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Kimberly-Clark: Powering Care Through Purpose, Innovation, and Brand Excellence
For more than 150 years, Kimberly-Clark has defined what care looks like in homes and communities around the world. Its trusted brands—Huggies, Kleenex, Scott, Kotex, and Cottonelle—reach consumers in over 175 countries, supported by a global team of 40,000 people dedicated to improving everyday lives through innovation, sustainability, and compassion. The company reported net sales of $20.1 billion in the 2024 financial year.
Every day, millions of homes use Kimberly-Clark’s products for everything from professional hygiene to newborn care. The branding, marketing, technology, and purpose combine to strengthen its position as a world leader in daily necessities, which really drives its brand success.
Innovative at the Core
Kimberly-Clark’s 2024 Transformation Initiative marked a pivotal year for innovation and focus. The company’s new structure—centered around North America (NA), International Personal Care (IPC), and International Family Care & Professional (IFP)- is designed to accelerate pioneering innovation and improve operational agility.
The strategy, known as Powering Care, rests on three pillars:
- Accelerate Pioneering Innovation – Investing in science and technology to meet evolving consumer needs with breakthrough products like Thinx (reusable period underwear) and Huggies innovations in baby care.
- Optimize Margin Structure – Driving efficiency through supply chain transformation, value-stream simplification, and scalable automation.
- Wire the Organization for Growth – Building a faster, data-driven, consumer-first culture.
This transformation is more than restructuring—it’s about creating a more adaptive business ready for tomorrow’s consumers.
Marketing That Connects Emotion and Purpose
Kimberly-Clark has placed marketing & branding at the core of its strategy. The company understands that care is both emotional and functional—and its campaigns reflect that blend of trust, comfort, and empathy.
Chief Growth Officer Patricia Corsi, who joined from Bayer and Heineken, is leading the charge to elevate brand storytelling through digital-first engagement and cultural relevance, from empowering women through Kotex’s #SheCan movement to celebrating parental bonds with Huggies.
Kimberly-Clark’s marketing narrative is deeply human. These efforts are backed by insights and technology that make marketing measurable and meaningful. The company invests heavily in data analytics and brand tracking, ensuring its communications stay relevant across markets—from North America to Asia and Latin America.
Its “Powering Care” philosophy also resonates through partnerships and purpose-led marketing, aligning commercial goals with broader social and environmental impact.
Technology as a Growth Engine
Behind Kimberly-Clark’s agility is a strong digital backbone led by Zack Hicks, Chief Digital and Technology Officer. He is reshaping how the company uses data, AI, and cloud systems to streamline operations and personalize consumer engagement.
Digital tools are driving efficiency across the supply chain, from predictive analytics in manufacturing to intelligent marketing automation. Kimberly-Clark’s IT transformation underpins every strategic move—enabling faster decision-making, deeper consumer understanding, and real-time global collaboration.
As Zack Hicks describes it, the mission is to “build brands and create differentiated digital capability.”
The Brand Essence of Kimberly-Clark’s
Kimberly-Clark positions itself as a purpose-led essentials leader that delivers superior care through trusted, science-backed hygiene and personal care brands, anchored by the promise “Better Care for a Better World.”
It competes by owning daily-use, life‑stage categories (baby, feminine, family, incontinence, professional hygiene) where reliability, skin health, and sustainable design matter as much as price, translating clinical and dermatological credibility into comforting, family‑safe brands.
The narrative of Kimberly-Clark is one of empathy-based change.
As it enters 2025, the company continues to prove that innovation and humanity can coexist—that technology can enhance care, and that strong marketing can drive not just sales, but trust.
In a world constantly shifting, Kimberly-Clark stands firm in its belief: when you care boldly, you lead enduringly.
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Keith Nicks is EVP and Chief Digital & Commercial Officer for Ahold Delhaize USA, overseeing
omnichannel marketing, retail media, and e-commerce for U.S. brands. Tim Bork is the Chief Commercial
Officer for Ahold Delhaize Europe & Indonesia, focusing on local brands and responsible for growth,
including marketing and customer experience.
