Have you seen Suave’s advertising campaign geared toward Moms?
Since I’m thrifty (it sounds better than cheap), I’ve used Suave shampoo and conditioner for many years. On my most recent conditioner purchase, this is what was written on the back of the bottle:
“Every mom can ride the bus to beautiful.
Instructions:
*Get kids safely to school and retreat to 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 waitstband.
*And while you’re 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.”
Advertisers realizing that we want more out of life than quick-fix meals and coupons!?! On Suave’s website, they provide several interesting factoids about how mothers devote very little time to themselves. For example, did you know that on average, women devote 87.9 minutes to meals and 4.2 minutes to their hair? I think this type of marketing to mothers is genius. The fact that Suave hasn’t forgotten that although Moms spend the majority of their time tending to others’ needs, we are also women, who enjoy and deserve to be pampered. Reading this bottle of conditioner left me cheering. Apparently, I’m not the only one.
According to a USA Today article, this type of marketing has boosted Suave’s sales, which were up 3% at the end of August. Like the Dove ads which featured women of all shapes and sizes, advertisers seem to have found a niche with women and mothers. I love that they see us as people with buying power, and as women who want to feel beautiful.
Maybe it’s a bit simplistic to think that simply washing my hair with a Suave shampoo is going to help the women in me come out, especially since I spend the vast majority of my days covered in spit-up. However, the fact that this ad campaign speaks to the fact that I deserve more than daily laundry and tantrum control, leaves me wanting to hi-five the ad executives who realized this often overlooked fact. Since hi-fives are unlikely, I’ll just continue to buy my Suave Sleek Shampoo, Conditioner, and Smoothing Liqui-Gel.
By the way, this is NOT a product review. I’m just so delighted by their ad campaign that I couldn’t resist writing about it.
Technorati Tags: Suave, Marketing to Women, Marketing to mothers, Consumer Review
Veronica
October 14, 2007 at 9:26 pm
Go Suave! What a genius marketing plan.
RadarMa
October 14, 2007 at 10:02 pm
I am a SUAVE junkie…heh heh, thanks for the heads up, I am gonna watch for this.
BayouChica
October 14, 2007 at 10:05 pm
Their marketing surely worked for me. I recently went out and bought their shampoo.
rosanna
October 14, 2007 at 10:16 pm
i use suave shampoo and con.thanks for leting me know this
VDog
October 14, 2007 at 11:44 pm
How refreshing!
I love their coconut body wash…mmm…takes me back to the tropics!
Irene
October 15, 2007 at 12:04 am
For a mere 5 minutes I worked for Unilever, the company that owns the Suave brand. They are geniuses at marketing that brand and the Dove brand. It’s amazing – their shampoo is awesome and it’s cheap too!
Devan
October 15, 2007 at 12:43 am
I’ve always liked Suave, but now I like them even more!
Anne Glamore
October 15, 2007 at 2:11 am
They’re exactly right. We make the decisions on all the regular day-to-day purchases of the house, and many of the bigger purchases, like appliances and cars. We use things daily, talk to our friends about what works and what doesn’t– and if one woman gets pissed off at something, she tells two friends, and they tell 2 friends and so on!
Avery Gray
October 15, 2007 at 2:17 am
I go through lots of shampoo because I have long, thick hair (don’t hate on me), and I’ve been spending $18 a bottle on shampoo and conditioner to keep it nice and healthy, but I’m coming to the realization that I’m wasting my money! It doesn’t seem to work any better than Suave. Now because you’ve enlightened me to their new ad campaign, I think I’ll be picking some up the next time I go to the store. Thanks!
Queen of Shake-Shake
October 15, 2007 at 1:53 pm
Very cool!
It’s about time advertisers *ahem* stop thinking all women and moms care about is scrubbing our stove clean.
bdnau
October 16, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Love the Suave marketing machine.
Also, hubby pauses every time he sees the Dove ads. Finally women he finds attractive instead of alarmingly in need of medical attention. This gets him extra lovin’ points from me.
ImpostorMom
October 17, 2007 at 6:38 pm
That is a pretty damn funny thing to read on a shampoo bottle too. Cynical humor makes me want to run out and buy some Suave shampoo.
A Utopia Where We Can All Be Cheap Together | Playgroups are No Place For Children
March 21, 2008 at 4:16 am
[...] of my beauty products are from the grocery store and are either Equate brand or Suave or Lip Smackers. I do have a few cosmetics from actual cosmetic counters where over painted, [...]
Bunmi
June 6, 2008 at 2:34 pm
I HATED the campaign- maybe it has changed since last October. Find it pretentious.
Wrote about it here:
http://www.mothertalkers.com/story/2008/5/26/19050/9465