Cashmere

Over the past two years, Cottonelle has morphed into Cashmere. Kruger (formerly Scott Paper) Products’ agreement with Kimberly-Clark for use of the Cottonelle name was set to expire in June 2007, so they got to work on building the Cashmere brand to replace it.

With the old name eliminated, John St. could focus on the new brand, Cashmere. But a caveat: with Kimberly Clark expected to reintroduce the old brand back into the marketplace in the near future, an added challenge for the agency was to make Cottonelle passé.

To consumers, toilet paper brands are virtually interchangeable. Research showed that 41% do not have a brand in mind when they approach the grocery shelf. John St. determined that an audacious approach was needed to ensure Cashmere stood out.

Insight revealed that the brand’s female target felt toilet paper was also about “taking care of herself” – so bathroom tissue did not have to be simply about function. And with a name like Cashmere, the agency decided to focus on a simple idea with relevance to the target: fashion.

TV and print featured a model in what appeared to be a cashmere dress, actually made of the toilet paper. The tagline: “Cashmere. Now in a bathroom tissue.” PR included a competition in which fashion students designed Cashmere dresses, while their progress was tracked at cashmere.ca. A promotion supplemented the effort.

The bold approach has worked. Market share grew to 27.3% in May 2007, up from 23.3% in May 2006 – a historic high for the product. In fact, in that time period the brand was the national market share leader, despite only being available in Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes. As well, top-of-mind awareness and household penetration all showed significant improvements through the transition campaign.