Spotlight On Feminine Hygiene Products

Smart merchandising within the feminine hygiene category calls attention to store brand alternatives and simplifies consumer decision-making.

When it comes to feminine hygiene products, today's women have many choices. They will find products geared for light-flow days, those designed for heavy overnight duty, and those that fill the gaps in between. They will find innovations ranging from brightly colored tampon applicators to ultra-thin but super-absorbent pads. They will even find a wide range of package sizes, from grab-and-go purse packs to mega-sized money-savers.

With so many choices, the feminine hygiene aisle can be an intimidating destination. And it's easy for store brand options to get lost in the sea of heavily advertised big name brands. Smart merchandising, therefore, is critical within this category — not only to draw attention to store brand alternatives, but also to simplify the decision-making process.

To get an idea of what retailers are doing well and not so well here, we visited the feminine hygiene departments of three stores located in Anaheim, Calif.: Albertsons (a Supervalu banner), Food 4 Less (a Kroger banner) and Stater Bros. Markets. Our visits took place on a weekday between late morning and late afternoon in early March.

Albertsons

General observations: This Albertsons store dedicates a good portion of one side of a long aisle to feminine hygiene products. The store had few shoppers during our late morning visit, and only one shopper ventured into aisle during the 15 or 20 minutes we spent there.

Of the three stores we visited, Albertsons appeared to have the fewest facings of store brand alternatives (under the Equaline brand). It's worth noting that several of the Equaline and national brand SKUs were on clearance, and several other Equaline and national brand SKUs were either out of stock or hadn't been restocked yet.

The upside:

• The shelves were neat, and store brand equivalents could be found for certain Tampax tampons, Kotex pads and pantiliners, Carefree pantiliners and Always pads. (Positioning generally was to the right of the national brand, although one SKU of Equaline pantiliners was situated to the left of the Kotex Lightdays product it appeared to emulate.)
• The section featured an in-aisle display of Equaline pantiliners. The display held 64-count packages that were on sale for $2.89.

The downside:

• The Equaline packaging features a subdued color scheme that seemed to work against it on the shelf — we found the products difficult to spot among all the bright-colored packaging of the national brands.
• Several national brand SKUs with store brand equivalents were on promotion, but the store brand items were not. For example, a 24-count box of Kotex Maxi Pads was on sale for $2.99, but the Equaline equivalent was priced at $3.29.

Food 4 Less

General observations: The Food 4 Less store we visited gives a good portion of one side of a long aisle to its feminine hygiene products. This store also merchandises condoms, menstrual pain relievers, yeast infection treatments, feminine washes and other similar products on the top shelf above the tampons, sanitary napkins and pantiliners. The store had a moderate amount of shopper traffic during our late-afternoon visit.

The section included store brand (Kroger) versions of certain Kotex pads, Always pads/pantiliners and Stayfree pads, as well as Tampax tampons. Store brand products were placed to the right of the national brands they matched.

The upside:

• The section was very neat and well-stocked — the best kept of the three stores.
• The store appears to give more facings to store brand products here than the Albertsons store does.
• In most cases, even when a national brand product was on promotion, the store brand version was still much less expensive. For example, Food 4 Less was selling 40-count Always pantiliners for the promotional price of $2.98, but the Kroger brand equivalent was on sale for $1.98 (a 50 cents savings over the regular price).

The downside:

• The aisle featured four cardboard display cases holding Always, Carefree, Stayfree and Kotex products — but none for store brand feminine hygiene products.
• The price gaps between some of the non-promoted national brand products and the store brand equivalents were a bit greater than they needed to be, in our opinion (and greater than what we found in the other two stores). For example, a 36-count box of assorted Tampax Pearl tampons was priced at $8.85. Its Kroger equivalent was priced at $4.48 — $4.37 less than the national brand.

