Durex's product strategy

1998 10, Jasper's condom advertisement with the theme of "carefree love" was hung on more than 80 buses in Guangzhou, which is the first time in China.

On June 28th, 2003, 165438+ CCTV's "Population of China" broadcast a condom public service advertisement, which became the first condom public service advertisement in China.

In 2004, Durex's "Global Survey" report began to be known to Chinese people, especially the survey results of "China per capita owns 19. 1 sexual partners" caused an uproar.

On September 20th, 2005, 65438+ ten thousand condoms named Clinton and Lewinsky were distributed free of charge in all districts of Guangzhou, which attracted the attention of the whole world.

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This is how condoms are promoted in China. It has been exploring in the crack of advertising ban, challenging the traditional sexual concept and seeking the most suitable lifestyle between right and wrong.

At present, there are 7 national designated condom manufacturers in China, including Guilin, Qingdao and Shenyang. However, according to the investigation of domestic mainstream media reporters, "almost all rubber factories in China are producing condoms, and there are no fewer than 300 and nearly 1,000 brands". According to this calculation, the output of condoms in China is far greater than the official statistics of 2 billion. Among them, more than one billion condoms were purchased by the government, and the others were sold through the retail market after 1988. Meanwhile, China imports more than 200 million condoms from abroad every year.

"The profit of condoms can reach 500%," the owner of a sex shop told reporters affirmatively.

"The cost of many FMCG products is only 20% off, but we must see that our access cost is very high, plus the cost of promotion and research and development. In fact, condoms look like cream cakes, but they are actually just the meat on the legs of ants. " Chen Hui, general manager of Dulux, responded to the statement that "the profit is 500%". Dulux is currently the first brand of condom retail in China.

"Due to the large number of products and limited publicity, the product concentration is very low. In fact, only 20% of condoms on the market are branded, and everyone has a hard time. Shuffle the cards, not wash them. The fierce competition in the terminal makes us more like struggling. I know I am running at a loss, but if I don't insist, I will die. " Chen Hui smiled helplessly and said, "Some are persistent and waiting for death."

Nevertheless, there are still many well-known and unknown rubber manufacturers who are struggling to kill the market of billions of condoms. Another embarrassment faced by condom manufacturers for a long time is that the country in the condom advertisement "still hides half of her face behind her guitar". Mr. Qiu, director of the china sexology association, once questioned: "Four major cities in China have tried out 100% condom use in entertainment places, and the Guangzhou Family Planning Commission has also proposed that middle school students learn to use condoms, and the state will distribute more than one billion condoms to the public free of charge every year. We allow people to do it, why not allow people to say it? "

Of course things are much better now. Since 2002, the state has allowed condom brands to carry out public service advertisements in designated media. Nevertheless, due to the sexual concept of China people and the limitation of condom profit, more and more manufacturers have made a series of strange moves in the marketing and promotion of this product, just like the swordsmanship in Tsui Hark's movie Seven Swords, which is both hard and soft, and has both offensive and defensive capabilities.

Don't ask the sword-start with the name.

Mo Wenjian is the spiritual leader of the Seven Swords, symbolizing "wisdom" and being long and flexible. Condoms are not cosmetics after all. Unless the manufacturer takes the initiative, consumers can't try it, and they can't intuitively understand the quality of the products from the packaging. According to the survey, more than 70% people in China are embarrassed to know the performance of condoms in public. So for manufacturers, having a good name can make sales achieve twice the result with half the effort.

Consumption habit is the main factor for consumers to buy condoms. The premise of buying a certain brand many times is the success of the first purchase. Therefore, having a good name, or a good package that people will never forget, has become the focus of factory marketing.

Durex from Britain adopted the Chinese literal translation of the English name Durex. Durex means: durability, reliability and excellence. Durex's outer packaging gives people a soft and gentle feeling, which is loved by quite a few women and young consumers.

And Jasper Bond, who has a great contrast with Durex's appeal, uses a virtual spokesperson who wears sunglasses and laughs badly. Jasper Bond is loved by many male consumers and fashion consumers. Jasper's name is also a literal translation of English Jissbon. Jasper, with the slogan of "ensuring safety and having its own set", gave them the important task of conveying the brand concept to cartoon villains with changeable images. Jasper attaches great importance to maintaining this villain image from the hands of British designers, and successfully makes many people equate Jasper with the yellow villain.

In the choice of Chinese names, manufacturers are obviously much more cautious, and most of them are point-to-point For example, the man in Beijing Allen, the handsome horse in BMW, the crazy love under DKT, and the double butterfly under Durex ... these names are all designed to impress people and give them some associative space.

