Imagine being Victorian women, choking her tummy with a “Hoosier” sanitary belt every 6-7 days of a month. The advertising title claimed it to be the only satisfactory sanitary belt available in the market. How exasperatingly uncomfortable it sounds!
My mother used to fondly recollect the story of how my grandmother gifted her a thin packet of Kotex, a much sought after, sparingly available, luxury good in villages after her menarche. Fast forward to today, my mother allows me to splurge on all sorts of modern menstrual technology of varying sizes and shapes suiting to different occasions. This article talks about the top 3 players of the 1990s menstrual hygiene market that have relatively eased the period timeline for millions of women globally.
Kotex: Kimberly, Clark and Co. made a revolutionary invention by birthing Kotex. They went from being a modest paper mill business company to American multinational personal care Messiah.
The prominent material behind this menstrual technology breakthrough was ‘cellucotton’, necessary during World War 1 to surgically bandage the wounded soldiers. A wood pulp by-product, cellucotton, apart from cost-effectiveness, endorsed five times more absorption than bandages and was a perfect fit to cater to the demand-supply chain.
Historians suggest that the main brainchild behind this two-way usage of bandage technology was the ‘American Fund for the French Wounded’ who received letters from Army nurses about the wonderful makeshift, a low-cost sanitary napkin from leftover bandages.
The main success of Kotex as the largest selling brand in American society was the aggressive marketing strategy they adopted in the antiquated times, which stigmatised open mention of menstrual hygiene products as derogatory and sinful. Thus, the real identity of Kotex remained inside the veil of the phrase, “Ask for them by their name”.
The Indian Sanitary market is expected to reach a market value of around $596 million by 2022. In India’s fast-growing, and supremely competitive manufacturing sector with slow penetration of menstrual knowledge, the global players like Johnson & Johnson, and Procter & Gamble have dominated the market, making it extremely difficult path for local business to set a foothold.
Stayfree: Robert & James Wood Johnson’s enterprise took a plunge in the Indian market after economic policies of LPG had set some sweeping changes. However, Stayfree was popularised in the next decade owing to its low-key launch as a matter of taboo subject.
The concept of disposable adhesive pads in post-independent India of the 1960s was treated as a surprising gift from the West for wealthy, upper-caste women. Totally dumping the “one size fits all” approach of the Hoosier belt, customised extra-large to ultra-thin along with integrated ThermoControl and Multi-fluid Absorption technology, Stayfree is all set to collaborate with Indian schools and universities in order to become a home name.
In the past years, Stayfree has been in constant conflict with J.K Malhotra group’s Christine Hoden India and Primella Sanitary Products over packaging issues. But statistics given by Euromonitor International regarding Stayfree’s total share of 24% in the Indian market, establish the wider acceptance and trust widening attitude towards menstrual hygiene. But still, the blue blood dazzling over the packaging is a grave insult to real identity to code red.
These 3 top multinational companies have changed the menstruation trajectory for millions of people all over the globe. Indian market is yet to see the birth of a popular #MadeInIndia local enterprise promising to make the dream of green menstruation a reality.
The author is a part of the current batch of #PeriodParGyan Writer’s Training Program