By Olivia Moils
WHILE consumer marketers have been playing on women’s hang-ups for generations, exploiting men’s fixations is a relatively recent phenomenon. In fact, it was a carefully guarded secret that men even had any hang-ups, particularly when it came to matters of a more intimate nature.Women were insecure about everything from their bodies to their hair but only recently did the little topics of ED and the magic of Viagra pop into everyday conversation. There is, however, one other little problem: the purchase of condoms.
Although men are notoriously casual (proud, even) about discussing sexual matters, it seems they aren’t all that different from women when it comes to the nitty-gritty of sexual protection. A study on University of British Columbia (UBC) students found that 66 percent of men feel “some level of embarrassment” when buying condoms. The study noted that the biggest source of embarrassment came from facing the cashier, rather than in choosing the condoms themselves from the display. The level of embarrassment wasn’t correlated with gender, age, number of sexual partners or whether the buyer lived at home, which are popular explanations for such occurrences. It appears that a lot of people simply fear being judged by the person behind the counter, and this could result in more than just embarrassment on a date; it could mean that a lot of people are putting their health at risk because of ineffective marketing by condom manufacturers.
“People who reported being embarrassed when buying condoms, purchased less often and if you don’t have condoms, obviously you can’t use them,” says Prof. Chuck Weinberg
of UBC.
Malaysia, Truly Asia
As you would imagine, the situation is far more complex in a country such as ours, where many things, particularly sexual matters, are considered taboo and as such, are never openly discussed. This makes the issue of marketing condoms a complete no-no; it’s not even up for discussion at this point. Any time that even the mention of something as horribly “Western” as sex education comes up, protests ring out loud and clear from various religious leaders and even many parents, who believe that our young are better off without knowing how to prevent pregnancy and STDs “because if they don’t know, they won’t do”.
We’ve all heard it before, from our own parents perhaps, and while we know they mean well, most of us disagree. Nonetheless, it’s highly unlikely that any of our young celebrities will be seen endorsing Brand X condoms anytime soon, as 50 Cent, Ray-J and other celebrities have done in other countries. It’s equally unlikely that our good old RapidKL buses and monorails will be sporting safe sex campaigns as the New York subway system has been successfully doing for years now.
Going Around the Bush
Morality aside, this lack of freedom to promote safe sex has significant bearing on marketers for such products. Obviously, common business sense decrees that sales should be increased as much as possible, and if society is going to benefit from this in the form of safer sexual experiences, then it’s a wonderfully rare win-win situation. The tricky question is, how does one market a product that has been deemed “controversial” (Waller and Fam, 2000) by the government and by society in general?
Well, creatively, of course. To date, Durex has done an amazing job of quietly but clearly getting their brand message across. In fact, just the mention of the word ‘condom’ is synonymous with Durex in many people’s minds, just as Colgate seems to equal ‘toothpaste’, Post-Its refer to any sort of yellow sticky paper and Liquid Paper is understood as ‘correction fluid’ for most Malaysians.
Furthermore, the Durex website is a fun and unapologetic plethora of information pertaining to anything sexual. Visitors can view the results of the infamous annual Sexual Wellbeing Global Survey, play fun games with light-hearted sex themes and of course, there is the compulsory sexual positions guide.
The significant thing, though, is that all this interesting information is also strategically peppered with product positioning, in a way that doesn’t come across as pushy or, God forbid, preachy. The ‘Condom Selector’ for instance, easily guides users to finding the perfect condom for different needs. After all, shopping for condoms can sometimes feel like shopping for that perfect pair of jeans – there’s size, colour, cutting, function and of course, style to consider. The only difference is, jeans generally don’t come scented or lubed.
Relax, It’s Just You and Me
Durex appears to have gotten straight to the core of personalised marketing with their entire marketing strategy and that’s probably why the brand is Asia’s number one choice. In fact, it almost feels as if you’re just consulting a trusted friend instead of a giant faceless corporation. Wouldn’t it be a great boon if that kind of feeling could be cultivated more, since these kinds of purchases are undeniably personal and potentially stressful (picture a hormonal young man afraid of ruin his chances with his new lady friend because he bought the wrong type of condom).
Everyone’s seen those ingenious condom commercials on YouTube and though most are humorous, the ads also do a great job of clearly educating people on the importance of using protection. The Trojan campaigns generally take a more serious, mature outlook on the issue with their key word being “Evolve”, as in, that people should evolve to realising the critical importance of safe sex methods. It may not be as engaging with the younger market, but it’s a good way to target the older, more seasoned adult demographic. Of course, their TrojanTales.com site still provides plenty of offbeat humour for those who are into that kind of thing.
The world of marketing is definitely heading ever closer to personalisation because this is what consumers are demanding. The non-stop rush of user-generated content sprouting up everywhere is testament enough to the empowerment that today’s consumer feels. Surely they would be pleased if they could be equally empowered when it came to their sexual choices? Imagine, there’d no longer be a need for skulking around in a 7-Eleven at 1am, grabbing a candy bar and beverages that you don’t actually want just so that it may distract those present from the little shiny box you’ve got clutched in your hand.
The Lion Purrs Tonight
Over in sunny Singapore, the government appears to be a little less iron-fisted when it comes to the marketing of condoms. Earlier this year, Ogilvy RedCard Singapore launched a digital campaign for Durex’s online store – a pinball game named ‘Pleasureball’. The fun campaign served to reinforce its brand positioning for its Play range to illustrate how sex can be fun with Durex. The ball travels to hotspots on a woman’s body and the speed in which toys are earned through contact of the hotspots determines the amount of points accumulated.
Some may find the campaign somewhat sexist, but it was undoubtedly a mammoth success with the younger male crowd. Furthermore, even irritated feminists would probably feel the urge to check out the game, perhaps just to grouse about it; but hey, brand awareness is brand awareness, however you cut it.
Another brilliant strategy out of the Lion City came from Ching Seng Moh Import & Export, the sole agent in Asia for new Danish condom brand Love-Box. They launched a month-long campaign with the tagline ‘Condoms with Love’ on Clear Channel’s bus shelter network and even gave out free condoms as part of the brand’s social marketing efforts to encourage safe sex on the eve of World Aids Day.
A little further from home, in Australia, Marie Stopes International Australia launched a social marketing campaign with a new brand called “Snake Condoms” that was aimed at increasing sex education awareness of indigenous young people between the ages of 16 and 29 years old. To spark initial buzz, the city of Mildura, in Victoria celebrated the launch of the Snake Condom in March 2004 by hosting a free concert that drew approximately 2,000 people.
Of course, there will be those who are content with customers finding their condoms online. That’s perfectly fine but it definitely does not cover all the potential users out there, meaning you are not making full use of the market possibilities. Furthermore, let’s be honest about this: the vast majority of condoms are purchased and used rather, um, promptly. There has been research to show that young British men (admittedly, not a group renowned for its foresight) only buy condoms after they have successfully “hooked up” with that special someone. Besides the obvious risks involved, this also means that these people ain’t gonna be logging on to buy your little rubber tubes, no matter how featherlight or flavourful they may be.
So, here’s a nice, ripe marketing challenge. How do you make it easier for the shy, skittish and short-term thinking among us to procure this compelling but shaming product?