Even smarter is the zero distance between Iraqis, which is fascinating. When it was launched, it also skillfully borrowed the popularity of the book "Looking at Milu from Zero Distance" and people's attention to the word "Zero Distance" at that time. Therefore, marketers in the industry said: "The choice of the name Zero Distance has saved at least 6,543,800 yuan in advertising expenses for Iraqis."

However, this degree must be well controlled. Although not long ago, "Clinton" and "Lewinsky" also left a deep impression on people, from the results of random interviews conducted by Southern Satellite TV on the streets of Guangzhou that day, it seems that it is not as good as the manufacturer's intention, and many citizens do not accept this naming method. The boss of a well-known condom manufacturer in China also told reporters: "The propaganda of condoms, especially the name, must not be naked, and it is very important to grasp the degree. Using other people's names to speculate and engage in such gimmicks will only make people feel sick! "

Flying Dragon Sword-The wharf is filled with smoke.

As the second of the seven swords, the dragon sword is mainly used for attacking, and the sword is used for reminding and warning. In the face of endless competitors and the limitation of traditional promotion methods, terminals play an important role in condom sales.

Compared with other fast-moving consumer goods and daily necessities, the terminal of condom is much more complicated. In addition to pharmacies and health care products stores, there are supermarkets, shops and retail stores, and entertainment places have also become new terminals.

According to different consumer groups, almost every big brand has four or five brands, and each sub-brand has more than a dozen models of condoms according to the needs of users.

"FMCG may not be more complicated than condoms. What kind of model, what kind of brand, what kind of terminal, how to place it, etc., have become problems that we have to consider. Many marketers in our company have worked in foreign daily chemical companies with rich experience, but they still have a headache in the face of the operation of the condom market! " The president of Dulux Chen Hui lamented, "We are eating ant meat, but some shops regard us as meat on the chopping block. The terminal display is expensive, the cost is high, and the competition is fierce, which has become the resistance for us to open the market. "

There are many difficulties, but the battle for the terminal is still fierce. At present, in large supermarkets, condoms are mainly displayed at the checkout counter, but the sales volume of condoms in this position largely depends on consumers' buying habits. Few consumers in China are willing to choose condoms in crowded and noisy supermarkets. In pharmacies, important positions are occupied by brand-name condoms with high profit margins. "Because of this, brand condom manufacturers spend a large part of the so-called 500% profit on channel and brand building." Jasper explained their terminal behavior. "We still insist on building a brand and improving the reputation of our products."

And some large supermarkets and daily necessities specialty stores are also thinking about condoms and selling their own brands of condoms. When asked whether famous brands will also put down their value and cooperate with the terminal, Dulux insisted: "Impossible, we only have this brand and will stick to it. And at present, we can sell more than 654.38 billion condoms every year, accounting for more than 654.38+00% of the retail condoms in the market. We don't need to do this. "

Green sword drawn event marketing

The characteristics of Qingganjian are unruly, fast and changeable, which makes people unable to see the blade clearly and cannot be avoided. Almost all condom manufacturers implement event marketing. The highest level of event marketing is to let consumers unconsciously participate in the event, identify with the brand, and then become quasi-consumers.

Without advertising, it is necessary to establish a brand, which really puts condom manufacturers in a dilemma. As a result, event marketing has become the first choice of many condom manufacturers for a long time, especially in the stage of new product listing.

On the eve of Valentine's Day in 2003, it was reported that cattle were seduced by "bad guys". This "Badermann" is the Badermann condom in Beijing. Cattle wear vests, printed on the outer packaging box of condoms, with a smile. Niu Niu also donated 26,543,800 yuan of endorsement fees to china charity federation.

Under such a marketing event, no one cares about the quality of this condom and whether the price is high or low. However, "Niu Ge cheated" quickly became the news reported by more than 500 media in China, and Badermann naturally became the protagonist of the incident.

For many years, Durex has conducted sex surveys all over the world. In 2003, Durex also had a sex survey in China and held a press conference, but the attention was not high. However, in 2004, Durex's sex survey report "China has per capita 19. 1 sexual partner" caused great repercussions. Whether this number is accurate or not has aroused widespread concern and triggered a big discussion on the Internet. Durex naturally became the focus of public attention.

In terms of social non-public welfare activities, condom manufacturers also publicize the target consumer groups as much as possible. On July 30th, 2005, Jasper and Channel V held a summer shake pop music show. Tens of thousands of fans and singers from the Asia-Pacific region gathered at Jinshan Beach in Shanghai. At the concert scene, inflatable jasper yellow characters wandered around, which was very eye-catching. The attention and number of participants in the concert are consistent with Jasper's brand concept of "fashion, health, vitality and happiness" and the positioning of consumers, and good publicity results have been achieved.

