Promoting a product that is highly associated with a specific market segment towards a different target market would require marketers to work twice as hard. This is especially true in the beauty industry, which mainly appeals to the female market. But what about the male demographic? Many beauty companies are now introducing product lines specifically for male. Yet, the promotion for these products can be challenging as the product’s common association with the female market means that it will not be easy to attract the male consumer’s interest as they might automatically ignore the product once they know what kind of product the promotion is representing.

However, Dove’s recent advertisement has cleverly found a way to gain the male consumer’s interest towards it Dove Men+Care Shampoo product.

In this video, whenever the male employee moves, his long hair always move in slow motion to show how immaculate and shiny his hair is. However, the boss actually associated this with a girl’s hair instead, which reminded the employee of the women shampoo he used. So the male employee ran towards a supermarket to buy Dove’s  Men+Care shampoo and took a shower with it. His hair immediately went short to a typical men’s hairstyle.

Not only do I find this video quite funny, but it’s also very appealing towards the targeted market segment. Dove strategically captured adult male’s interest by recognizing their need for a good quality hair treatment, just like the female demographic. However, Dove also showed that they don’t have to go as far as using the ‘female’ product, which will deprive their masculinity. So they provided a hair care solution that still allows them to be a ‘man’. Thus, this showed to the customers the masculinity image of the Dove Men+Care shampoo.

Source: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/use-doves-shampoo-men-and-dont-have-lustrous-flowing-hair-woman-148162

Have you ever crossed upon an advertisement that you just don’t quite get it? Have you ever found an advertisement’s message to be unclear or with a confusing direction? That’s how I felt when I watched this video from Amazon promoting its Kindle Paperwhite e-reader.

In the video, a man is seen struggling to read through his Kindle at the beach as the screen lighting does not adjust automatically for the outdoor sunlight. Then a woman walks in and showed then new Kindle Paperwhite would be the best solution for him because the built-in light feature is makes the device suitable for reading at the beach. However, after the man purchased the new Kindle and suggested to celebrate it together with the woman, she hinted at him that she has a husband and in return, the man also told her that he has a husband too.

I completely understand the product Amazon is selling. But I have to agree with what AdWeek said. Why does the video suddenly have a reference to the gay community? There’s really nothing wrong with that. But the placement of the reference in this video seems a bit out of place as the video’s purpose becomes blurred between trying to sell a new product or building Amazon’s image to the public. Plus, since the reference was very short and placed towards the end of the video, it made it seem like the reference was ‘forced’ into it so the idea didn’t flow well with the video plot. Thus, one thing I learnt from this video is, make sure an advertisement does not have too many messages that it tries to deliver.

Source: http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/amazons-gay-kindle-spot-nice-surprise-or-little-forced-147758