Kimberly-Clark teams up with customers to
improve common communities in Canada
Kimberly-Clark facilities and their employees are finding new
and great ways to encourage team building, support our customers,
and improve Kimberly-Clark communities all at the same time.
Recently, several teams across Canada worked with our customers on
programs to make our communities better places to live and
work.
Kimberly-Clark and Acklands-Grainger Inc.,
Canada
In an effort to create a community involvement program that
would resonate with both companies, Todd Dyer, customer development
manager for Kimberly-Clark Professional in Calgary, Alberta, came
up with an idea that both boosted sales and benefited local
communities across Canada.
Kimberly-Clark challenged employees of Acklands-Grainger Inc.,
the second largest distributor of Kimberly-Clark Professional
products in Canada, to grow business at each of its 175 branches
across the country by at least 15 percent during the second quarter
of 2011. Each branch that successfully met this goal was
rewarded with a US$500 contribution from Kimberly-Clark, on behalf
of Acklands-Grainger, to the local nonprofit charity of their
choice. The result? Some 123 contributions to local nonprofit
organizations across Canada, a 13 percent boost in business for the
quarter, and an increase in revenue over second quarter 2011 of
about $500,000.
The two companies will team up again in the second quarter of
2012 with the same challenge and expect even better participation
and results, meaning more contributions for the local
charities.
"We are very proud of the Growing Our Communities One Branch at
a Time campaign and the work being done with our partners at
Kimberly-Clark Professional," says Sandro Verrelli, vice president
of Sales and Marketing at Acklands-Grainger. "Contributing to the
communities where we live and work is core to our culture at
Acklands-Grainger. To be able to combine serving customers
exceptionally well with lending a helping hand to local charities
is something we're very excited about."
The promotion was a challenge worth taking on.
"Although we had run many successful promotions with
Acklands-Grainger in the past, I had been challenged by their
senior leadership to create something that would involve not only
the outside sales force and the end-using customers but also their
175 branches," Dyer says. "So, I developed the concept aligning
both the Kimberly-Clark Professional and Acklands-Grainger values,
creating a win-win scenario involving the branches and their staff
along with the outside sales force. Ultimately, we named the
program Growing Our Communities One Branch at a Time, supporting
and promoting local non-profit organizations across Canada on
behalf of both organizations."
Kimberly-Clark and the British Columbia Children's
Hospital Retail Fundraising Committee
Since 2008, Kimberly-Clark's Western Canadian Consumer sales
team has partnered with the British Columbia Children's Hospital
Foundation's Retail Fundraising Committee.
The team works together to:
- Plan and orchestrate British Columbia's Children's Hospital
Retail Fundraising Committee's Miracle Weekend, an annual televised
celebration showcasing patients, their families, caregivers and
supporters. Every year, the celebration sets a contribution goal
and the Retail Committee commits to raise a portion of it. In
addition, the Kimberly-Clark team is part of the television phone
panel during the Miracle Weekend fund-raising blitz.
- Convince other retailers to support British Columbia Children's
Hospital through donation programs appropriate and unique to their
companies.
- Maintain a donation website to further build awareness of the
hospital, its services and its needs and to solicit
contributions.
"This partnership has the double benefit of giving
Kimberly-Clark the opportunity to give back to the community where
its employees live and do business and to collaborate and build
rapport with retail partners in an avenue separate from our
traditional business setting," says Richard Triggs, key account
manager for Kimberly-Clark's Western Canadian sales team. "It has
been an uplifting, educational and inspirational experience."
This year, the fundraising goal is $18 million, of which the
Retail Committee's commitment is $5.25 million to celebrate the
25th year of Miracle Weekend.
Kimberly-Clark and Walmart,
Canada
In early 2011, a competition invited Kimberly-Clark customer
teams across Canada to submit ideas on how to best leverage
Kimberly-Clark's partnership with the National Hockey League to
create a unique event benefiting the Huggies brand Every Little
Bottom campaign.
Kimberly-Clark's Walmart team won the battle with a fun and
unique idea.
At the end of the NHL season, Kimberly-Clark gave Walmart Canada
employees the opportunity to get up close and personal with a
legendary sports trophy, the Stanley Cup. In exchange for an
in-kind diaper donation - which Kimberly-Clark would match diaper
for diaper - or a monetary contribution to the Huggies brand Every
Little Bottom campaign or an area food bank, Walmart employees
could have their pictures taken with the Stanley Cup. Walmart
employees could suit up in an authentic Huggies brand Every Little
Bottom hockey jersey, walk up a red VIP carpet, pose with the
trophy in front of a National Hockey League/Every Little Bottom
backdrop, and receive a personalized photo in a Huggies brand Every
Little Bottom frame keepsake.
In total, Walmart Canada employees contributed $1,000 for the
Huggies brand Every Little Bottom campaign - the equivalent of
16,470 diapers for Food Banks Canada benefiting babies in need in
the greater Toronto area.
