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Kleenex Shows its Softer Side

By Jim Carper

Kimberly-Clark's Kleenex tissue brand pulled out all the stops this month to launch a softer but stronger line extension.

The company introduced Kleenex with Lotion through a multi-million-dollar marketing campaign. The "super-premium" tissue, which K-C says uses a proprietary surface treatment to be softer and yet stronger than previous lotion-infused SKUs, shipped to stores in late August and rolled out nationally in early October. Kleenex ran an oversized, double-sided FSI in Oct. 5 newspapers to herald the launch.

More than 60 million product samples were delivered to drugstores, supermarkets and mass merchants in tissue boxes that could be affixed to shelves (via News America's SmartSource program). It's the first time Kleenex has conducted a sampling program, according to the Associated Press.

Accompanying the sample boxes were shelf talkers placed throughout the SmartSource network, along with shelf signs and channel strips in certain accounts, that declare, "Try! More soothing than ever." The brand also deployed dedicated floorstands with samples and broke a national TV campaign. A print campaign in consumer magazines scheduled to break next February reportedly will feature four pages and a tissue sample. JWT, New York, handles the campaign.

In a press release, K-C identified lotion-infused SKUs as the fastest-growing segment of the tissue category, citing AC Nielsen data that pegged average annual growth at 7% over the last three years. K-C plans to employ the new technology with other brands in 2009.

Published: October 2008

Source: In-Store Marketing Institute

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