EP 2: The Statistics of Period Marketing
Shownotes
In a follow-up to our first episode (EP 1: Period Marketing: the Inclusive and the Not-So-Inclusive), Joyann Boyce and Arima member, Serena Gainda, go through some period marketing statistics and discuss the ways marketing needs to change to help combat these issues.
Useful links:
https://www.arimacompany.com/blog/the-good-the-bad-and-the-bloody-in-period-product-marketing
https://www.thedrum.com/news/2020/10/12/gory-glory-the-evolution-period-advertising
You can find Joyann at: https://twitter.com/joyannboyce
Transcript
Joyann Boyce 0:02
Welcome to the Marketing made Inclusive podcast. I am your host, Joyann Boyce. On this podcast, we're going to discuss all things inclusive marketing, from persona creation campaigns, and even some of the mishaps we see in the media. Tune in and let me know your thoughts on how we can make inclusive marketing the industry standard.
Joyann Boyce 0:23
Welcome to the Marketing made Inclusive podcast, I am your host, Joyann Boyce and I'm here with my amazing team member, Serena. Say hey, Serena.
Serena Gainda 0:33
Hey.
Joyann Boyce 0:35
On our last episode, we spoke about period campaigns. And we just wanted to share some stats and some data with everyone around why this change is happening and what's being seen in society. So Serena, what's the first stat you have for us?
Serena Gainda 0:50
Callaly commissioned research and found that 66% of people didn't feel represented in period ads. So this change isn't for nothing. It's quite clear that a lot of people aren't seeing themselves represented and therefore may not be able to relate to your message. So yeah, that's one stat.
Joyann Boyce 1:12
Mhmm. 66% is quite high as well, because if you're putting a campaign out and your target users, these are the people who want to buy the product
Serena Gainda 1:20
Exactly.
Joyann Boyce 1:21
Turned off by the campaign. And it's not, they're not seeing it, they're not missing it. They are literally turned off because they don't see themselves.
Serena Gainda 1:28
Yeah, exactly. And I suppose if you want to dive deeper into why, there's another stat here that says 55% of people feel that the portrayal of periods was too easy and carefree and glamorised. So that's getting a little bit more specific. And I think when we asked people on social media, what they thought of them, you know, when we say period ads, they pretty much thought of thin, white women, playing sports.
Joyann Boyce 1:58
Blonde hair.
Serena Gainda 1:59
Very attractive, very young.
Joyann Boyce 2:02
Skipping and laying tennis in a skirt and wearing all white.
Serena Gainda 2:05
Yes, yeah, that's exactly it. Rollerskating sometimes. It just, it does portray something a little bit glamorised and not, you know, not common, I think, I don't believe most people when they are on their periods are going out into horse riding and white, you know.
Joyann Boyce 2:24
And it's so, so interesting how sometimes marketing just doesn't reflect, outside of the representation, it just doesn't reflect the experience. There's, I can't think of any point in history where women would have been celebrating and skipping through fields on their period. So a marketing person could be like, there's our audience. We're gonna copy what they're doing. Like, it's so unrealistic.
Serena Gainda 2:49
It really is.
Joyann Boyce 2:52
Any other stats we've got there?
Serena Gainda 2:54
Yeah, of course. Another one was that nine out of 10 women feel that they need to hide their periods. And I think that's very, you know, interesting to think about, it's, and I think it's because of this taboo in society in the fact that marketing is afraid to talk about periods and to, you know, show them and I think that does lead to the sense of shame. And it only emphasises it.
Joyann Boyce 3:22
There are so many campaigns, I can think of various brands, where the whole storyline was about hiding the tampon or clap passing it in class. There was even I cannot remember the tampon company. And I didn't want to name and shame without evidence, but where the whole idea of the packaging was that it looked like a sweet, it looks so discreet. It was me mistaken for chocolate bar. It's like, what?
Serena Gainda 3:47
Was this recent or it would have been?
Joyann Boyce 3:50
Well, I am in my early 30s, it would have been in the last 10 years at least.
Serena Gainda 3:55
Okay, well, that's still interesting, cause I saw a vintage ad that talked about a sanitary napkin box being so discreet, like you can't even tell it's a sanitary napkin box. That was pretty much their selling point. It just looks like a normal box. And they didn't talk about the absorbency or the you know, is the product effective. They didn't talk, they didn't even use the word period. That was just the whole thing. It, this is a box and you can't tell what it is by it.
Joyann Boyce 4:26
And it's nuts when you think about it as a product. We know so, I am not a car person. But I know about the engine size and the speed and the way it hits corners. I know about the product. But when it comes to tampons they're like selling you this imaginary lifestyle that you're not going to have. When I buy a period product, I am not going to go skipping through fields. I should know about the absorbency. I should know about how functional is. I should know about biodegradable-ness and none of these things are the selling points in campaigns. It's just, it's, this, it's misleading. So much.
Serena Gainda 5:02
Yes. And even just seeing the product. So when we think back to the past time period was said on TV, it was Courtney Cox in a 1985 Tampax ad, and as much as she was talking about the tampons, we didn't see it, we don't actually see the product itself. And yeah, I always think it's a bit strange. If you're trying to sell a product, I'd like to know what it looks like.
