A familiar service, an unexplored experience

Consumer · Retail · Spain

Car washing is one of those everyday services that has evolved unevenly - modernised in some places, unchanged in others, and rarely examined from the perspective of the person actually using it. The result is a category with significant variation in experience, communication, and perceived value, and considerable room to ask what a better version might look like.

Hilo Research in collaboration with Kiriom was brought in to map the category from the inside out: understanding current user behaviours, unmet needs, and the real barriers to a better service experience. The fieldwork combined focus groups, observational research, desk research, and trend analysis across Spanish car wash users - from occasional to habitual, across formats and price points.

The findings identified five clear opportunities for differentiation - from digitalisation and payment friction to sustainability communication and the quality of the physical experience itself. Hilo's research fed directly into the strategic repositioning and new service concept developed by Kiriom Strategy in collaboration with the client.

Respondents: regular car wash users ·

Methods: focus groups · observational research · desk research · trend analysis

Market: Spain · In collaboration with Kiriom Strategy