Kimberly-Clark, whose feminine care products include Kotex sanitary pads and U by Kotex tampons, announced a deal in February making it a majority owner of Thinx. Funds from Kimberly-Clark are helping fuel the new effort, Zerrenner said. “K-C’s investment has allowed us to scale our marketing investment much faster.”
The campaign also comes amid reports of tampon shortages, particularly for category leader Tampax, whose Procter & Gamble Co. sibling Always also leads in sanitary pads. Tampon shortages have been spotty, with availability seemingly strong at Walmart stores, but shelves bare of all but one Tampax product line on Sunday at a Chicago area store.
"We understand it is frustrating for consumers when they can’t find what they need," said a spokeswoman for P&G and Tampax in an email. "We expect this is a temporary situation, and the Tampax team is producing tampons 24/7 to meet the increased demand for our products. We are working with our retail partners to maximize availability, which has increased over the last several months."
Media coverage and spot shortages have helped drive online search around tampons and period products, so Thinx is increasing paid search and stepped-up search engine optimization efforts too, Zerrenner said.
“Luckily enough, we haven’t experienced any supply-chain issues,” Zerrenner said. “It’s specific to a very few brands, and so there are people who are brand loyal not able to find their brand vs. it being a pervasive problem.”