Kleenex: How even a brand icon has to find new ways to fight

Geoffrey Precourt

Kleenex, the tissue brand manufactured by Kimberly-Clark, successfully built consumer engagement through a focus on caregiving and compassion.

Fifteen years ago, market researchers at Kimberly-Clark began to send out warning signals: Kleenex was in trouble, through no fault of its own.

“Consumers just weren’t engaging with the business anymore,” Lisa Hurwitz, VP/Global Brand Design at Kimberly-Clark, reported. “Kleenex had very little relevance for them. When we looked into our consumers, moms just didn’t see the need to buy it for every room.

“Worse,” she told delegates at the standing-room-only Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) 2018 Brand Masters Conference, “millennials didn’t see the need to engage with the category at all. Facial tissue was not relevant. They were substituting...

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