Kimberly-Clark uses RFID to improve store compliance with product promotion

Kimberly-Clark, a provider of personal care products ranging from Kleenex tissues to Huggies disposable diapers, recently deployed an RFID application that has increased compliance with its product promotions to 75% of participating stores.

The RFID application, from OATSystems Inc., is helping Kimberly-Clark deal with a common problem in getting promotional displays onto selling floors in time to coincide with related advertising campaigns, says Mike O’Shea, Kimberly-Clark’s director of auto-ID sensing technology. Industry statistics note that 15%-40% of stores fail to get promotional displays on the selling floor within the planned window of time, resulting in lost sales and dissatisfied customers, he adds. RFID, or radio frequency identification, uses a system of radio frequency tags and readers to track the movement of goods.

Kimberly-Clark often commissions third-party contract manufacturers to assemble and ship promotional display structures complete with the promoted products to retail partners.

Working with OATSystems, Kimberly-Clark customized an RFID application that, after RFID tags are placed on the display cases, records when a promotional display is received at a store and checked into its backroom warehouse, and when the displays reach the designated sales floor.

The application, operating as part of the OAT Foundation Suite, connects RFID data scanned by in-store readers over an Internet connection to corporate headquarters at Kimberly-Clark as well as to its display partner and the retailer. Kimberly-Clark has increased compliance with its promotions to 75% from 55% of its participating stores, the company says. If displays aren’t handled according to schedule, Kimberly-Clark and its partners immediately investigate the hold-up and, in some cases, have devised alternate plans after discovering that some stores did not have the space to accommodate the displays.

The application also incorporates a mobile tagging station from ADASA Inc., which Kimberly-Clark provides to its contract manufacturers so they can produce RFID tags as needed for promotional displays. “OAT Mobile Tag is a cost-effective solution that allows us to focus our RFID tagging efforts where there is a clear value proposition for K-C and our customers,” O`Shea says.