packaged goods

Cottonelle Repackages Flushable Dry Wipes

Kimberly-Clark’s Cottonelle brand has come out with dispenser packaging for its Fresh Care Flushable Dry Wipes product, a flushable moist paper intended to be used on the rear hatch, to borrow an automotive term. Jettisoning the generic plastic box that one associates with such products as baby wipes, the new design is meant to differentiate the product and make it look good on the tank top. And the Web-video campaign via AOR Tris3ct to promote the product is moving to television. 

The trio of videos touts the product itself, using the argument that you use water to wash everything, so wouldn't you use it for your alimentary exit? 

"The idea is, if you think logically, getting something clean requires water; people know that but don't think that way in this category," says Jennie Purtell, SVP group account director at Tris3ct. "The dispenser overcomes those barriers. But the bigger barrier is the gap in logic -- that 'aha' moment."

advertisement

advertisement

The videos are clandestine shots of services at venues where water is mandatory -- a shampoo at a salon or a car wash, for example. But in each case water is excised from the experience, to the chagrin of real consumers and observers. The stylists at a salon, for example, go through all of the motions with clients: applying shampoo, leaning their heads over the basin, soaping, massaging, rinsing, drying -- except not a drop of water is applied in the process. 

"It's totally unscripted," says Chris Cancilla, chief creative officer at Tris3ct. "People didn't know they were going through that experience." When it's over they are asked, in so many words, if it makes no sense to do the task without water, why someone would use dry toilet tissue by itself. 

Craig Dunphey, senior brand manager at Cottonelle, tells Marketing Daily that there is a lot of upside in the category. "The market potential is big, we need to crack it. Everyone wants to be clean, so, really, the care routine of Dry + Moist just makes sense. Everyone uses toilet paper, so why wouldn’t everyone want to use wipes?" He says that today, only about 25% of people buy wipes.

Dunphey says there are competitors in the category, but the biggest opportunity is the white space. "It's people who don't use anything with their dry paper. The other advantage of Cottonelle wipes is that they -- unlike baby wipes -- are flushable like dry toilet paper."

1 comment about "Cottonelle Repackages Flushable Dry Wipes".
Check to receive email when comments are posted.
  1. Taylor Wray from Kantar Retail, July 17, 2013 at 1:27 p.m.

    I'm perplexed by this advertising trend of playing awkward pranks on consumers to try to shame/startle them into adopting a new or different product. I feel it's much more persuasive to simply offer the reasoning for why they should try the product rather than trying to force an implicit connection between unrelated situations or products and the one being sold.

    I suppose the straightforward approach is not as eye-catching or entertaining (for TV purposes), but is there any indication that these prank-style ads are effective?

Next story loading loading..