Jasper is also one of the manufacturers who use event marketing the most. When it comes to event marketing of condoms, Wang, president of Jesbon's parent company Wuhan Renfu Science and Technology Industry Co., Ltd., thinks that we should pay attention to several key points: "First, it should be special and consistent with social hotspots, such as publicity before and after AIDS prevention and treatment. But don't be offensive, but arouse people's * * *. Second, we should recommend products skillfully at the right time and place. Some products have enough gimmicks, such as the "Condom Building" a few years ago, but few people can name condoms. Third, event marketing should cause spontaneous discussion in society afterwards, which should be thought-provoking. "

Xingjian-promoting fanning the flames

Promotion is the secret of all products. In this eye-catching product of condoms, the role of promotion is also quite obvious. The characteristic of Star Sword is to put the opponent under the sword with the most chaotic and gorgeous moves.

At present, there are four common ways to promote condoms.

The first is to buy gifts within a certain period of time. For example, Durex sells all kinds of condoms in the form of gift packages on Christmas and other festivals, or carries out promotional activities of buying 12 Durex to give away three butterflies in a certain period of time. According to the sales staff of the mall, the promotion effect is obviously better than usual. Such sales promotion methods are mostly adopted by high-end brands with certain market influence.

The second is to give some small gifts when selling condoms. For example, Dulux used to play funny jokes in the condom boxes it sold. Although it is a small gift, it is quite attractive to the target consumers who like to try new things.

Third, it should be called free gift. When some emerging brands first went public, they delivered goods in downtown areas or gave them away in pharmacies and entertainment places in order to cultivate the market. Gifts from well-known brands, such as Dulux, are mostly given on AIDS Day.

Finally, different manufacturers join hands to promote sales. During Valentine's Day this year, MP3 manufacturer Ogilvy & Mather conducted a condom purchase activity for couples. A jewelry store in Anhui Province also launched a "Jewelry Purchase Lottery" during Valentine's Day, and the prize was a five-star hotel suite for one night. Although there are different opinions on these activities in the society, they have aroused widespread concern in the society. These manufacturers choose small condoms as gifts because society is highly sensitive to condom products.

Sun and Moon Excalibur-Every inch of advertising is up for grabs.

Sun Moon Sword is a double sword, which is the main attack type. Its characteristic is that the more you fight, the more dazzling it becomes. With the improvement of public acceptance of condom advertisements and the liberalization of psychological acceptance, the battle for condom advertisements has also intensified.

In May 2000, a large Jasper condom advertisement with a width of 8.5 meters and a height of 40 meters was erected on the Hanjiang Bridge in Wuhan, but it was removed in less than a day. On August 28th, 20001year, Jasper erected a huge billboard in a tall building in Changsha, covering an area of 100 square meter. In 2004, in view of more couples watching, Jasper added a follow-up advertisement to the movie Baby in Love …

When talking about this kind of advertising methods, Wang, president of Jasper, said that at first, they only regarded these behaviors as a last resort advertising form, but in the later stage of the incident, after the advertisement met with certain resistance, they took certain measures to actively promote it, so that more people in the society could pay attention to the condom advertising incident. At the same time, they also hope that this promotion will speed up the opening of condom advertisements throughout the country.

Jasper is not the only one who suffers from layers of resistance. In the Spring Festival of 2004, Dulux, together with three other condom manufacturers, hoped to promote famous brands in latex industry through television, but it was also blocked at the last minute.

"Now we will definitely not use this advertising method again." After summarizing the "shocking" advertising methods in the past, President Wang said, "Now Jasper has entered the brand reputation period, and we have put more advertisements on traditional media that match the audience, basically ignoring the outdoor and bus advertising methods."

However, more condom manufacturers still aim at outdoor advertising methods, such as bus shelters and so on, and also put them on traditional paper media. It is worth noting that the emerging network and elevator media have also become the choice of condom advertising.

Waterfall sword-public relations moistens things quietly

Tianshui sword is the most feminine of the seven swords, emphasizing "chivalrous tenderness" The swordsmanship is easy to reverse, the handle is not divided, and the attack is prevented. The public relations behavior characteristics of condoms are just in line with this sword method: in a subtle way, it affects the consumption habits of target consumers.

Condom manufacturers of all brands have sharpened their heads to engage in public relations. Although the condoms distributed free of charge by the state are purchased from designated state-owned condom manufacturers, there are still some social organizations that need a certain number of condoms. Although this is a small market, it has attracted the attention of many manufacturers.

