We always speak about using gender as one of the segmentation variables, it is only in the recent times that we can see examples of marketers trying to use this often forgotten basis to come up with brand extensions of existing products or even new products, like Emani Fair & Handsome, a fairness cream for men. If one were to back a little in the past we have examples of Nivea coming out with an exclusive range for men...
In the recent times I have seen two new products which I thought were revisiting this basis demographic variable to segment the market.
The first example is Horlicks for Women. Horlicks has been around in the Indian market for a long time, as has been coming with new variants to cater to different age groups with Horlicks for Kids and so on...maybe the whole range of varints of horlicks would deserve an exclusive posting but coming back to women horlicks, the ad also added to the post says it is specially designed
with HemoCal to cater to the special needs of women....The second is the new Clinic All Clear anti-dandruff shampoo for men. The reasoning given is HUl research shows that a mens scalp differs from a woman's and has more dandruff on an average ..... so a new variant just for men...
I don't know but the second example should make us think are we going in the right direction, or is it just that we want to create new variants so as to take-up more shelf space of retailers and pump more into distributors .... ???
I don;t think it is more of trying to fill up the spaces in the shelves as opposed to creatng diff. products for the diff. sexes...
ReplyDeleteI feel so because many companies which catered to only one of the sexes have come to realize that y intoducing the same product for the other sex, they can easily extend their brand and also have good sales. The urban man is more style and looks' conscious and the urban female is more health conscious than ever before. This transition demands products which cater to the diff. needs and hence such brand - extenstions help reduce the advertising costs also - For Example, Nivea is known as a cosmetic... Nivea"for men" clealy says it all inc. the fact that it's made for men...
ReplyDeleteMen and women respond differently to ads. Men need more facts and women demand proof. The facts fo the cosmetics will help them make a better decision and since their female friends have already been using such products, some help can taken from that side also...
Horlicks for Women to me seems to be a very good example of the use of gender as a variable, but a shampoo exclusively for men is the one which i felt was not very appropriate and thus ....
ReplyDeleteThe likelihood of negative feedback effects decreases as the level of perceived fit and consumers’ perceptions of the general extendibility of the parent brand increases.
ReplyDelete-------------------
williamgeorge
Buzz Marketing