Diaper: A $9 bn market no one wants to talk about

Dhanteras: Bourses extend trading hours Adults vs babies Seniors soon outnumber infants

NSE and BSE will extend the trading session for gold exchange-traded funds and sovereign gold bonds on Friday, till 7 pm on the occasion of Dhanteras, a festival celebrated two days before Diwali. The exchanges will also conduct 'muhurat' trading session on account of Diwali Laxmi Pujan on October 27 between 6.15 pm and 7.15 pm.

The time may not be far off when more adults need diapers than babies as the population grows older, potentially a huge opportunity for manufacturers of incontinence products-- if they can lift the stigma that has long constrained sales.

The market for adult diapers, disposable underwear and absorbent pads is growing fast, up 9 per cent last year to $9 billion, having doubled in the last decade, according to Euromonitor.

But manufacturers like market leaders Essity and Kimberly-Clark Corp reckon only half of the more than 400 million adults likely to be affected by weak bladders, are buying the right products, because they are too embarrassed.

Companies are trying various methods to change attitudes, including making products more discreet, avoiding terms like diapers or nappies, and placing items in the personal care aisle, next to deodorants and menstrual pads, rather than in the baby products section.

They are also trying to normalise discussions around the subject through advertising.

In Japan, where adult incontinence products have outsold baby diaper sales since around 2013 due to a rapidly ageing population, market leader Unicharm has adopted the phrase “choi more” in its advertising, which translates as “lil’ dribble”, to make light of the problem.

In the US, market leader Kimberly-Clark has this year given its 35-year-old Depend brand a makeover, introducing thinner, softer and more fitted products that can be worn discreetly, in an effort to make them more acceptable.

Still it is difficult for companies to persuade people to buy specially made incontinence products.

“People keep the fact that they have incontinence secret from their loved ones, from their husbands, brothers and sisters – this is a deep secret for many consumers,” said Fiona Tomlin, who leads Kimberly-Clark’s adult and feminine care division.

Manufacturers have been particularly keen to win over women, who are more than twice as likely as men to experience bladder weakness, due to childbirth. Kimberly-Clark’s Poise brand is aimed at younger women like Ellie Foster, a 31-year-old from Maine, who has struggled with leaks since having her first child a year-and-a-half ago but is too embarrassed to buy products that might help her. “It was definitely weird picking out adult diapers to wear,” said Foster. “You feel like you’re in the old lady section.”

Sweden’s Essity, the global leader, is also trying to reach a younger audience with its TENA brand and a new line of black, low-rise disposable underwear called Silho-uette Noir. The ad’s tagline reads: ‘secret’s out: 1 in 3 women have incontinence’. —Reuters