Introducing Parentstages.com

By Ken Turetzky

 

In the early days of electronic commerce on the Internet, manufacturers plastered their brand logos and a few product details on Web sites and mostly made static use of an interactive medium. Consumers who sought out these sites were invariably looking for more than they got.

 

Kimberly-Clark opted for a new approach last month when it introduced Parentstages.com, an online portal that delivers a wealth of unbiased information while establishing a strong presence for three market-leading brands — HUGGIES® disposable diapers and Baby Wipes and PULL-UPS® training pants. The site is aimed at couples who are expecting through parents of 12-year-olds.

 

Parentstages, as its name suggests, is information-centric rather than product-oriented, offering parents an entire interactive network they can explore at length. Expert content is provided by initial partners CBSHealthwatch.com, Ivillage.com, Salon.com, Totalwoman.com and Urbanbaby.com. The site also incorporates content from K-C's own award-winning Huggies.com.

 

"Parentstages.com is a brand in itself," says Mark Scott, marketing director, North American Disposable Diapers. "It lends a little bit of objectivity or credibility to what we're doing on the Web. Parents are pretty astute. When they go to a site run by a manufacturer — such as the Pampers Parenting Institute (Procter & Gamble's site at Pampers.com) — even if they find good information, parents will ask the question, `Have they slanted this so that I buy their product?'

 

"Or the site might say, `Here's what our one expert has to say on this one subject.' What we're trying to do with Parentstages.com is provide access to different points of view so parents, who we think are true experts because they know their kids and know their parenting style, can get the information and then make a decision as to how they want to parent."

 

Parentstages.com is organized into three channels: "Expecting," "New Parent" and "Savvy Parent". Each section offers feature articles in four categories: Parenting, Health, Women and Finance. Front-page views include a CBSHealthwatch.com symptoms finder ("Search your child's ailments online"), a selection of bulletin boards from Ivillage.com where parents can discuss a range of issues, and a topic search window for the "Mothers Who Think" portion of Salon.com.

 

Recent feature articles tackled such subjects as "Birth Underwater" (from Ivillage.com), "Tips From A Stay-at-Home Mom" (Totalwoman.com), "Smart Ways to Exercise" (CBSHealthwatch.com) and "Maternity Fashion Ideas" (Urbanbaby.com). "We certainly anticipate rapidly increasing the number of partners in the network over time," says Scott.

 

As independent sources provide compelling content, K-C is free to tap the marketing and e-commerce potential of the Web. A traveling navigation bar serves a two-fold purpose by keeping visitors "at home" while they explore the site, and reminding them that Parentstages.com is "powered by" the tri-sector brands.

 

OgilvyOne, the online and one-to-one marketing division of K-C's advertising agency, Ogilvy & Mather, developed Parentstages.com. "What we came up with was a sort of content versus context paradigm," says Mark Nathanson, account director for OgilvyOne. "Do you want to develop content, or do you want to provide context by directing your audience to sites where they find real value and become engaged and influenced on the Web? With the navigation bar, our brand presence is there while we're bringing parents the value of these other sites."

 

The new portal allows the tri-sector brands to focus their online promotional efforts on one brand — Parentstages.com — rather than by scattering expensive HUGGIES® banner ads on Yahoo, America Online and elsewhere throughout the Web. Scott says, "It's moving us away from status as a paying passenger on somebody else's Web site to a position where we can be a true partner" with leading content providers and with parents.

 

Offline, says Nathanson, "We can leverage the millions and millions of impressions that are out there on HUGGIES® packages and in the media through direct mail, print and television ads, to drive people to Parentstages.com and to our partner sites."

 

As consumer traffic builds, online retailers will follow. They'll see Parentstages.com as a great place to sell not only GoodNites®, Little Swimmers® and PULL-UPs® but many other products as well. Consumers, retailers and brands will all find value there.

 

"One of the key differences that we see with Parentstages.com compared to other sites is its multi-dimensionality," says Scott. "The site is not about talking to consumers with our message, it's about providing them value in the form of information. We're establishing a relationship. It opens up a whole new way of communicating and building our brands with consumers."