Starting on International Women’s Day, March 8, Kao Corporation will introduce a major new brand communication campaign across nine Asian countries and regions for its feminine sanitary product brand Laurier, a cornerstone of its consumer care business in Asia, marking a significant step in the company’s strategy to strengthen its presence and deepen its connection with consumers throughout the region under a unified message that resonates across cultures and markets while reinforcing its long-term global ambitions for the brand.
Launching on International Women’s Day with a Unified Vision
By choosing International Women’s Day as the starting point for this campaign, Kao Corporation underscores its commitment to advancing conversations around women’s well-being and empowerment, aligning Laurier’s message with a globally recognized day that celebrates women’s achievements and highlights ongoing challenges, thereby positioning the brand not only as a product provider but also as a supportive partner in women’s everyday lives, and using this symbolic date to amplify visibility and solidarity across diverse communities in Asia through synchronized communication efforts that transcend borders and languages.
“Comfort, Made Together” as the Core Message
At the heart of the campaign lies the key message “Comfort, Made Together,” a phrase that encapsulates Laurier’s aspiration to foster more supportive and understanding environments surrounding menstruation, enabling women to feel at ease both physically and emotionally, and emphasizing collaboration among individuals, families, communities, and society at large to normalize conversations about menstrual health while reducing stigma, discomfort, and misunderstanding that have historically limited open dialogue, thus reframing comfort as a shared responsibility rather than an individual burden.
Strengthening Laurier as a Global Brand
Through this simultaneous rollout across Asia, Kao Corporation seeks to further elevate Laurier into a truly global brand, building on years of regional success and leveraging integrated operations to enhance efficiency, consistency, and brand clarity, while ensuring that consumers in different markets experience a cohesive identity and value proposition, reflecting the company’s broader ambition to compete effectively on the world stage by harmonizing brand standards, operational systems, and long-term strategic direction without losing sensitivity to local cultural nuances.
Laurier’s Role in Kao’s Asian Consumer Care Business
Laurier stands as one of the core brands supporting Kao Corporation’s consumer care business in Asia, contributing significantly to growth and brand equity within the region, and since 2023 the brand has actively promoted globally integrated operations aimed at optimizing performance, streamlining resources, and creating synergies among markets, demonstrating how operational discipline and brand development can work hand in hand to create sustainable value for both the company and its customers.
Advancing Globally Integrated Operations Since 2023
Beginning in 2023, Laurier intensified efforts to unify product specifications across all nine Asian countries and regions, including Japan, reducing variations that previously existed between markets and consolidating production sites to enhance efficiency and improve the asset turnover ratio, thereby ensuring that resources are utilized more effectively while maintaining consistent product quality and innovation standards, illustrating Kao Corporation’s commitment to operational excellence as a foundation for brand growth and long-term competitiveness.
Unifying Brand Purpose and Worldview Across Regions
Beyond operational integration, Laurier also recognized that interpretations of its brand purpose and worldview varied across regions, prompting discussions and collaborative workshops to align perspectives and create a shared understanding of the brand’s mission, values, and identity, resulting in renewed global guidelines that articulate a consistent narrative while allowing flexibility for local expression, ensuring that the brand’s voice remains authentic and meaningful regardless of geographic context.
Returning to the Founding Principle of a Consumer Perspective
Central to this new initiative is a return to Kao Corporation’s founding principle of maintaining a strong consumer perspective, reaffirming that innovation and communication must begin with a deep understanding of real needs, concerns, and lived experiences, particularly in the context of menstruation, where physical discomfort, emotional stress, and social constraints intersect, and where thoughtful product design and empathetic messaging can significantly enhance daily comfort and confidence for women across various stages of life.
Offering Products Designed for Long-Term Use
Laurier aims to strengthen brand equity by offering products designed for long-term use, focusing on reliability, comfort, and trustworthiness, recognizing that menstrual care products are not occasional purchases but recurring essentials that become part of a woman’s routine over many years, and therefore must consistently deliver performance and reassurance, reinforcing the brand’s relationship with consumers through quality, innovation, and attentiveness to evolving expectations and lifestyles.
Empathy-Driven Marketing Through Consistent Communication
In addition to product development, Laurier is advancing empathy-driven marketing through consistent communication across regions, ensuring that campaign themes, visuals, and messages reflect shared values and insights while resonating locally, fostering a sense of unity among women in different countries who may face similar challenges regarding menstruation, and demonstrating how cohesive storytelling can build emotional connections that transcend market boundaries and strengthen overall brand perception.
Insights from a Large-Scale Survey on Menstruation Attitudes
To inform its strategy and messaging, Laurier conducted an extensive survey on attitudes toward menstruation among 4,500 women aged 15–44 across nine Asian countries and regions, including Japan, during two research periods in November–December 2023 and October–November 2024, gathering valid responses that shed light on how menstrual symptoms, concerns, and associated limitations affect women’s daily comfort and sense of well-being, thereby grounding the campaign in concrete data and lived experiences rather than assumptions.
Key Findings on Comfort and Daily Life Impact
The survey findings revealed that many women across Asia feel that menstrual symptoms, worries, and social restrictions significantly influence their overall comfort in daily life, affecting not only physical sensations but also emotional states, confidence levels, and participation in work, school, and social activities, highlighting the persistent need for supportive environments and open dialogue, and reinforcing Laurier’s decision to prioritize comfort as a central theme in its communication and product development efforts.
Creating an Inclusive Environment with Expanded Possibilities
Through this initiative, Laurier seeks to contribute to the creation of an inclusive environment in which women can pursue opportunities and live full lives without feeling constrained by their periods, advocating for a cultural shift that recognizes menstruation as a natural and manageable aspect of life rather than a barrier, and encouraging collective responsibility in building systems, workplaces, educational institutions, and communities that accommodate and respect women’s needs.
Extending Support Beyond Products
As a global brand, Laurier’s mission extends beyond providing menstrual care products to offering information and educational support that empowers women with knowledge about their bodies and health, reinforcing the idea that comprehensive support includes access to accurate information, open conversations, and resources that enable informed decision-making, thereby positioning the brand as a holistic partner in women’s well-being rather than merely a manufacturer of sanitary products.
Contributing to a Society Where Women Live Authentically
Ultimately, Laurier aspires to contribute to the creation of a society in which each woman can continue to live in a way that feels true to herself, free from unnecessary discomfort or stigma associated with menstruation, and supported by products, education, and collective understanding that affirm her autonomy and individuality, reflecting Kao Corporation’s broader vision of aligning business success with positive social impact and demonstrating how integrated operations, unified messaging, and empathy-driven strategies can work together to advance both commercial objectives and meaningful change across Asia and beyond.
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