sKATterbrained
Katherine. 21. Los Angeles. USC. Dance. Writing. Reading. Pop culture. Film. Blogging. TV.
Unquality blog. Enjoy, if you please.
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“Dancing is the one thing in my life that nobody can take away from me.”
Jaime Goodwin
Unquality blog. Enjoy, if you please.
—
“Dancing is the one thing in my life that nobody can take away from me.”
Jaime Goodwin
Not For Women? Try Not For Anyone
After the jump lies my piece, as originally intended, written and edited by me. Enjoy, hate, whatever! It’s an opinions piece, so if you feel something at all about it then I did my job.
It’s Not For Women. With a slogan like that strewn across the screen in a Terminator-esque font, it’s no wonder Dr. Pepper Ten has come under fire for sexist marketing. The TV and radio spots, combined with a Facebook page asking “Are You Man Enough?,” provoked feminist outrage when it was launched last October. The soda seemed to fly under the radar for a few months, but in the last few weeks there has been a renewed radio and television push for the drink.
But, gender stereotyping and normative reinforcement aside, was launching Dr. Pepper Ten and marketing it to an exclusively male drinker-ship a solid business decision? Not even close. Making minute, insignificant changes to an existing product and simply repackaging it will only cannibalize the existing market for lower calorie Dr. Pepper. Plus, the ad campaign is just bad; if they were going for the Old Spice guy, they missed it by a mile.
Dr. Pepper has never been one for conventional soda advertising; while Coca-Cola has a stranglehold on Santa Clause and polar bears and Pepsi enlists Britney Spears and Beyonce to hawk their bubbly, Dr. Pepper has opted for t-shirt-ready slogans like “Wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper, too?” and claymation fairytale support groups. Going non-traditional with a gender-specific campaign like this one is yet another bold move in Dr. Pepper’s marketing repertoire, but it may cost them loyal customers.
You have to question why anyone saw Dr. Pepper Ten as necessary in the first place. According to Dave Fleming, Dr. Pepper-Snapple Group’s director of marketing, the company was responding to male consumers’ demand for “a low calorie option with the full flavor of regular Dr. Pepper.” Isn’t the entire Diet Dr. Pepper campaign based on the idea that it tastes more like its forbearing full-calorie soda than any other diet drink? To produce another diet soda negates Diet Dr. Pepper’s main selling point. It’s not a particularly “girly” advertising strategy, so why go so masculine?
It’s not as if Dr. Pepper Ten is marketed to everyone, but with a more masculine edge. No—this soda is exclusively for men. It is the Little Rascals of diet drinks: No Girls Allowed. The commercials lay it out clearly: with Dr. Pepper Ten, “You can keep the romantic comedies and lady drinks. We’re good.” By gearing the ads so intensely towards men, Dr. Pepper is reducing potential profits, alienating half the soda drinking population before they even pop the tab.
And if they truly believed that they were not reaching calorie-conscious men with the current Diet Dr. Pepper ads, why not just try a different marketing strategy rather than blindly investing in the cost of researching, producing and marketing an entirely different soda? That in and of itself is bad business, but consider the other issues: Dr. Pepper Ten only appeals to one type of man. Blatant sexism aside, the ad campaign suggests that the soda is only suitable for men who like explosions, guns, and car chases. I guess it isn’t for men who enjoy the occasional piña colada or episode of Grey’s Anatomy, either.
And the mid-calorie offering still has copious amounts of aspartame, the sweetening agent in most diet drinks that has raised eyebrows over the past few years regarding carcinogenicity. That knocks out the health conscious, male or female, who might have chosen Dr. Pepper Ten as a safer alternative with fewer chemicals. And the final nail in the coffin: there is no consensus as to whether Dr. Pepper Ten actually tastes better than it’s zero-calorie counterpart. Some have raved about it, claiming they’ll never go back even to regular Dr. Pepper, while others accuse if of being bland or metallic. Top to bottom, this is a poorly conceived product.