Stater Bros. Markets

General observations: Like the other two stores we visited, Stater Bros. Markets dedicates a good portion of a long aisle to its feminine hygiene products. And like Food 4 Less, it also merchandises menstrual pain relievers, yeast infection treatments, feminine washes and other similar products here — on two shelves above some tampons and pantiliners. Of the three stores, Stater Bros. had the most shopper traffic (but it was close to rush hour, and many shoppers appeared to be browsing the aisle for dinner solutions).

The feminine hygiene section featured store brand (Top Care, supplied by Skokie, Ill.-based Topco Associates) versions of certain Playtex and Tampax tampons, Carefree and Kotex pantiliners, and Always pads (the store had a wide range of Always pads and Top Care equivalents). The store brand items were placed to the right of the national brand counterparts.

The upside:

• The shelves were fairly neat and well stocked.
• Of the three stores, Stater Bros. appeared to have the most store brand feminine hygiene SKUs — and it was the only one of the three stores we visited to have store brand equivalents for two different tampon brands.
• For most items, the Top Care packaging closely matches the colors of the national brand it emulates. This reality should make it easier for shoppers to quickly pick out the appropriate store brand product.

The downside:

• The store was running a "Mix $ Match, Buy 3 Save $3" promotion on Procter $ Gamble brands (Always 14- to 24-count pads and 40-count pantiliners, Tampax 18- to 20-count tampons). Although a Top Care equivalent wasn't offered for many of the products tied to this promotion, when one was, it ended up selling for a higher price than the promoted branded item (assuming the shopper purchased three items).
• We noticed no displays of either store brand or national brand feminine hygiene products.

Room for improvement

Although we noticed no glaring snafus among the three retailers we visited when it came to merchandising and promoting store brand feminine hygiene products, they — and most other retailers — likely could do much more here.

For starters, they could expand store brand offerings across the entire category — including premium products and a line for girls and young women, says Tanja RihtaršiČ, who heads of the private label program of Tosama d.o.o., Slovenia. And they could package store brand products to stand out, avoiding the subdued blues, whites, yellows and pinks that are so commonplace.

On the national brand side, "a move away from pale colors to bright, bold packaging has brought fresh life into feminine hygiene, particularly aimed at the under-30 consumer," notes Elizabeth Scott, vice president of sales, retail for Reidsville, N.C.-based Albaad USA.

Rob Lippucci, product marketing manager for Cleveland-based HOSPECO, cautions retailers not to stray too far from the look of the national brand their store brand is targeting.

"In some cases, especially with a staunch brand user who has no experience with private label products, this can be confusing because it makes it more difficult to find the specific comparable product that they may wish to try," he says.

Beth Richman, vice president of sales for HOSPECO, also believes it is best to keep the "compare to" message on the package for the same reasons.

Outside of packaging, retailers also could take other steps to call attention to store brand items already on the shelf.

"It is not enough to solely rely on positioning — next to the comparable brand — to grow store brand share," Scott says. "While this is convenient and consumers have been trained to look there, additional callouts such as item shelf protrusions, even without an offer, would be good to adopt."

Such signage and labeling should be highly visible and easy to understand, Lippucci adds.

Bonus packs and cross-couponing also work well to draw attention, Richman notes.

And off-the-shelf, end-cap and other displays increase visibility, Lippucci says.

"Perforated corrugate display boxes, sometimes referred to as PDQs — are a quick and easy way for retailers to set up end caps or other high-traffic locations featuring their brand of product," he notes. "They are very simple to use and provide a major reduction in stocking time."

Lippucci notes that his company has customers within the grocery segment using quick display merchandisers and shelf-tray systems for store brands in the category.

"We are now also seeing interest in quarter-pallet and half-pallet merchandisers that are free-standing and placed in a large aisle," he says.

Store brand feminine hygiene products also could be cross-merchandised with like products (tampons with feminine wipes or liners, for example) or with complementary products such as pain relievers or razors, Scott says. Such items could be part of special events tied to breast cancer or other women's health issues, too.