As a married Doper, one of my tasks is to go to the supermarket/drugstore/gas station and pick up “feminine hygene products” for my wife when she needs some more. No big surprise there. I’ve even managed to remember what brand and type and size she uses, to minimize any embarassing returns.
But the one thing that’s always confused me about this stuff is, why do the packages always look the same? Medium-blue plastic baggy, swirly text, a touch of pink or lavender for the trim. If you weren’t looking at the actual brand name itself, you couldn’t tell the damn things apart. Has a century of market research demonstrated that women will only buy “feminine hygene products” from a company if they can manage to confuse the customer into thinking it’s a competitor’s brand, or what?
Would it kill someone if you stuck a logo or a picture on the silly things? Or just change the colors a bit – there’s an entire electromagnetic spectrum to choose from, folks.
As a woman, I think the super-feminine designs are dumb, but I think most women do feel that menstruation is icky. The images of softness, cleanliness, delicacy, etc., helps balance the…uh…fleshy nature of the whole thing.
George Carlin did a routine based on a similar theme. I believe he suggested “Sprunt” as a name for feminine hygiene spray.
Blue? The ones I get are in a pale green bag, and the pads themselves are wrapped in a peach-colored plastic.
There are even different ‘logos’ on the corner so you can easily tell which one is the one you want (or tell someone else: look for the blue balloon!).
I guess though that the packages are meant to be ‘soothing’ in some way. Like looking at a pastel package is going to make my innards stop cramping or make the bloating go away. Uh-uh. :rolleyes:
But has anybody noticed that my brand, Tampax, has over the years started to look more like the Generic Tampons, not less?
You’d think they’d want to look less like them - women are fantatically brand-loyal to tampons and tend not to pick them by price or change for anything but an on-purpose reason, so you’d think they’d want to be individual. But last time I had a hard time telling the Tampaxes from the Krogers.
I repeat my earlier challenge, expanding to anyone - Describe an original advert for tampons or sanitary towels. Ignore local restrictions on decency etc, and focus on what would actually make you buy the things…!!! Any takers!!!
Hell, I’m a 32 year old woman, and I can’t tell the damn things apart.
To answer GorillaMan’s question–I don’t know how you’d market them differently. I’m not a product designer. But I’m sure there’s an easy way to do it. Can you tell the brands and types of laundry detergent apart? Cereal? Yogurt? Of course you can. There’s no reason in the world that sanitary napkins can’t be packaged in a more comprehensible way.
I was at my parents’ house recently, and got an unexpected visit from Aunt Flo. Pop was running out to the store for something, and I was faced with the prospect of asking him to pick up some tampons for me. I knew he’d never done such a thing before, and is incredibly queasy to boot. I figured that he’d get them if I really needed them, but then it occurred to me–how the HELL was I going to explain to him what I wanted? I imagined the poor guy standing there looking at box after box of feminine hygiene products trying to decipher them. I’ve seen plenty of baffled guys in aisle 12.
So, I told him that I wanted Tampax, even though that’s not what I normally use. I said “You’ll recognize the box, because that’s what Ma always used.” Then I told him that I wanted the “super” size, but if he got confused, to just get the box with the green on it. He superciliously said “I think I can figure it out,” and criticized me for giving such detailed instructions and assuming that he wasn’t capable of finding a damn box of Tampax. I just smiled and asked him if he had his cellphone with him. He angrily stalked out the door.
When he got back, he handed me the bag, and sheepishly said, “I’m glad you told me all that stuff. I never would have found them otherwise. I was totally lost until I remembered you said to look for the green.” I graciously declined to gloat. Aw, no I didn’t. But I kept the gloating to a minimum, because I knew that he had assumed that feminine hygiene products were packaged rationally, and thus didn’t need to be prepped like a 6-year-old.
I’ll spend all day comparing the supposed environmental benefits of one washing powder against another…
I’d have no problem looking at one tampon package, and another and taking a twenty of each and saying “Let me hand you them, and let me see if you can tell the difference…”
I just popped into the supermarket for some groceries during my lunch hour, and am more than happy to report to the OP on the packaging/marketing of these products in Japan.
Most are in shades of pastel blue/lavender/pink/magenta, with two companies packaging theirs in proud shades of orange and green. Many had foreign-ish nams, ranging from faux-French (Laurier, Ellie, Eldie) and Engrish (Charmnap). A few had names in mostly Japanese (Soft as Milk, “milk” not being a Jpn. word).
The night-use pads’ packaging came in black and dark navy, with swirls of stars, making them look like space pads.
The vast majority of packages have a picture of the product in all its winged glory on the front. The boxes of tampons had a picture of the applicator, if there was one. The no-applicator tampons (called “finger style,” heh heh) come in plain boxes with a geometric design, like my favorite brand back in the U.S. (OB). Incidentally, the finger-style tampons come with a paper of finger cots that you can peel off.
As usual for me, it’s easier to describe what I don’t like. No coy conversations about freshness. No strolls on the beach, or running through grassy spring meadows.
I like OB’s approach - designed by women for women, so they’re more comfortable (their shape is, IMO, far superior to other brands), kinda “let’s be comfortable with our bodies” kind of thing.
We have an ad here at the moment that drives me batty! The current trend in tampon packaging appears to be avoid anything that makes it look like a tampon. They come in little boxes that have any manner of decoration…from leopard skin to dainty flowers. You don’t so much pick the type but the pretty pattern on the box (well that’s what they think)
Anyway current annoying and original ad sees a couple at a table in a cafe. He picks up the little gold package that he knows is sugar…she reminds him that he is on a diet and gave up sugar…he puts the “sugar” down…she snaffles it back into her bag and smiles smugly that he never knew it was her tampon.
I guess we Aussies have the same brands as kiwis because ours are like that too. Bright, bright packaging. Barely any are pale colours. And night ones are blue with stars. I don’t mind.
I’ll agree that there’s no immediately rational reason.
But lots of women are still under the impression that menstruation is somehow shameful. A group of (relatively socially progressive) people I spend a lot of time with recently had a discussion about how rude it was not to wrap used femprod in copious amounts of toilet paper before disposing of it, so as to prevent anyone else from getting the merest glimpse of blood.
Reality check: every woman you’ve ever known has bled once a month for most of her adult life. Deal with it.
But then, I’m still amazed that they manage to sell douches and feminine deodorant sprays, so maybe I’m not one to ask about such mundane things as packaging.
I have to admit I have never looked for either but I don’t think they are sold down this neck of the woods. Feminine deoderant sprays? I take it you don’t mean armpits?
Oh no. Cootchie deodorant. And I bet they do sell it in your neck of the woods, you just never thought to look. Around here, it’s FDS or Summer’s Eve brands mostly. God forbid you smell like an actual living being. Oh no, it must be Delicate Breeze, or Shower Fresh.
