The Hybrid Approach: Specifying For Her Within an Established Brand

The Hybrid Approach: Specifying "For Her" Within an Established Brand

There are those cases in which a new product or service line, created within an established overall brand, would benefit from calling out to women that it was developed specifically for them. Consider your local well-known bank as an example. Everyone knows "Downtown Bank" has good customer service, offering the best interest rates with free checking; but now Downtown wants to package its information and develop seminars specifically to address women's financial needs. The bank certainly wouldn't redo its logo or reposition itself to become "Women's Downtown Bank." Rather, it may develop a Web site section called "Financial Services for Women" and start offering "for women" seminars on financial planning for retirement and on gender-specific issues, such as earning less but living longer than one's male spouse.

Drugstore.com's "Healthy Woman" area is effectively womenspecific within a well-known brand. The section includes products and information on both traditional and alternative approaches to women's health, as well as a resource section, called a "Health Guide," that carries the woman-resonant tagline "knowledge is power." Items are presented in categories that speak directly to women's prime concerns, like cardio and breast health. Healthy Woman 's top ten solutions for weight loss, antiaging and more appear front and center on the home page. By delivering the products and information in ways that serve so well the buying minds of women, this visible "for women" approach within the Drugstore.com brand is getting full power from its marketing efforts.

Rejuvenating Effects toothpaste is another product representative of the hybrid approach to marketing to women. Developed as a product within Procter & Gamble's Crest line, it is promoted as the first toothpaste targeted specifically to women using the slogan , "For a radiant smile, today's new beauty secret."

In keeping with a hybrid approach, the entire Crest brand was not given a "for women" makeover. Rather, the Rejuvenating Effects product within the Crest brand is being distinctly marketed as a toothpaste that addresses a beauty concern, which is usually female -specific.

Interestingly, while Drugstore.com's Healthy Woman area packages and categorizes information and products specifically around women's health concerns, Rejuvenating Effects toothpaste is more simply positioned "for women" without containing any truly femalespecific ingredients .

A hybrid marketing approach may be a great way to test whether women are paying attention to your brand. If they do notice and respond to your visible efforts to reach them, then that may be the time to develop and launch an even more powerful transparent marketing program (see the next chapter for details).