Shop Talk
Retailers, consumers and prices
Cash for creative moms
At some point — usually in the middle of the night during the umpteenth feeding/diaper change of their child’s young life — most parents think they have come up with the greatest idea EVER that could revolutionize baby and child care.
Huggies wants to give the most inventive moms a bit of a financial boost. Just in time for Mother’s Day, the diaper brand and parent Kimberly-Clark have set up a grant program called MomInspired. The goal is to give away up to $15,000 to each woman with a great idea for a baby product.
The seed capital could help entrepreneurs grow their ideas into businesses.
There are about 10.6 million women-owned businesses in the United States and women are starting businesses at nearly twice the rate of men, Kimberly-Clark Chief Marketing Officer Tony Palmer noted, citing data from the Center for Women’s Business Research. However, it is still men who get the vast majority of the venture capital funding that is already out there.
“There’s this huge unmet need for seed capital for women,” Palmer told Reuters.
Moms — actually, any women 21 years or older (they don’t have to be mothers, but moms probably have a better shot) — can submit their ideas until June 11 for a chance to win the cash, plus access to Huggies resources.
Steve Paljieg, senior director of growth and innovation for Kimberly-Clark, sees it as a way to craft a business relationship with moms who have an entrepreneurial spirit.
Check Out Line: More quarterly earnings to parse
Check out the latest quarterly earnings to size up.
Williams-Sonoma reported a better-than-expected profit on lower costs and strong holiday sales, and the home goods chain said it sees sales and earnings rising for the year.
The operator of the Pottery Barn, West Elm and Williams-Sonoma chains, which won many shoppers in the holiday season by offering more lower-priced home decor items, also boosted its quarterly dividend by 8.3 percent.
PepsiCo and Kimberly-Clark, meanwhile, both backed their 2010 earnings outlooks.
Tiffany’s message was more mixed as the upscale jeweler’s profit was lower-than-expected, but its full-year forecast was above the Street’s expectations.
Also in the basket:
Depend goes upscale with new undergarments
Kimberly-Clark, which already launched separate versions of its Depend disposable underwear for incontinence for men and women, is updating the line again in April. This time, it hopes to boost sales with pricier products for consumers who still want to wear real underwear, or at least look like they are doing so.
The new Depend variety packs look more like traditional underwear and are packaged more like the cotton underwear often sold in packages. That way, perhaps shoppers who buy them — with a suggested price of $5.99 to $6.99 for a pack of six — will not feel as embarrassed, Kimberly-Clark asserts.
“Our consumer’s desired experience is to stay in their own underwear. Therefore, we want to make our Depend products as much like underwear as possible,” said Andrew Meurer, vice president of the company’s North American feminine and adult care brands.
At the same time, “men and women often experience significant anxiety and stress when shopping for these products, predominately due to the stigma that continues to exist with incontinence,” he said.
That anticipated confidence comes at a price. The color and print versions, which have a new waistband, have a suggested price that is about 50 percent more per garment than the traditional Depend products.
The new Depend products hit stores soon after the company’s big push behind Poise pads, which included a Whoopi Goldberg commercial that aired during Sunday’s Academy Awards.
(Photos provided by Kimberly-Clark)
Perhaps they could instead focus on making products that actually work instead of making paper – thin bs.
Whoopi Goldberg adds “Poise” to her repertoire
If it were up to Kimberly-Clark, women would be a lot more open about an issue few people care to discuss out loud. Care to guess what we’re talking about?
The maker of Poise undergarments has gotten Whoopi Goldberg to start a conversation about what it calls “light bladder leakage.” The condition affects one out of every three women, according to Kimberly-Clark, but few are open to discussing it.
Will humor make the subject a bit easier to broach?
If so, maybe it could lead to more sales of Poise pads, as the brand kicks off its biggest marketing effort ever. Plans include Goldberg discussing the topic on “The View” and in webisodes. By the way, Goldberg does use Poise pads on occasion, so she’s speaking from experience.
Kimberly-Clark has already seen some success in the adult undergarment market. The volume of products in that category jumped 10 percent in North America in the latest quarter, due in part to updated men’s and women’s versions of its Depend products.
