This weekend whilst watching TV I happened to stumble across Dr. Pepper’s new ad campaign for a diet drink whose slogan is “It’s Not for Women.” The commercial involves an action-movie setting with an intense car chase and a starring male lead, who implies that this drink would absolutely not appeal to women in any way. The commercial humours the belief that diet drinks are only for women.
This advertisement contrasts Teresita Aristizabal’s blog “Being “Glam” is just the Diet Coke Way” whose new advertising campaign for their diet drink is direct towards women. Both diet drinks are intense competitors who are fighting for a market share. And both competitors have independently gone after a different market segment by appealing to the different audiences. Coke’s campaign adds a sense of fashion to the product whereas Dr. Pepper stresses an “anything-but-fashion” appeal. The product design itself is reflective of this as Diet Coke’s new can has a floral feel, where Dr. Pepper has bold, dark, solid, “male-appealing” colours. Each campaign successfully reaches a target audience, but which one will increase the sales of each product?
Personally, I feel that Dr. Pepper commercial will have more success than that of Diet Coke. Dr. Pepper strikes up a conversion between household members due to the controversial slogan, “It’s Not for Women.” Women may feel “insulted” or “angered” by this remark, however; the aim of the commercial is not to attract women it is to attract men. A problem posed by this is if women do the grocery shopping and they are confronted with two boxed items, one with a floral design, and one with the slogan “It’s Not for Women” they may be more inclined to buy the floral box, just out of distain for the saying.
In segmenting by gender both diet drinks have isolated a target market, however; only sales will determine which campaign is more successful.
It’s really interesting how brands choose to position their products in order to make their consumers feel positive about their decisions- this includes Dr. Pepper 10, Pepsi-Max and Coke Zero. Well done!