Family focus paying off for US firm

The small showplace of Beijing Poly Theater, with a capacity of 300 seats, nevertheless received an audience of over 600 one recent weekend for a children's chorus concert.

The audience members were actually mothers-to-be and babies-to-be, who enjoyed the Sounds of Nature concert sponsored by Huggies, the diaper brand of world-leading paper and personal products maker Kimberly-Clark.

"I can feel that my baby understands the music: He kept quiet when they sang sweet and slow songs, while kicking me along with brisk and fast music," said Wu Yanping, a 28-year-old pregnant woman.

Tong Mei, director of corporate development for Kimberly-Clark (China) Co Ltd, told China Business Weekly that sponsorship of the concert aims to let the mothers-to-be enjoy music and inspire them to lead happy and easy lives, which are crucial to babies' health and families' happiness.

The diaper brand has sponsored the annual concert since 2006. Previous sessions focused on infants and were titled "Curious Baby's Journey for Musical Discovery".

"This time, we turn our eyes to mothers-to-be, because scientific research shows that prenatal music education is an efficient way to cultivate babies' art and emotional senses at an early stage. Meanwhile, we hope pregnant women may take care of themselves to offer a sound growing environment for their unborn babies," said Tong, who is the mother of two boys, ages nine and two.

Kimberly-Clark has been attaching its corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts to babies, youth, women and families, and the early-stage music education project is just one part of that focus.

"We are a family care products company, we always combine our strength and experiences with our CSR projects," said Tong, who has worked at the Texas-based company for 12 years.

Kimberly-Clark owns a series of paper brands such as Kleenex tissues, Huggies, Scott paper towels, Pull-Ups toilet training pants for children, Kotex sanitary napkins and Depend, and holds the No 1 or No 2 market-share position in more than 80 countries.

The company entered China in 1994, and has four plants in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu province, employing more than 3,000 people. Its total investment in China amounts to almost 2 billion yuan.

Tong also stressed that designing programs that are in line with local conditions is crucial to their social benefits and efficiency.

The transnational company's philanthropic programs in China, besides natural disaster and poverty alleviation, include baby crawling and swimming contests - which aim to raise Chinese parental awareness of healthcare and foster participation in sports - environmental protection training and drawing competition in primary schools, voluntary activities for rural education, as well as sponsorship for the children's and younger women's chorus of the China National Symphony Orchestra since 2004.

"For any CSR program in China, we must be sure that it not only is based on our strength but also meets the local needs," said Tong.

She cited the early-stage music and sports education programs as examples. Most of the young parents are the single offspring of their own parents and have only one child due to the national policy, so they and their parents will attach great attention to the only kid. On the other hand, they are often short of modern education experience, and eager to learn related knowledge.

Kimberly-Clark, as a household paper producer with a history of 137 years, can offer its expertise to those people.

Since full-time babysitters in China usually come from rural areas with a low education level and lack of professional medical care knowledge, the company also conducts free training courses for them.

Tong said Kimberly-Clark would also carry out a series of philanthropic projects for the elderly in the coming years.

The programs will include psychological counseling for senior citizens, financial support for nursing homes, and volunteers' interactive gathering with the elderly.

Those charitable activities, in fact, are closely linked with the company's business in China. Late last year, Kimberly-Clark introduced a new brand to China, although one that has been in the US and Europe for years - Depend adult diapers. Depend targets elderly people who suffer from incontinence.

Kimberly-Clark's efforts have been rewarded: Its business in China grew 52 percent year-on-year in 2008, compared with an increase of 10 percent globally. This year, despite the economic slowdown, the company forecasts a jump of at least 40 percent.

(China Daily 04/27/2009 page10)