Download Suave Advertising and Marketing, Can a great product be made

Suave Advertising and Marketing, Can a great product be made
more appealing?
Jessica Borges
ORGL 4443- Markets & Stakeholders
12/03/2011
Suave products by Unilever are high quality low priced products that have been marketed
to thrifty women who are trying to get the most bang for their buck for years. Their motto has
been and continues to be “Looking great doesn’t have to cost a fortune” and in the ever changing
economy most people are trying to “make a dollar out of fifteen cents” and Suave products serve
that role by offering products that range in price from ninety-nine cents to just over three dollars
which is a great deal in comparison to their competitors who offer similar products for triple the
amount of money. Their marketing and advertising is not as penetrating in the media as some of
their competitors’ products, and they generally do not use high profile actresses and models to
sell their products but they are not under advertised. The majority of the Brands marketing can
be found in print ads, particularly ones geared to women like Women’s Day magazines, and
Family Circle. Suave also has online segments showing women off the streets getting their hair
done with Suave and professional products in segments called “Can you tell the difference?”
And you can also see on television some short commercials from time to time staring women and
their children and scenes of natural botanicals. Suave continues to gets its name out there and
has become an old reliable brand in many households. Suave has products for women, men,
babies and children ranging from lotions, shampoos and conditioners, deodorants and styling
aids. Although Suave is a tried and trusted brand that I continue to purchase time and time again,
they could change their brand and the way they get their name out there to entice more people
into trying their products. Without sacrificing much of their current marketing strategies and not
raising their price of their products there are some changes that could be made to supplement
their existing product line and advertising style.
Some of my favorite advertising that Suave has done in the past that I think they should
continue to keep are the ones geared to the busy mom who despite being on the run with her
kids, keeping up with the house and working a full-time job still deserves to take some time for
herself. This type of marketing in my opinion is genius because every women wants to look and
feel her best, however many feel guilty if they do so, to be able to look great and feel great for a
fraction of the price of many products is an amazing deal and one many women appreciate. A
few years back, one could turn the bottle of a Suave shampoo or conditioner around and find the
following printed “Every mom can ride the bus to beautiful. Instructions: *Get kids safely to
school and retreat to the shower. For best results use with Suave Volumizing Shampoo and
Volumizing Foam before your grown-up playdate. * Apply conditioner and leave on for 3
minutes. Use the time to plan an outfit that does not involve an elastic waistband. * And while
you are at it, do something else just for you – like pick up a big foamy latte or restock your
lingerie drawer. Fully. With the likes of things that drawer has never seen.” Currently their
bottles have information about ways to conserve water and be kinder to the environment; again
Suaves’ marketers are aware of what their consumers want and what is important to them. Many
years ago, people were not as concerned with the environment, recycling, and water conservation
and energy efficiency as they are presently. Now those are important aspects of life to many
consumers and Suave’s advertisers have done a great job incorporating that from the
remanufacturing of their plastic bottles using less material, coding them for recycling, and
including tips for conservation on the back of their shampoos and conditioners like the
following: “Did you know that, depending on where you live your family could save up to $150
on utilities and 4600 gallons of water by shortening each shower time by 2 minutes?” and “Did
you know that your family can save up to $150 and 3,200 gallons of water per year by turning
off the water when you shampoo and condition.?” The advertising that is geared to busy thrifty
women, including mothers, those that want a salon performance product for a fraction of the cost
and the environmentally conscious generation of today is right on task for what consumers want
and I believe should not be deleted from their current marketing strategy. In order to keep the
product pricing where it is I also believe they do not need to invest in high-dollar actresses and
models selling the product via commercials, their competition like brands L’Oreal use high
marketing dollars on actresses like Jennifer Lopez and Garnier uses Sarah Jessica Parker, but I
don’t believe these women are realistic consumers in comparison to the women who purchase
Suave products. I believe they understand the market in depicting real women just like their
sister product Dove who’s main marketing strategy is the campaign for real beauty showing all
different body types and ethnicities of women, Suave understands who their target audience is.
However, I do believe that as great as their products are, and as right on as their current
marketing strategies tend to be, I think they are missing an opportunity by not having a product
line that is geared specifically for teens. I remember the days of my youth, wearing teen spirit
deodorant and Debbie Gibson’s Electric Youth perfume because I pestered my mother into
buying them for me because those products were a part of pop culture mainstream society at that
time so therefore I just had to have them. In today’s society it seems that 10-14 year old girls
still have that buying power, albeit they need the funds to purchase which comes from their
parents but they sure know how to pester their parents in getting them things they just have to
have. It is a phenomenon that has been going on for generations from pop music culture, The
Beatles, Elvis, New Kids on the Block, N’sync, to products like the Cabbage Patch dolls,
American Girl dolls, and Easy Bake ovens and now to the technologically inclined children who
covet I-pads and their own cell-phones. I believe there is money to be made in the beauty care
products like those that Suave sells for women, men, children and babies but they need to market
them to teenagers. I have been in the mall in stores like Bath and Body works and young girls
are toting their Coach bags wearing their Ugg shoes and purchasing lotions, body washes and
sprays for ten to fifteen dollars apiece and really just because they are popular. Just as Suave’s
mens line depicts Nascaar’s Dale Earnhardt Jr. and catchy slogans like “The right tool for the
job”, and their children’s line have images of the Smurfs, Spongebob Squarepants and Dora the
Explorer to entice women and men to purchase their products their line should include products
for teenage girls to do the same. Brightly colored packaging like vivid pinks and purples
containing products that smell like bubblegum, strawberries and cupcakes with images of
popular tween stars like Justin Bieber, Miley Cyrus and the cast from Glee are sure to entice teen
girls to trying out their products. And if Suave needs a place to showcase their products geared
specifically to teens instead of selling them at mass-retail chains like CVS, Walgreens and WalMart like their current product lines, they could open up kiosks at the mall, feature their products
at Ulta and trendy teen stores because if history has taught us anything if it is sold at the mall
teens want to buy it.
I believe that overall Suave does a great job marketing their products to their target
audience of thrifty women, but I think there is potential in the teen girl market to blow their
competition away. Suave already has an advantage over the competition by offering a baby and
child’s line, but if they offered one that is geared towards teens they would be ahead of their
competition. They would be able to keep their existing products and catchy slogans but have a
product line others do not. To boost up sales of the new line and their existing lines they could
also start offering a rewards program, similar to those offered at retailers like CVS and Ulta,
Suave could implement rewards cards where every purchase made applies to credits for free
products. They should also incorporate ideas like the one used by Starbucks where you receive a
free product for your birthday as incentives for consumers to continue their patronage. By
attracting more clients, Suave would be able to keep their price point the same and keep their
existing customers but they could build a fellowship of young women who would grow up with
their product and continue the tradition of Suave being a popular household name.
References

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dove_Campaign_for_Real_Beauty

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilever

Restaging Suave package proves profitable.(design trends)
Packaging Digest, July, 2007, Vol.44(7), p.10(1)

http://www.unilever.com/aboutus/?WT.GNAV=About_us

http://www.suave.com/

https://www.cvs.com/CVSApp/user/extracare/extracare.jsp