How Kimberly-Clark Is Building Brand Equity Responsibly

Zena Arnold leads Kimberly-Clark’s global marketing team with the goal of driving growth for some of the most iconic CPG brands including Huggies, Cottonelle and Kleenex. Arnold is known for her innovative approach to holistic marketing in addition to her ability to cultivate a best-in-class digital marketing function to create powerful, purpose-driven experiences for consumers. You'll hear from Arnold next Monday at our weeklong Brandweek 2021 summit in conversation with Adweek's Nicole Ortiz. Before that virtual sit-down, we caught up with Arnold to talk about marketing marketing in a time of crisis—especially when your products are in high demand. You joined Kimberly-Clark in April 2020 at the start of the pandemic. What challenges did you face? Taking on the role of chief digital and marketing officer [at the start] of the pandemic was one of the toughest challenges for me as a leader. Working remotely and building relationships with business leaders and global marketing teams via virtual meetings, rather than in person, was a demanding process. Road to Brandweek: Vans’ Kristin Harrer on Agility During the Pandemic On the business side, Kimberly-Clark was accelerating production capacity to meet the surge in consumer demand for toilet tissue and other household essentials. The company put employees’ health and safety at the forefront, which enabled us to continue making essential products and restock retail shelves. We had to move quickly and efficiently as a marketing team to help our trusted brands navigate these historic challenges. One of the biggest benefits that has come out of this experience is that our people now know that they can roll with the punches when big changes arise, and move with speed and agility to deal with them. You came on board as the pandemic fueled unprecedented levels of demand for Kimberly-Clark products. How did your marketing efforts change to keep up? We had to rapidly shift our marketing programs to deal with previously unimaginable demand for essentials such as diapers, tissue and paper towels. How does a brand build its relationship with consumers when they can’t buy your product? Cottonelle came up with an answer just weeks into the pandemic, launching the #ShareASquare campaign to discourage hoarding. We ran ads saying, “Instead of stockpiling toilet paper, let’s stock up on generosity.” As marketing people, we’re used to driving sales, but this messaging allowed us to build brand equity in a responsible way. Cottonelle also donated money and toilet paper to the United Way Worldwide Covid-19 Community Response and Recovery Fund. The brand leveraged social media by donating more money every time the #ShareASquare was shared. This campaign taught us a lot about taking an innovative approach to building relationships with our consumers. What are the biggest lessons you learned as a marketer in the past year? A year of crisis has taught us we need to enhance our data analytical capabilities so we can better anticipate customer needs for our products and services. Data is central to gathering customer insights, reaching our target audiences and selling our products online. The huge shift to online shopping during the pandemic has only increased the importance of data. In the past, you couldn't build one-to-one relationships with millions of consumers. Now, with the advances in technology and data analysis, we can move beyond traditional awareness-focused marketing and tailor communications and offerings to deepen and extend those relationships. We’ve become much more agile in gathering consumer insights. Instead of yearly studies, we can scan ratings and reviews on a daily basis to see where things are trending and make quick adjustments as needed. Data allows us to be much more precise in our media buying, ensuring that we are delivering that right message at the right place, at the right time, with the right consumer and at the right cost. In addition to innovating with new tools and techniques, we are learning to experiment and be OK with failure. And we’re thinking more broadly about creating the right content and engaging with consumers across the world in interesting new ways. What changes has the pandemic accelerated? The explosion of ecommerce is the biggest behavioral change. Before the pandemic, most people bought our product categories in physical stores. We’ll never go back to the way it was because barriers are gone. People who order their groceries online throw in toilet paper and paper towels. We’ll see some seesawing back and forth between online and stores, but I think eventually it will settle into a more hybrid space and provide a lot of opportunities for our brands and businesses. We experienced a lot of change before Covid-19 hit, such as relying more on data and exploring new ways to work with our retail partners. But the massive acceleration of online purchasing has had a huge impact on almost everything we do as marketing people. We’ve gone from planning campaigns months in advance to moving at lightning speed to meet consumers' rapidly shifting attitudes and buying patterns. Connecting with customers is more important than ever. How are you doing that in the current climate? Kimberly-Clark’s brands are optimistic and essential to consumers, so we are looking to build that personal connection and trust with consumers in an environment that has not yet returned to normal. For example, we launched a new brand campaign for Huggies earlier this year that showed a very authentic yet optimistic view of parenting, which resonated with consumers. Sustainability is becoming increasingly important to consumers across the world—green is no longer a niche market. Kimberly-Clark has taken a number of important steps, such as pledging to halve our environment footprint by 2030. We’ve also launched products with sustainable benefits such as Huggies Special Delivery diapers, made with plant-based fibers. In some markets, our "Tiniest Footprint with Huggies" campaign shows customers how their purchases help protect the environment. As climate change becomes a growing threat, this messaging becomes an increasingly important way to build relationships with our customers. It’s also been a big year for social awareness and action. Kimberly-Clark has taken a number of steps, such as training and immersion sessions for our marketers around underrepresented groups. We joined Mindshare along with our Kotex brand to form an inclusive Black Community Private Marketplace to help promote content for underrepresented consumers. Cottonelle launched a partnership with BlkHlth talk about colorectal cancer, which disproportionately affects Black Americans. Using our brand spend to drive awareness of an important subject is a great example of how we’re putting our brand responsibility principles into action. What have been the biggest wins for the marketing industry this year? What excites you about the next 12 months? Data is allowing marketers to understand consumers and customers more fully so we can build better relationships. The traditional CPG marketing model that applies one big idea across multiple channels and geographies is giving way to faster, more relevant creativity. We saw huge wins in speed, agility and innovation during the pandemic, and there’s no reason we can’t keep moving forward. I’m excited about building the capabilities of our marketing team. We are embracing more depth in our work—what I call “hands-on keyboard.” Brand managers are switching from awareness driving and channel management to analyzing data, working with social media, engaging with consumers and gaining insights. That’s a big transformation, especially for a CPG company. Marketers also need to develop a better understanding of the diverse communities we serve. Strategic partners will also become more important to marketing professionals. We’re working with ad-tech companies, retailers, media networks and ad agencies to generate insights and actions that create new avenues of growth. What’s one thing you wish more consumers knew about your brand? A quarter of the world’s population uses Kimberly-Clark’s trusted brands and products every day. We want all our stakeholders to understand our mission to care for people and the world is backed by concrete actions to protect the environment and support underserved communities. I’m so proud of what Kimberly-Clark has accomplished during a crisis, and I can’t wait to see what’s ahead for us. Road to Brandweek: How Campbell Snacks Plans to Evolve With Its Customers

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Road to Brandweek: How Kimberly-Clark Is Building Brand Equity Responsibly

Chief digital and marketing officer Zena Arnold on how the pandemic changed the CPG giant

Erica Perry

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Erica Perry