Kimberly-Clark is pledging to invest in “breakthrough marketing” in 2026, with the FMCG giant promising to be “even more bullish” despite marketing spend falling in 2025.

On a call with investors yesterday (27 January), chairman and CEO Michael Hsu said the team are “introducing consumer-directed, science-based innovation and breakthrough marketing across brands and markets faster than ever before”. Hsu claimed the team have “rewired” the organisation for growth, while also exercising cost discipline.

“We’re even more bullish on our innovation and marketing initiatives this year,” he explained.

Kimberly-Clark, the parent company behind Kleenex, Andrex and Huggies, intends for “innovation and the brand support to ramp up” during the first and second quarters of 2026, as well as for “the balance of the year”.

During the fourth quarter net sales fell 0.6% year-on-year to $4.1bn (£2.97bn), amid organic sales growth of 2.1%. Adjusted operating profit increased 13.1% to $629m (£456m) due to “strong productivity gains and lower planned marketing, research and general expenses”.

For the three months ending 31 December, marketing, research and general expenses fell 5.1% year-on-year to $955m (£693m) in 2025. Overall, for the 12 month period, spend on marketing, research and general expenses declined 10.2% to $3.53bn (£2.56bn).

For the 2025 full year, net sales fell 2.1% to $16.4bn (£11.8bn), partly attributed to the exit of the company’s private label nappy business in the US.

However, organic sales grew 1.7% driven by a 2.5% increase in volume, partially offset by price investments of 0.9%. Adjusted operating profit was $2.7bn (£1.9bn), in line with the prior year.

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When it comes to marketing spend, Hsu explained the business is “really not interested in renting share through promotion”, particularly in categories like toilet paper or nappies “where consumption is relatively stable or almost fixed”.

The CEO claimed in recent years the business has “done a very good job of increasing” investment in marketing, as well as improving the effectiveness of its advertising and marketing.

“For us, we feel like that’s a much more powerful lever to pull than trade promotion,” said Hsu.

Kimberly-Clark wants to promote an operating model and culture “driving [the] elusive virtuous cycle”, the CEO added. He claimed this approach is “delivering great results” and involves innovating at the top end of a range and “pulling it through the value tiers”.

‘Compelling value proposition’

President and chief operating officer Russell Torres told investors a “combination of innovation, marketing and activation” allows the team to carry out its “mantra” of meeting customers’ needs.

He noted consumer demand is shifting across channels, with uneven purchase frequency leading to “choppy” consumption data, meaning the team are focusing on delivering a “compelling value proposition”.

“We have made a number of targeted price-pack adjustments, as well as paying extra special attention to channel participation and ensuring we have really compelling offerings at the good tier, as well as the better and the best tier,” claimed Torres.

He added that these discussions were “ahead of” some the innovation the business has coming, with choices made to “sharpen the competitiveness” of its value proposition.

The nappy category, in particular, is a big revenue driver for Kimberly-Clark. On this, Torres said the company is performing by “driving innovation and brand building that grows the category and cascading that to all tiers”, with that model working well worldwide.

“We’re really focused on providing consumers with differentiated brand value propositions no matter what channel they’re shopping in, and we’re widely available, so is our competition,” said Torres.

At Cannes Lions last year, John Starkey, president for family care in North America at Kimberly-Clark, told Marketing Week the company’s marketing approach is based on “storytelling” rather than “functional messaging”.

“I’ve found that storytelling, creating that emotional resonance, continues to be extremely important. Having that right balance between functional messaging and emotional storytelling is always where the secret sauce is,” said Starkey.

“It’s about understanding where the consumer is now and thinking about where the consumer is tomorrow, and building strategic business plans that allow us to lead our brands with innovation that supports those brands and the needs of our consumers.”