With nearly €96 billion in projected 2025 revenue, Ahold Delhaize ranks among the top 10 global
retailers, operating over 6,700 stores across multiple formats, including Albert Heijn, Delhaize, Food Lion,
Giant, Hannaford, and Stop & Shop.
6,700 stores powered by one procurement platform – a scale that makes others jealous.
For customers, Ahold isn’t just a grocery retailer; it’s a trusted lifestyle partner that combines the
intimacy of local shopping with the innovation and value of global retail leadership.
Ahold’s brands, such as Albert Heijn, Stop & Shop, and Giant, represent 37 years of average customer
relationships—customers don’t just shop there; they grow up with these brands, creating emotional
connections that transcend transactions.
After gaining thirty million loyalty members, Ahold demonstrated that personalization consistently
outperforms promotion.
BrandSensitize™ research shows that Ahold Delhaize operates with a decentralized marketing and brand
building approach, where marketing functions are embedded within:
- Brand-specific leadership (each local brand has its own marketing teams.
- Regional commercial officers who oversee marketing alongside broader commercial
responsibilities. - Digital and omnichannel specialists who handle modern marketing channels.
Ahold Delhaize’s Brand Building Initiatives:
Sustainability campaign: €50M investment reached 10M consumers, delivering a 20% boost in
sustainable product sales and generating €400M in revenue.
Digital Marketing: €150M digital budget achieved 25% higher engagement, 2.6% click-through rates (vs
1.9% industry standard), and built 500K+ social media following.
Loyalty Program: 30M members across brands with 85% customer penetration, driving 75% of total sales
and contributing €1B annually—10% better retention than competitors.
Strategic Brand Partnerships: 100+ collaborative campaigns with CPG brands, including Coca-Cola,
generated €600M in additional revenue through joint promotions.
Omnichannel Investment: A $1 billion price investment initiative, combined with AI-powered
personalization, aims to achieve an 80% loyalty sales penetration by 2028.
Strategic marketing drives measurable business results—from sustainability messaging to digital-first
loyalty programs, Ahold Delhaize demonstrates that well-executed brand-building campaigns deliver
both customer engagement and bottom-line growth on a global scale.
Ahold Delhaize’s Strategic Technology Partnerships:
- W23 Global VC Fund: $125M investment with Tesco, Woolworths & others backing AI startups
like Harmonya & Protex AI - Zycus Partnership: Source-to-Pay suite powering procurement across 6,700+ stores globally
- Hanshow Technology: Electronic shelf labels + innovation labs across all European locations.
- Inmar Intelligence: $141M in customer savings delivered through personalized digital coupons.
- DoorDash Collaboration: Tripled order volumes through enhanced last-mile delivery integration.
- Internal AI Innovation: MaxiGPT, LionGPT & Albot assistants deployed across the Serbian,
Belgian, and Czech markets. - New Tech Studio: AD/01 in Bucharest targeting 250+ tech talents for digital acceleration.
Zycus has licensed its comprehensive Source-to-Pay suite to Ahold Delhaize, including eSourcing,
Contract Lifecycle Management (CLM), and Supplier Management platforms.
TCS’s relationship with Ahold Delhaize marks a mature, strategic partnership focused on digital
transformation and supply chain technology.
Wipro partnered with Capgemini as one of the most significant retail transformation initiatives in the
world at Ahold USA.
Capgemini powers Ahold Delhaize’s end-to-end transformation, developing blockchain technology use
cases for Ahold Delhaize’s supply chain and leveraging its expertise in business transformation, as well as
its understanding of Ahold’s industry and operations.
Traditional retailers, equipped with AI and Robotics, will surpass pure digital players by 2030.
The key is to position Ahold not as just another retail success story, but as the company that has
rewritten the rules of digital transformation for every traditional business watching.
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