and can very easily be universal has split into a few extremely different corners of placement in the market. What was only a tool now affects people’s financial saving, environmental activism, and the entertainment of their children.

I feel like the anecdote about Stonewall Jackson really helped prove a big point about how wonderfully useful maps can be. He used a map, essentially information interpreted by another person, to see something that could not be seen otherwise. Maps really provide an opportunity to see something that might not be ordinarily seen. In this case it was strategic information during the Civil War. The ultimate usefulness of Stonewall's map was not seen until the right situation arrived, where the information the map provided what precisely what he was looking for. In many other situations the same map may have proved itself utterly useless, but at this point in time the information available was exactly what was called for. Perhaps it is fair to say that the more often a map can provide the right information at the right time the more useful it is.