Kotex Young: How We Conquered the Hearts of Israeli Teenage Girls
The Israeli feminine care market is characterized by aggressive competition, which results in frequent product innovation. For years, this market had been dominated by P&G’s “Always” brand (58% market share). In 2004 Kimberly-Clark launched its “Kotex” brand in Israel. But, consumers remained loyal to Always, and three years later Kotex only accounted for 14.5% of market share.
As a market challenger it became clear that if Kotex wanted to break P&G’s tight hold on the market, continuing to full frontally attack Always won’t work. And so we decided to adopt outflanking as our main marketing strategy, with one clear objective in mind: focus
After carefully examining the category, we realized that the needs of an entire audience were being ignored – teenage girls ages 12-15 (230,000 girls) – new comers to the world of feminine hygiene. And so as opposed to our competitors, which focused on product innovation for older women, we decided to focus on developing hygienic pads designed especially for the needs and character of teenage girls (ages 12-15).
Figuring out the best way to communicate with the girls:
A careful examination of the target audience opened our eyes to the fact that for teenagers today, born into the digital era, the virtual space is often as real as the outside world.
Guided by this insight the internet was chosen as the main medium for the campaign, and the idea of Kita, the presenter of Kotex Young, was born.
Kita is a virtual girl, who aspires to become a famous singer.
She is the best friend any teenage girl would like to have and she lives online, in the virtual worlds of teenagers.
Kotex young’s launch campaign was built in stages:
At first, Kita was introduced to the digital life without being connected to Kotex. She was just another teenage girl which opened a blog, and asked girls to listen to her song.
Almost immediately Kita made friends with teenage girls online.
After gaining popularity, the second phase of the campaign began and she was introduced as Kotex Young’s Presenter. In her new website, girls could edit their own version of her video clip, dress Kita, read her blog, download her song and ringtones and send a request to receive a Kotex Young sample kit.
By the end of this stage, it was clear that the girls embraced Kita; they conversed with her on ICQ, consulted with her about the product and took her advice. They also set up online fan clubs and even tried copycatting her website.
The third stage of the campaign was designed to keep Kita alive and kicking in the virtual space, and is an ongoing stage, leading us well into today.
We built Kita as a real person, and so we must keep her alive, relevant and innovative at all times. Her blog and website are constantly updated, she has a magazine sent to all of her friends (girls who signed up online) once a month, and we keep searching for next big thing Kita can offer her friends.
Results were phenomenal:
Half of Israeli web users were exposed to the campaign
On average, users spent 8 minutes in the website (time spent in similar commercial websites is known as 2-3 minutes)
Over 65,000 girls signed up to receive a sample kit (most within our target audience age range)
Business results:
Kotex young account for 23.4% of all Kotex sales (our target was 10%) and holds 6.4% of the hygienic pads market share (our target was 3%!!!! Kotex Young performed almost twice as better than what we expected).
Moreover, the launch had great impact on the Kotex brand as a whole.
Kotex’s market share in Q2 2007 grew by 34% and reached 23% (as oppose to 14.5% in Q1 07)
Kotex Young affected Kotex’s position among general population (brand consumption rose from 31% to 40% (declared);
Effect on brand perception:
81% of Israeli teenage girls showed positive buying intentions for Kotex Young.
Buying intentions of the entire Kotex brand rose from 60% to 70%
Awards:
Product of the year 2007
Best character and package design; the financial power of design convention
Best interactive campaign in retail, cosmetics and toiletries, the 2008 The Marker Convention
We built a global brand: starting 2008, Kita goes global
One of our most amazing results is the fact that Kimberly-Clark international decided to not only start marketing Kotex Young but also to use the character of Kita as campaign presenter in countries all over the world (for example: Turkey, Russia, South-Africa)
In conclusion:
The launch of Kotex young was a bold move, one of the very first in Israel to put such a strong emphasis on the internet as the main medium of communication – and certainly the first in which a brand was built almost entirely online
Kita was tailor-made to fit her target audience and succeeded in capturing their hearts while creating a halo effect on the entire brand! And she will continue doing so all over the world!