(Reuters photo)
Even CEOs don’t make the top of the H1N1 list
If anyone knows about the demand for flu-related products, it’s Kimberly-Clark Chairman and CEO Thomas Falk.
Falk’s company sells everything from Kleenex tissues — which aren’t seeing such hot sales as people have fewer sniffles — to N95 respirator masks, which are a top seller right now.
Falk, who spoke with Reuters following his company’s better-than-expected results, said he got his seasonal flu shot at a store while he was in Wisconsin. Though, he said he does not plan to get an H1N1 shot because the vaccine is being targeted at pregnant women (he’s not in that category) and people 24 and under (that’s right, he’s not on that list, either).
“We don’t consider an H1N1 shot to be an executive perk,” Falk joked.
Kimberly-Clark is seeing growth in its health care business spurred by flu-related demand for masks, gloves and items such as hospital gowns. Falk said he’s even heard of people keeping a mask at home, “just in case.”
“We’ve got a pretty good backorder,” Falk said of masks.
Rival mask maker 3M, meanwhile, said it was investing $20 million to add additional respirator production capability in Singapore.
Check Out Line: Earnings season in full swing
Check out this morning’s lineup of quarterly results.
Hershey said price increases helped offset rising cocoa costs, but was silent on the biggest news in the chocolate world — will Cadbury be acquired?
Meanwhile, cigarette makers Philip Morris International and Reynolds American topped expectations and raised their full-year forecasts.
Who else did the same thing? Kimberly-Clark. It wasn’t sales of Kleenex tissues that drove its better than expected results. The company got a boost from sales of face masks as H1N1 takes hold.
Hungry for more? How about results from McDonald’s? The fast food giant said sales rose in all regions, and it expects sales at existing locations to remain positive in October.
Still craving earnings? Stay tuned this afternoon, when we’ll hear from Chipotle, Cheesecake Factory and Amazon.com.
Also in the basket:
Check Out Line: Value is still in
Check out the consumer thriftiness still reflected in corporate announcements.
McDonald’s, the world’s largest hamburger chain, posted a higher quarterly profit that beat analysts’ expectations.
It also said April same-store sales were trending at least as strong or better than first-quarter sales in every part of the world.
The fast food giant has benefited from consumers cutting back amid the recession as they look for lower-priced fare, including the company’s Dollar Menu items.
McDonald’s Chief Executive Jim Skinner said last week that the financial climate was improving, citing “some thawing.”
The world’s second biggest retailer, Carrefour, wants in on that action. The French company unveiled its own low-cost brand to compete for increasingly cost-conscious customers. The products, mostly food, will be launched in France starting at the end of May.
On the other end of the spectrum, Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Kleenex tissues and Huggies diapers, reported a lower quarterly profit that was pressured by weaker demand for higher-end products.
What’s on your toilet paper roll?
Consumer Reports is watching your behind.
The magazine, which rates everything from televisions to coffee, has taken on toilet paper and found that shoppers could save up to $130 a year by switching brands.
Consumer Reports rated Georgia-Pacific’s Quilted Northern Ultra Plush, which costs 29 cents per 100 sheets, best for strength and softness, but said that store brands Kirkland Signature (Costco) and White Cloud (Wal-Mart) offer the most performance for the price of 12 to 15 cents per 100 sheets.
“Either of these CR Best Buy rolls could save a family of three roughly $130 per year,” the magazine said.
Kimberly-Clark’s Cottonelle Ultra also scored well in tests for strength and softness, but at 37 cents per 100 sheets, it was not the best value, Consumer Reports said. The company’s Scott 1000 brand sells for about 6 cents per 100 sheets — delivering the most sheets for the lowest price — but “its individual sheets were thinner than that of most other brands tested.”
The jury is still out on Scott Naturals, an eco-friendly paper with 40 percent recycled fiber that hits stores this month.
Now that you have the facts, will you be switching?
