• The Wall Street Journal (subscription required), Monday, January 22, 2007 12 PM

Kimberly-Clark's Kleenex--an 83-year-old brand that has long been synonymous with facial tissue--is the latest venerable brand to be reengineered to stay a step ahead of generic knockoffs.

Kleenex's predicament can be found at supermarkets and drugstores. Giant retailers like Wal-Mart are demanding fresh choices for consumers, while filling their shelves with their own cheap, generic lines. But Kimberly-Clark didn't want to position Anti-Viral too aggressively as a preventive health product because it felt sales would suffer if it "became the sick box," according to Gary Keider, Kleenex's marketing director.

So, hedging its bets, the company decided to trumpet the tissue's antiviral properties only on the box's plastic overlay, typically removed when the container is opened. To further distinguish the antiviral tissue from regular ones, Kleenex printed tiny blue dots on the visible middle layer, where the antiviral treatment is applied.

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