More importantly, such cooperation will bring certain social and brand benefits to condom manufacturers.

"But the process is still very embarrassing." Dulux told such a story, "We once found the relevant departments and hoped to write' Dulux Reminder: Please prevent the spread of AIDS' in the media. The relevant departments also think that such a reminder has a great public welfare nature, but because we are a condom manufacturer, we were finally killed, which is too sensitive. " Many condom manufacturers have experienced such public relations stories, but they have been frustrated repeatedly in the face of the conservative attitude of the people.

Many condom manufacturers have thought of making a fuss about preventing the spread of AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases. In contrast, some condom manufacturers have better luck than Dulux.

Jasper is the first manufacturer in China to jointly launch a condom vending machine with the family planning department. "But from the actual effect, the propaganda significance is greater than the actual significance and commercial value, so at least Jasper doesn't do it now." President Wang Biyu: "Our social cooperation with relevant departments has been re-selected in places of entertainment and campus. Students and sex workers are a large part of condom consumers. Although they are not very consistent with Jasper's target consumer groups, we still attach importance to the public relations activities of this group of people. "

Therefore, in 2000, Jasper held lectures on sexual knowledge in some universities across the country; 200 1 Guangzhou reporter published a book with the theme of AIDS prevention and treatment, entitled "The Pain of the Century", which was popularized throughout the country; In 2004, in conjunction with relevant departments, condom vending machines were installed in entertainment places in Hubei, Chongqing and Henan.

Give up Excalibur-the network energy is infinite.

Giving up the arrogance and atmosphere of Excalibur is also the most vital and magnanimous swordsmanship among the seven swords. Promoting condoms through the internet is also one of the most commonly used swordsmanship for condom manufacturers at present.

Whether it's a Durex sex survey report that attracts public attention or a goalkeeper advertisement saved by Jasper, all brands are spread to target consumers by viral marketing through the Internet.

In 2004, the Dulux condom creativity and Flash contest caused a great sensation on the Internet: in two months, more than 100 Flash works were collected. Relevant media also reported a lot of information about this activity, and Dulux achieved the expected publicity effect with this activity.

In addition to online advertising, Flash production contest and other forms, the network also plays another role in the sales of condoms and sex products: commercial platform and media platform.

DKT is a condom manufacturer from the United States, which mainly sells condoms of brands such as DKT, Shudaile, Jiao 'ai and Tang Yi in China. At the beginning of 2004, the person in charge of DKT China District began to seek a new marketing promotion model, and found Mr. Sheng Zhi, who started to operate B2C as a sexual health care product from 1999. The two sides jointly established the China Sex Network, dedicated to building the largest commercial platform for sexual health products in China.

China Sex Network was originally founded by DKT, but now it has covered the main domestic supply and demand sides of sex products, and has begun to take shape. This website is now mainly in the charge of Mr. Sheng Zhi. When asked about the goal of the website, Sheng Zhi said, "I hope to be the Alibaba of China's sex industry."

In addition to China Sex Network, in fact, in the online world, including Alibaba, there are many commercial platforms for sex products of different sizes. "It is the restrictions on advertisements for sex products and people's vague understanding of brand names of sex products that have caused the current prosperity of online sex products sales." A Zhejiang businessman who is engaged in sex products business in Alibaba told reporters this way.

But Sheng Zhi believes that he will do it more professionally than anyone else. Not long ago, they launched the first commercial publication of sex products in China, Sex Quotation, which was distributed to both the supply and demand sides of sex products for free. At the same time, they will launch an English version with the help of DKT's international background.

The sword of the future-to be tempered

When asked how to sell products in the future, Wang, president of Jasper, said half jokingly, "I will never move." He believes that with excellent product quality, stable brand image, sufficient capital budget and clear brand strategy, Jasper can cope with the ongoing and upcoming condom marketing war.

Chen Hui, general manager of Dulux, believes that the gradual liberalization of condom advertising is an inevitable trend, and it is the work pushed by mainstream manufacturers to let more consumers, including government procurement departments, have a clear brand awareness. Dulux will stand more steadily and exert more force at the terminal.

Marketing experts believe that clear brand positioning and sales channel construction can achieve the expected effect of condom sales. Because of the particularity of condom products, it is impossible to operate with traditional single marketing means. Therefore, advertising, promotion or public relations are very important, and you can't walk with one leg. How to establish the strong position of their respective condom brands with more external forces and comprehensive means has become a compulsory course for condom manufacturers' bosses and marketers.