Kiwi Goes Beyond Shine†

Wall Street Journal, December 20, 2007 — For a century, Kiwi shoe polish remained pretty much the same — just over one ounce of colored wax in a palm-size tin embossed with the image of a kiwi bird.

But about two years ago, Sara Lee Corp., whose predecessor company, Consolidated Foods Corp., acquired the brand in 1984, interviewed 3,500 people in eight countries about their shoe-care needs. What it learned was "a shocker," says Kiwi President Paco Casa: People don't care nearly as much about the shine on their shoes as they do about how fresh and comfortable they are on the inside. On a list of more than 20 attributes people desired in their shoes, shine ranked merely 17th.