Kimberly-Clark targets new hospital markets

Kimberly-Clark targets new hospital markets

Kimberly-Clark, Roswell, Ga., is using its absorbent technology from the Huggies Diaper product line to target new hospital markets that include catheterization laboratories and orthopedic departments, according to David Pasternack, product manager for Kimberly-Clark.

"We're trying to key into areas of hospitals where we feel our technology is going to make a difference," Pasternack said.

Kimberly-Clark is marketing to catheterization laboratories and orthopedic departments for the first time. In late 1989, the manufacturer introduced a femoral angiography/catheterization sheet featuring a window surrounded by material, called CONTROL Plus, that makes the sheet 75% more absorbent than that of competing drapes. On April 20, the company began selling a similar type of sheet for use during orthopedic procedures. Both are constructed of Kimberly-Clark's patented three-layer polypropylene Evolution fabric which resists strike through of blood and body fluids and ignition from laser and fiberoptic sources.

With several hundred people selling the sheets from Kimberly-Clark's direct sales force and those of its national network of distributors, Pasternack said sales so far are going extremely well and attributed the success to the absorbency of his company's sheets, which the company says are the most absorbent ones on the market. He said the angiography/catheterization sheet is one of the company's fastest growing new products.

Training programs for Kimberly-Clark's sales force are very intensive for the sheets, Pasternack said. In November of 1989 they received "pretty thorough" training on cath labs since they were entering a new market. Similar training is being held for orthopedics.

Marketing efforts include direct mail to generate leads, Pasternack said.

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