Of course, all this seems like speculation—until you take a look at Dr. Pepper’s Brand Index Buzz scores. The Brand Index scores are to consumer goods what approval ratings are to the President; they gauge customer appreciation or any given brand, and at the launch of Dr. Pepper Ten, Dr. Pepper took an immediate hit. Within a week, their buzz score dropped five points among men and 14 points among women.
They may be the ten hardest working calories in soda, but effort doesn’t always make up for idiocy.
But, gender stereotyping and normative reinforcement aside, was launching Dr. Pepper Ten and marketing it to an exclusively male drinker-ship a solid business decision? Not even close. Making minute, insignificant changes to an existing product and simply repackaging it will only cannibalize the existing market for lower calorie Dr. Pepper. Plus, the ad campaign is just bad; if they were going for the Old Spice guy, they missed it by a mile.
Dr. Pepper has never been one for conventional soda advertising; while Coca-Cola has a stranglehold on Santa Clause and polar bears and Pepsi enlists Britney Spears and Beyonce to hawk their bubbly, Dr. Pepper has opted for t-shirt-ready slogans like “Wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper, too?” and claymation fairytale support groups. Going non-traditional with a gender-specific campaign like this one is yet another bold move in Dr. Pepper’s marketing repertoire, but it may cost them loyal customers.
You have to question why anyone saw Dr. Pepper Ten as necessary in the first place. According to Dave Fleming, Dr. Pepper-Snapple Group’s director of marketing, the company was responding to male consumers’ demand for “a low calorie option with the full flavor of regular Dr. Pepper.” Isn’t the entire Diet Dr. Pepper campaign based on the idea that it tastes more like its forbearing full-calorie soda than any other diet drink? To produce another diet soda negates Diet Dr. Pepper’s main selling point. It’s not a particularly “girly” advertising strategy, so why go so masculine?
It’s not as if Dr. Pepper Ten is marketed to everyone, but with a more masculine edge. No—this soda is exclusively for men. It is the Little Rascals of diet drinks: No Girls Allowed. The commercials lay it out clearly: with Dr. Pepper Ten, “You can keep the romantic comedies and lady drinks. We’re good.” By gearing the ads so intensely towards men, Dr. Pepper is reducing potential profits, alienating half the soda drinking population before they even pop the tab.
And if they truly believed that they were not reaching calorie-conscious men with the current Diet Dr. Pepper ads, why not just try a different marketing strategy rather than blindly investing in the cost of researching, producing and marketing an entirely different soda? That in and of itself is bad business, but consider the other issues: Dr. Pepper Ten only appeals to one type of man. Blatant sexism aside, the ad campaign suggests that the soda is only suitable for men who like explosions, guns, and car chases. I guess it isn’t for men who enjoy the occasional piña colada or episode of Grey’s Anatomy, either.
And the mid-calorie offering still has copious amounts of aspartame, the sweetening agent in most diet drinks that has raised eyebrows over the past few years regarding carcinogenicity. That knocks out the health conscious, male or female, who might have chosen Dr. Pepper Ten as a safer alternative with fewer chemicals. And the final nail in the coffin: there is no consensus as to whether Dr. Pepper Ten actually tastes better than it’s zero-calorie counterpart. Some have raved about it, claiming they’ll never go back even to regular Dr. Pepper, while others accuse if of being bland or metallic. Top to bottom, this is a poorly conceived product.
Of course, all this seems like speculation—until you take a look at Dr. Pepper’s Brand Index Buzz scores. The Brand Index scores are to consumer goods what approval ratings are to the President; they gauge customer appreciation or any given brand, and at the launch of Dr. Pepper Ten, Dr. Pepper took an immediate hit. Within a week, their buzz score dropped five points among men and 14 points among women.
They may be the ten hardest working calories in soda, but effort doesn’t always make up for idiocy.
Posted: Mon February 13th, 2012 at 2:59pm
Tagged: writing this has been a text post dr pepper dr pepper ten advertising opinion opinions marketing op-ed
Notes: 2
Tagged: writing this has been a text post dr pepper dr pepper ten advertising opinion opinions marketing op-ed
Notes: 2
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