I agree, Robertg. How can you bring yourself to use a computer or anything that runs on electricity, anyway… do you really believe there are electrons moving 186,000 miles per second (while changing directions 50-60 times per second too) inside the wires when you can’t SEE them doing so? And we don’t need to worry about toilet paper since that newfangled indoor plumbing is just a fad… corncobs work best in the outhouse and are totally organic. The lilacs will be blooming soon to cover that odor released by the spring thaw.Seriously, I’ve gradually replaced incandescents with CFLs since they came down to reasonable prices ($6 for a 4-pack at Lowe’s, Home Depot, et al), and was able to get different color temperatures (e.g. 5500K ‘daylight’ instead of soft white’s 2700K) for fixtures around the bathroom mirror. I’m still buying regular lamps for dimmer fixtures, but as soon as I see dimmable CFLs for reasonable prices I’ll buy those too. Like all fluorescent lamps, they contain a tiny amount of mercury so they should be returned to the store where you bought them (most will collect and ship them to a location that recovers the mercury during recycling) when they finally burn out. But they really DO use 60% less power and will reduce your lighting costs by that much.When choosing toilet paper, also consider your drainfield. Most of the lotion-infused tissue is NOT suitable for private systems. Lay a strip on the water’s surface, wait a minute then urinate on it. If it doesn’t break up like that it likely won’t break down in your septic tank, either. If connected to a public sewage system, you probably don’t have to worry about that, as they have machinery to remove the detritus (condoms, tampons, kleenex, et cetera) that won’t compost anytime soon, for landfilling.Ignorance is curable; stupidity is terminal. 
A peak into Kimberly-Clark advertising you won’t see
Tony Palmer has been rallying Kimberly-Clark to try out new campaigns since he became its first chief marketing officer in late 2006. He even put together a commercial that he shows to staff, featuring the company’s Cottonelle brand. While we cannot show it here, we did see it at the Promotion Marketing Association’s annual integrated marketing conference this week. Let’s just say a guy swings from a fire hose and then lands uncomfortably on his bottom. The tag line: “If you’re not nice to your ass, you’re an ass.”
No, consumers will not see that commercial. Palmer just uses it to get marketers to take more risks. Huggies is now a little edgier with its advertisements, including a “geyser” of urine splashing around when a father removes his son’s diaper.
There’s also the Pull-Ups Potty Dance:
Palmer mentioned how easy it is today for people to create their own spots.
A couple of years ago, Kimberly-Clark got customers to create their own commercials, a la PepsiCo’s hit Doritos ad at the Super Bowl earlier this year. Kimberly-Clark took a disposable mask it made for healthcare workers into the do-it-yourself segment. Then DIYers submitted videos showing how the Duckbill masks kept them clean during extreme projects. Besides drawing laughs, the campaign — which cost just $20,000 — helped boost Duckbill’s business by 300 percent, Palmer said. Duckbill is still small for the company, but anything that pads the bottom line — even if it’s not toilet paper — has got to be getting some attention these days.
Check Out Line: A few bright spots amid consumer gloom
Check Out a few bright spots in consumerville.
McDonald’s posted a higher-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, boosted by strong overseas sales. Coach also reported a higher-than-expected profit, helped by higher sales at stores in North America and Japan.
But the impact of a weak U.S. consumer and a weak U.S. economy was clearly on display as the earnings report began to roll in this week.
Late on Monday, furniture maker and retailer Ethan Allen said its quarterly profit tumbled nearly 50 percent, hurt by restructuring charges and the weak economy.
“Sales in March particularly slowed down due to broader economic concerns raised by the extraordinary intervention of the Federal Reserve to stabilize financial institutions, and to some extent due to Easter falling in March this year,” said Farooq Kathwari, the company’s chief executive.
McDonald’s sales fell slightly in March at U.S. restaurants open at least 13 months, prompting cautious investors to send its shares down 2 percent in premarket electronic trading.
There was also caution in the air at handbag retailer Coach.
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Resident Shop Talk Expert
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I would like to see huggies add wipes to every Diaper in their box attached to diaper or if not 2 wipes maybe add a sanitizer napkin to every diaper so parents can at least wipe their hands after each diaper change to cut down on germs.