Kimberly Clark Visit to Turkey

The very first thing we did upon arriving in Istanbul was meet with Peter Melville, Marketing Director for Kimberly Clark Turkey. He did a fantastic job of giving us KC’s current situation on the ground in Turkey before taking us through two case studies—1) Huggies and 2) Kotex.
Granted, diapers and feminine hygiene are not the most exciting topics, Peter did a great job of relating the marketing issues each brand focused and how they were able to overcome each. In Huggies case, they faced tremendous competition from U.S. heavyweight P&G (using Prima, which is actually Pampers) and Turkish manufacturer Hyaht. What was most interesting was that KC Turkey is implementing a similar branding strategy as the U.S. focusing on fit and the emotional connection between mother and child. Seems pretty simple, but all of the Turkish diapers adds focus on happy babies doing silly things. It is also very popular for the babies to sing a song in ads. KC is the newest competitor in the market, but has managed to gain a 7% share in two years and is quickly moving towards 10%.

Kotex had a whole different set of problems. First, tampon use in Turkey is extremely small, primarily driven by the strong influence of Islam (97% of the country is Muslim). Apparently, tampon use leads to girls losing their virginity—if only that was the case. Without tampons, Kotex must focus on the maxi pad and liner markets. They are focusing their communications towards comfort and hygiene, which is currently not considered in feminine hygiene purchases. Similar to Huggies, Kotex is incorporating a lot of the U.S. communication strategy focusing on PR, online promotions, and sampling.

Mariah Kottke (2nd year), Peter Melville (KC Turkey Dir. of Marketing) and Ben Lawnicki (2nd year) Both Mariah and Ben interned at KC last summer and will start full-time in July

Now I mentioned in an earlier post about cartoon pop star Kita. I can’t go into too much detail, but what I can say is that we got see her video release with Turkish pop star Keremcem (that is a male if the name didn’t give it away) during our visit with KC. The question I pose is what if a consumer goods company could create its own celebrity? Think about the ramifications of being able to control, Miley Cyrus per se. The results could be amazing. What would the downside be? Fan pushback maybe, or it could fail. Just ponder it because come June we might have an answer.

Here is Kita’s video for your viewing pleasure…(scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the video, it is in Turkish so be prepared).

http://www.vaziyet.net/tag/keremcem-video-izle/

Here is Kotex's website in Turkey. Let me know if you see something familiar...

http://www.kotex.com.tr/

Only marketers would notice this stuff.