Posts Tagged "consumer products"
Dear Kotex,
Your recent marketing blitz for your newly redesigned product really caught my attention. I always appreciate the value of a rebranding campaign, as I am a little bit of a marketing nerd, and I love breaking them down but I must say that I almost fell for yours. Almost.
Your concerted effort to make your target market aware of the ridiculousness and almost cookie-cutter like propagated by other tampon commercials made me laugh, think, and notice these visual signatures in your competitors’ commercials. A bit of an a-ha moment.
But upon further investigation thanks to the promotional pack that was sent to me, I was disappointed to find that this slick rebranding effort resulted in nothing more than brightly colored packaging. And I love good packaging [hehe]. The product is obviously still the same: the liners worked like normal, I didn’t like the regular pads, and the little tampons that I was excited for because they were compact [great for secreting away into the bathroom] were very disappointing. If you slide the plunger even a millimeter too far, it falls completely out and then you’re left fumbling with the applicator. So in essence, the neon colors did not make up for the overall product dissatisfaction. Fail.
Now, I know the greater good is for “empowering girls and women to take control of their health and bodies” which is a noble and fantastic goal, especially so for the young girls who are beginning their periods and are completely awkward about the whole thing, but really? You couldn’t do this without the brightly colored wrapping paper? And did you focus so much on the packaging that you failed to make sure your product stood up to practical use?
Look, I understand the power in embracing being a woman and all that it entails and I know having my period every month is not a big deal. It happens, big whoop [it would be a bigger whoop if it didn't happen]. But that doesn’t mean I want to broadcast the fact that I’m on my period to the world every time I need to make a change. Seriously. Especially not as a teenager.
I was awkward enough dealing with the whole period thing in junior high and high school [yes, it took me a while to come to terms with it] and there is no way I would have wanted to use a product that draws attention to itself because it’s brightly wrapped like candy. It screams “Look at me! I’M ON MY PERIOD!! I’M BLEEEEEEEEEDING!” I don’t want that. I want to be able to discreetly handle my business. No need letting everyone else know. I’ve never been the type of person who openly complained about the effects of my period [mainly because I don't have many that are newsworthy] because why would I want people to know? Why would people want to know?
Wanna know what helped me? Going grocery shopping with boys in college. There was no way around it. I had to buy the stuff so I owned it. And it didn’t involve anything brightly colored. Thank goodness. But I don’t fully knock your effort. It’s definitely novel and gets us talking [look at me, I'm talking about my period on my blog! Say what?!] but the florescent colors are just not my style. I’d rather use a product I can trust that isn’t fantastically packaged than a smartly packaged mediocre product.
Sincerely,
Me
Read More