Kleenex eyes beauty market

Kleenex is moving into the beauty market with the launch of a range of cleansing products to take on established players such as Nivea, Simple and Johnson’s.

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Kimberly Clark, which owns Kleenex, is investing in innovation across its portfolio of brands and the launch follows the biggest piece of consumer research it has ever carried out to find out how far it can push the Kleenex brand.

It has identified a number of areas that the Kleenex brand could extend into in global markets and says beauty is the one that has most resonance with the UK market.

Kleenex marketing manager for the UK & Ireland Chris Craig says the move takes the brand “full circle” as it originally launched in the 1920s as a makeup removal tissue and only became a more functional tissue product in the 1930s.

“Our research found that we have a strong right to play in the beauty market. Consumers are surprised we’re not there already. We’re driven by shopper insight and we’ll go where our consumers think we can go.”

“We’re a functional brand, but out brand equity is emotional – a brand that’s there and the good times and the bad times,” he adds.

Kleenex is targeting a younger female audience than the brands traditional family market and hopes that by attracting young women to the brand, they will continue to be loyal to Kleenex’s wider product range throughout their lives.

The range of four products included eye makeup remover pads, cleansing wipes, shine absorbing sheets and dry cloths, like high quality cotton wool will soft launch in Superdrug later this month and will be available in major retailers in 2012.

Kleenex is currently finalising the marketing plans but intends to launch a “heavyweight” campaign in January to support the range including TV, in store, outdoor, digital and experiential activity to drive trial.

Craig adds: “We’re coming into a massively competitive market with a real point of difference and expertise and plan to make a lot of noise. We’re bringing a variation on what’s there and hope to drive incremental value to the category.”

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