Posted on 26. Oct, 2005 by Brian Reid in General
Coolhouse Update. I finally did get in touch with the PR folks for Febreze, which is running the moms-only sweepstakes for “cool moms.” Here is the logic, as described to me:
1) Marketing research suggests that Febreze appeals to a certain subset of the household-product-buying community (the “cool moms” subset, apparently. Uncool moms, stay away).
2) The promotion was built with that community in mind.
3) The lawyers said that you can’t promote a sweepstakes to that community (moms) and then let dads enter. That would apparently make it “misleading.” So in the interest of orienting a promotion toward “mominating” cool moms, dads had to be excluded.
The legal part of this makes zero sense to me, and appears a pretty off-the-wall defense of exclusion as a policy. But everything else seems straightforward: they have a target audience that market research suggests is key to their financial success, and if you’re not a part of it, Procter & Gamble has no problem ignoring you. Though I was impressed that they called back and explained all this, I’m still boycotting Febreze. And until I see some more progressive marketing from them, I’ll make a good faith effort to avoid all P&G products. (No Pampers, no Pringles, and once I burn through the rest of my Mach3 blades, I’ll move to Schick.)
This isn’t a move designed to bring a Dow Jones Industrial Average member to its knees. P&G has revenues of about One Hundred Million Gazallion Dollars a year, so this is about principle. Honestly, it doesn’t take much to make me happy …
On the flip side, good things happen when you engage fathers as consumers. Though we don’t make up a huge percentage of the shoppers, we tend to be passionate about the products we do buy — we’re often mavens. What happens when we’re engaged? We write brilliant, thoughtful analyses of the stroller market for Slate (go Greg!). We pen glowing reviews of the hippest minivans in the New York Times. Imagine if Bugaboo or Mazda had driven men away from their products?
Mark B.
26. Oct, 2005
Using products like Febreze like I see “woman” doing in their commercials is like going day after day not taking a shower and just putting on deodorant. It’s not cleaning anything. I am also not sure if I want my kids rolling around in it all the time. And maybe reading the way most SAHD’s detest home cleaning on websites like this, they figured it better to leave them out of there promotion.
Tom
26. Oct, 2005
let me see if I got this straight.
“Marketing research suggests that Febreze appeals to a certain subset of the household-product-buying community .”
So if their research showed that say folks of Asian descent or folks over 30 or some other group- didn’t tend to find Febreze appealing then that group could be excluded from the sweepstakes?
Yes, seems like a weak excuse. And whats the point of marketing to the group that already finds the product appealing?
Dave
27. Oct, 2005
That review of the Mazda (a vehicle I looked at 2 days after it came out…if only it was AWD…) brings to my head a thought…
Everyone should drive sticks…
But I digress from the intended message. As one who is married to one who spews much propaganda from the empire of the Golden Arches, I can say that just because an audience finds a product appealing doesn’t mean the man will not spend mucho dinero both keeping it that way and drilling it into our heads.
I agree that it was silly of them to leave us out but since we live in a very litigious society, I can just see someone with too much free time on thier hands suing them.
Hell, maybe they even copywrote ‘mominating’… wouldn’t shock me.
Hogan
27. Oct, 2005
Two days after I heard about this contest I ran into a guy at Lowe’s Home Improvement store carrying two bottles of Febreze and a garage door kit.
These Febreze marketing execs are a bunch of idiots. Just like the baby accesory store execs. I talked with some Baby’s R Us Execs about making their stores father-friendlier. Their reply, “Sorry Mr. Hilling but the moms spend the money.”
What these dimwits fail to recognize is that 1) in SAHM households the dads earn the money so that the moms can spend the money, 2) today’s working dads (includes two working parent households) are more involved in the care taking and household duties like doing laundry and shopping, 3) that there is an increasing population of at-home dads, and 4) dads will spend money but they can’t if you don’t put a product that appeals to dads on the baby accessory store shelf for them to buy. Hello!!!!!
I have several ideas on how to make the baby accessory store father-friendlier like a “Daddy Lounge” in the middle of the store with couches, recliners and a big screen tv.
The dads can interact with other dads and their babies while mom is shopping. (In this lounge you can display daddy products for the dads to buy.) The moms and dads are spending money. The dads are having fun. The store is making money. Everybody is happy happy!
Keep On Daddying,
Hogan
gus
07. Nov, 2005
I sympathize with your problems with the gender-ghettoizing advertising industry, but wasn’t there something in the news not so long ago about a scientific study showing that air fresheners contribute to childhood asthma?