By Greg Grishschenko
In the age of consumerism, a product image plays a crucial part in marketing techniques. For tissue goods, a label depiction might be associated with the product perception. This approach is quite evident in the toilet tissue category marketed in the USA. Softness as a key toilet paper property is presented in words and ever-changing images in almost all major brands. This can be Ultra Soft (Procter & Gamble), Angel Soft (Georgia-Pacific) or Softpack (Marcal).
Images of wide-eyed toddlers like the ones used by the brands Charmin (P&G) and Northern (Georgia-Pacific) were recently replaced by cartoon characters. P&G is now using a friendly bear holding a toilet roll, while GP imprints comic looking housewives on the key brand Northern, leaving, however, the image of a baby boy on its Angel Soft brand. Kimberly-Clark’s Cottonelle brand displays an adorable puppy as a symbol of softness.
A similar approach has been used by leading tissue producers in Russia and Ukraine. Syassky CBK, number five ranked Russian tissue producer, sells its economy one-ply brand Myagky Znak (Soft Sign) across the country. The mill uses the Russian Cyrillic sign “b” (soft sign, which is generally used in Russian to indicate the preceding consonant is soft).
In Ukraine, the privately owned company Noyak is marketing a wide variety of primary two- and three-ply toilet paper, napkins and towels under the brand name Nizhny Dotik (Gentle Touch). In order to intensify the message the company’s combines a brand name logo bordered by feathers with a sign “made with love”. In addition to its standard logo, Noyak’s pocket hanky brand is called Velour.
The softness message might not always work in Europe because of different consumer preferences, with users often preferring thicker toilet tissue. Therefore the same multinational companies use neutral flower or geometric patterns, as in GP’s European brand Lotus. In its worldwide brand Kleenex KC employs modest nonfigurative designs for facial and pocket tissue sold in Europe and Middle East, while using Disney cartoons in Asia.
The images are transformed as time passes and tastes and lifestyle change. Even when the brand name is still running strong, the marketing experts are forced to update labels and packages to make them look contemporary. A recent example of this process can be shown by a package wrap of the wellknown Brawny brand of paper towels from Georgia-Pacific. The blonde moustached lumberjack figure from the 1970s has been replaced by a clean-shaven working class man with brown hair and wearing a plaid shirt.
A small blooper on the label in our politically correct society may bring a significant loss to a major US paper company. Some time ago a private label brand made by this company printed a product name on the tissue towel label that sounded like racial typecast. The company promptly recalled the product from supermarkets in expectation of being sued by civil rights lawyers. The long chain of approval procedures had failed to detect the package designer’s error (obviously he was trying to emphasise a product’s feature).
There is a different trend in the emerging markets. In the newborn consumer societies of the former Soviet block countries tissue products carry a message of better living. In the old days toilet tissue was appreciated just for being present on the grocery’s shelves. People spent hours queuing to get unwrapped rolls of grey, coarse tissue. In the first years of the new market economy both local and multinational paper companies provided a range of products from luxury Lotus, Kleenex and Zeva brands to economy brands from local suppliers marked by numbers 54, 60 or 72 (which meant the length of tissue ribbon in the roll in meters).
In order to meet competitive demand, local suppliers began inventing catching brand names of all varieties from funny to silly, while paying little attention to quality and labeling. Indeed, for the last 10 years, with a modest investment of $50,000-$300,000 in parent rolls, small local businesses have flooded Russian and Ukrainian consumer markets with brands such as: Cactus; Remember Me; Savior; Fantasia; Cyrano de Bergerac; Good Morning; Oh-la-la; Seven Days; Ideal; Russian Peoples Paper; and Gold Fish, to name but a few.
The images corresponding to the names above are hilarious. Some of them are carrying messages which are mocking former communist slogans (the Start! Brand depicts a sexless toilet bowl rider in a helmet). In recent years, however, the growing economies of Russia and Ukraine have helped the new consumer to steer in the direction of higher quality tissue brands. This trend is stepping up competition and a great number of cheap lowquality brands will eventually disappear. TW
