Kimberly Clark

Kimberly Clark Kimberly Clark Corporation is an American corporation founded in the year 1872 by John A. Kimberly, produces mostly paper based consumer products i.e. tissue, personal care and health care brands include Hugies, Pull-ups, Kotex, Depend, Kleenex, Cottonelle, Scott, Safeskin, Tecnol, Kimwipes and Wypall. Other brands well known out side USA include Andrex, Scottex, Page, Popee and Kimbies. Kimberly-Clark also is a major producer of premium business, correspondence and technical paper. The Company has manufacturing operations in 40 countries; sell its products in more than 150 countries and in houses approximately 55,000 employees worldwide. Source: Kimberly Clark – Wikipedia

Cottonelle Fresh Roll Wipes – In Brief: Research conducted agreed that moist methods do clean and freshen better than dry toilet papers, also a survey conducted where 63% of the respondents one out of four do agree that moist methods are being used after toileting. Cottonelle Fresh Roll-Wipes is the corporation's ability to think creatively and create a competitive advantage to deliver new business opportunity with growth and revenue. Three years and $100 million of research and development, in the year 2001 Kimberly Clark announced a breakthrough product in bringing a new dimension to the toilet paper category called "Cottonelle Fresh Roll Wipes" with a refillable beige plastic dispenser that clips to the standard toilet paper spindle and holds both a roll of dry toilet paper and the wet Fresh Roll wipes. The dispenser with four starter rolls was to sell for $8.99; a refill pack of four rolls was $3.99 expecting the sales to reach $150 million in the first year and $500 million in the next six years. Source: http://investor.kimberly-clark.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=35431

Findings on Corporations Missteps for Failure: "Common testing mistakes can derail a promising new product launch" Kevin J. Clancy and Peter C. Krieg

1. Premature Announcement: Kimberly Clark rolled out their advertisement and publicity in January after their announcement whereas the product was still not ready to hit the stands in the market until June. This delay made most of the shoppers to forget about the product. 2. Ineffective Advertising Kimberly Clark was trying to promote, the advantages of the product where few people could talk about it without embarrassment and could not convey what this product does in their advertisement and promotions. Thus advertisements were not explanatory / informative about neither the product nor helping create demands. The advertisement were on air when the product was not available to the consumers and when the product was available, the advertisement were mere. 3. Sampling Campaign Kimberly Clark adopted No Sampling campaign as there were no small trial sample being manufactured but tried to promote the product by launching a mobile rest room where consumers were asked to try their new product after toileting, but later the road trip was cancelled after terrorist attacks.

4. Production Design The dispenser clips onto the spindle of the regular toilet tissue but is about the size of two rolls on top of one other, the main idea behind it was that consumers buy more refills. This failed to understand that most of the bathrooms did not have the standard design and most of people did not prefer color beige.

5. Unexpected Competition The U.S market in bathroom tissue is more than $4.8 billion, but Kimberly Clark was not able to create a competitive advantage with its unexpected competitors. Proctor and Gamble seeing the buzz created by Kimberly Clark developed Moist Mates which was a simpler form of baby wipes targeted into the tested markets by Kimberly Clark and also started advertisements. Source: http://www.wsjclassroomedition.com/archive/02sep/MKTG.htm

Solutions for Corporations Missteps towards Success: The idea / creative thinking come from every where when we talk about creative thinking, think out of the box and innovative thinking. Whistle the announcement, product, marketing plan of Kimberly Clark was clear and very optimistic, but implementations were not assertive. Kimberly Clark should have taken more time to understand and test their target markets which I would like to point out as mentioned below: 1. Announcement The announcement should have been done after successful market test and other objectives of marketing and there should have been a countdown of 20 or 30 days while the product launches and reaches the stands. 2. Advertisement The advertisement should have been informative containing these factors:

a. More clear and evident on how the product is effective, safe and hygienic with contrast to dry tissues. b. A doctors advice c. Showing from small aged to elders prefer using Cottonelle Fresh Roll-Wipes d. More realistic 3. Production Design a. A sample small trial packets should have been developed to test the market b. Should have analyzed dispensers to fit various rather than standard toilet paper spindle c. Choice of color should have been created with options of (4) or (5) different colored removable lid of the dispenser. 4. Sampling Campaign

a. A proper data record of consumers by telemarketing and web surveys should have been gathered i.e. potential consumers.

b. Part timed employees should have been hired to target the shopping malls, public c.

areas where consumers are given samples and willing to answer to their questions for research. To conduct a door to door survey, provide sample dispensers which will fit the spindle, demonstrate how consumers can change colored lids of dispensers to suit their bathroom, a trial pack of Cottonelle Fresh Roll-Wipes and answer to their questions for research.

These approaches could have given a proper insight of the problems which could be faced and could have been well equipped to deliver the best. 5. Pricing

a.

Potentially lower pulp prices are expected to drive increased competition to the market.

"Innovation is no mere vanity plate on the nation's economic engine. It trumps capital accumulation and allocation of resources as the most important contributor to growth." - Harvard economists, John McArthur and Jeffrey Sachs