Kimberly-Clark strives to be a thought leader and true partner
to its retailers. The company is always looking for faster and
smarter ways to grow its portfolio of products with its customers.
Kimberly-Clark's Virtual Reality team recently leveraged
self-service software for the Target Customer Development team,
giving them the ability to develop multiple merchandising concepts
viewable in a virtual 3-D Target store. This breakthrough in
capabilities allows virtual reality to become a tool for routine
activities as well as large strategic initiatives. Best of all, it
puts the right technology into the hands of the experts without
hand offs or outsourcing, saving both time and money.
"Virtual reality technology plays a critical role in our
category and line reviews," says Amani Gomez, a Kimberly-Clark
marketing manager who formerly served as the Category Development
manager for the Target team. "We can now visually portray how their
paper, baby, and adult and feminine care categories should be
merchandised, provide category strategies to enhance growth, and
recommend pack sizes that succeed in the different store
formats."
In addition, today's retailers want to understand how their
categories are impacted when merchandising is changed. Virtual
reality technology enables Kimberly-Clark to test multiple ideas
and present solutions that benefit a retailer's full category,
which helps ensure Kimberly-Clark's place as an indispensible
partner.
"One of the great advantages is the ability to showcase our
innovation products as they will appear on shelf in stores prior to
ever physically producing a single package," says Kelly Riemer,
associate marketing research manager for the virtual reality team.
"This allows us to visually assess as well as conduct research to
better understand its impact."
Category and line reviews play an instrumental role in
determining the sets that deliver the most growth across the
category. Based on consumer insights presented to Target,
Kimberly-Clark's Customer Development team was given the go ahead
to test several new and innovative merchandising opportunities. If
these ideas prove successful, Target could roll out these
merchandising solutions in all 1,700 Target stores.
Using the latest virtual reality technologies, in tandem with
innovative brand strategies, Kimberly-Clark is delivering impactful
merchandising solutions to Target and other retailers.
