How Manufacturers Use Analytics to Brand Successfully, Ryan Monahan of Kimberly Clark Corporation

Everything has changed in the wake the Walmart's Project Impact initiative which began last year. It essentially evaluates categories and reduces SKUs while changing the rules of merchandising. That means less clutter in the aisles.

Ryan Monahan, who has been on Kimberly Clark's Walmart team for three years, said the change means that shoppers have to be engaged before going to the store. As a first step, Kimberly Clark Corporation obtained the analytic tools to tell who the shoppers are, how valuable they are to the brand and what needs to be done to succeed.

As an example, he pointed to a direct mail program for the recently-launched gender-specific Depend underwear at Wal-Mart. KC developed an off-line and online campaign to identify seniors in the local trading areas and provide them with information on what to look for in the store.

In brief, the campaign was a big success.