Poise: Women want to talk about bladder leakage; Tena: No they don’t
Tena: Let’s not talk about it
Poise: Let’s talk about it
Two major brands doing battle in the arena of light bladder leakage have taken directly opposite positions on the issue.
Poise – owned by Kimberly-Clark – has positioned itself around the “It happens to me” line. It also runs a website encouraging women to “join the conversation”.
The approach has been derided by Tena, which has labelled it “the sisterhood of suffering”.
Rival brand Tena, owned by SCA Hygiene – has this week launched a campaign with exactly the opposite insight – that women do not want to talk about it. It is based on the message “The whole world doesn’t have to know”.
Melbourne agency Hello I’m Venus created the Tena campaign that will run across radio, digital display and print magazines while Agent99 is leading a PR campaign alongside it.
The campaign stands in direct contrast to alternative campaigns, such as the one for Poise products which are based on contradictory research and encourage women to talk about the issue.
Tena said in a press release to launch its campaign: “Dissimilar to other campaigns around ‘bladder weakness, the campaign will not push for women to speak candidly about their problem. Instead, based on research showing that women don’t want to talk about the issue, the campaign will urge them to refuse to let LBL affect the quality of their life by taking control in a holistic manner, whether they wish to talk about it or not.”
Therese Winterburn, head of marketing personal care at SCA Hygiene Australasia, said in a press release: “This is not an easy audience to get through to. We needed to tap lightly on our consumer’s door, gently beckoning her to come in and discover the world of light incontinence.”
Miles Mainwaring, strategic director of Hello I’m Venus, added: “By understanding the psychological barriers to admitting this little problem, we created an empathetic connection with our consumer based around discretion: She does not want to join the ‘sisterhood of suffering’, but is looking for solutions and ways to personally take charge. Importantly, we are offering hope where there was none.”
Megan Reynolds
Is this strategy current or has it been leaked? (Boom-tish!)
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I just loved the quote from Therese:
“gently beckoning her to come in and discover the world of light incontinence”
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SCA has it right – women don’t want to talk about it, they just want to get on with it. I thought Kimberly Clark had it right a few years back when they stopped talking about women “leaking” and just talked about the product’s superiorty over fem-hy. And did I spy an ad for Poise on TV last night with mature women giggling like teenagers and exclaiming to each other in girlish squeals, “oh, stop it !”. Really ? Hardly the way to talk to mature women. But this category is quite responsive to advertising, so KC are probably feeling secure looking at their scan data.
Congrats SCA & Venus on treating women as intelligent grown ups.
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Every time I hear about bladder leakage I do a little pelvic floor exercise.
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Poise a market leader? Better get your hands on some share data mumbrella, TENA is the dominant market leader. Says it all really.
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Hi Some Bloke,
I stand open to correction, but I can’t spot within the story where we discuss who is market leader.
All the best,
Tim – Mumbrella
“The campaign stands in direct contrast to alternative campaigns”
Sorry, isn’t that we should be always trying to do??
I would hope every campaign, in every category, is trying to “stand in contrast” to it’s competitors.
If we don’t believe that, then the industry truly has lost it’s way.
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If Therese Winterburn tries to “tap lightly on my door and gently beckon me to come in and discover the world of light incontinence” I will, in the immortal words of Cersei Lannister, have her strangled in her sleep.
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so many reasons to LOL from these comments. I’m not particularly enraptured with either, but I do think Tena’s is a little more appealing but on a visual and message level.
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Good one LW.
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To Hide or Celebrate?
Hide? Tena who are you kidding, let’s just talk hush hush about it and reinforce the secret embarrassing nature of it all – talk about Elizabethean.
Celebrate? True, you don’t have to shout it out to the world either (Poise), but if it’s as common as they say, then surely there must be a cathartic element to sharing in an (anonymous) online forum.
Reckon Depend ad with the sophisticated lady the better approach – discretion without hiding.
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It doesn’t mention anywhere that TENA want women to hide the issue.
The campaign strategically addresses the fact that if women want to, they can take control WITHOUT telling the whole world – which is the equivalent of ‘discretion without hiding’.
You don’t have to push women to talk about an issue that they might find embarrassing in order to eliminate the stigma.
The campaign is about helping women understand the problem and empower them to overcome it without needing to share or discuss an issue they feel uncomfortable about.
I think it will resonate with women across the country.
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What I find bizarre is that so-called LBL is actually a medical condition, and if you suffer from this ailment, you should GO TO THE DOCTOR ASAP AND GET IT SORTED! And do your kegels. Please don’t hide it with incontinence pads, do something about it.
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