The Feminine Hygiene Market

As feminine hygiene manufacturers face market maturity in the developed world, they continue to unearth new market segments and marketing platforms that either hold onto existing consumers a little longer or lure new consumers at an early age, a strategy that can be extremely important in this brand loyal category.

Currently, this market is seeing low growth in areas like the U.S. and Western Europe, where penetration levels are high and populations are not increasing. In fact, experts say the aging population could be a blow for the feminine hygiene category as the number of women ages 15-49 declines about 1% by 2015.

“We can’t make women menstruate more but what we can do is get them to trade up with better products,” says Rebecca Dunphey, marketing manager of Kimberly-Clark’s Kotex brand.

To combat this high penetration level, at least in the developed world, a strategy for feminine hygiene manufacturers has been to introduce a series of new products aimed at a specific period in a women’s life, ranging from puberty to post menopause,