Joyann Boyce 5:28
And see it and there's a trend going around on tick tock at the moment of men seeing a tampon in a water bottle expand for the first time and they are genuinely shocked.
Serena Gainda 5:38
They're shocked. Yes, I've seen that. It's very funny, but also kind of sad that there is this lack of knowledge around tampons and how they work.
Joyann Boyce 5:46
I'm not saying that this is solely down to marketers in the marketing industry. But I'm saying we aligned 50-50% When it comes to pure education with the, with schools, because we spend more of our time outside of schools, way more of our time-consuming ads, I would say, than we do in a sex ed class. There is elements of school education, that should educate people on periods and cups and all this aspect. But if you're not a person who has a period, all that education is coming from either the women around you, or TV or commercials and ads.
Serena Gainda 6:21
Exactly. And there's so much discomfort around discussing hers, even with family members. So obviously, we'll drop the sources in the show notes. But there was there's a stat here that says 56% of girls would prefer to be bullied over speaking to that parents or family about periods. And that's really concerning. We've created this culture where, you know, there is so much discomfort around discussing periods. And I think marketing, you know, it just have the power to influence that and change that. If people aren't willing to even engage in a discussion about periods like how are you going to get them interested in your product when they've got this huge no sign in front of them when it comes to discussing periods at all.
Joyann Boyce 7:10
And that impact in little kids growing up and knowing that they can't discuss it like to choose to rather be bullied than to talk to your parents about something. And just the whole kind of stigma that has been inherited about mentioning the word is, is a lot for people to take in and to shift but I do believe like, like you said, marketers have the opportunity to start shifting that narrative. We can normalise almost anything which is scary but also powerful. You can normalise saying the worst periods like I haven't seen an ad. I think I've seen some comedic ones where they will send the guy to the supermarket to buy a sanitary towel and and and be this whole like oh my God, there's so many different types. But I would love to see one where it's just like oh, yeah, I just picked it up. Just like it's casual. It's been normalised.
Serena Gainda 8:01
Yeah, exactly. I think Bodyform are doing that. I think they're, they're doing really well. I think in their marketing, there is a man just picking up sanitary towels. And it's just a clip of that it's nothing. Nothing kind of what's the word? It's, they're not making a big deal out of it. It's not, you know, glamorised, it's not highlighted in a very special way. It's just, oh, here's a clip of this guy taking sanitary towels to the to the till. That's it. And that in itself, just capturing something so simple, but so normal, I thought was really, really powerful.
Joyann Boyce 8:39
It is super fun. Now you're making me wonder about the various versions of creative I haven't seen. So I don't think, I haven't seen that one. But I also don't think I seen any same-sex couples or any. No, I haven't seen any trans-related representation or does it, okay, now I'm going down the rabbit hole. Definitely should see disabled people have periods. That is that should not have been a thought I just had of like, oh my God, I haven't seen that. That, the period ads of past generations and want to skipping in fields is so many layers of offensive that the women a majority skinny, wearing white, look like their privileged, fully able-bodied, it's excluding so much the population.
Serena Gainda 9:28
Exactly. Exactly. Even just older women, you know, that's not something that we see either. There really is just apparently, according to marketing, just one type of person that menstruate.
Joyann Boyce 9:42
Half the planet are women, and a majority of them produce children. So, but you know, let's not, let's ignore that. Let's completely ignore that as marketers and just focus on this one particular type. I'm curious to know, because the excuse people tend to use about ads back in the day, when I speak to my clients, it's like, oh, the ad rooms were like, you know, ad men. And it was just you know, them making decisions that women should wear red lipstick and all this jazz. And I was like, okay, that's the excuse you want to use fine. Women weren't in the room. But I do feel like now women are in the room, but we're still reproducing. And we're still pumping out the same kind of content. What are your thoughts on how we would even try to create an inclusive ad? Or how you think Bodyform would have done it?
Serena Gainda 10:31
Yeah, I think it would just be showing kind of, you know, a range of experiences, just like body form have done, you keep talking about body, but I'm really kind of, like, you know, pleased with their marketing. And showing that, you know, it's not just having a period isn't this, isn't just, you know, oh, so you can go play sports and be happy. It, it's also so you can just live your life, you know, everyday life. And I don't think that they consider that, or the fact that, you know, periods can be a really good thing for someone, perhaps that is happy that they're not pregnant. Or it could be really upsetting for someone that's trying to conceive. It can be a really painful experience. And, you know, there may be people that just need to stay at home and relax when they're having a period. And then yeah, it's just, it's just a full range of experiences out there, that I think would be worth capturing that are far more relatable. And I would like to see more, you know, more people of colour, I would like to see people with disabilities, I would like to see trans women, not just the one white woman that's really thin. I want to see more about what periods are like for other people, and they want to see my own story reflected as well, like my own experience.
Joyann Boyce 11:56
And I think that, to their credit, I feel like Bodyform took that audience segmentation, and applied a level of empathy to it. In order to get all of that, those layers in the ads they've been producing recently. I feel like so much of that is empathising, is actually considering, okay, this is our target market, what are they feeling? Let's ask that question and explore and see how we can represent it.
Serena Gainda 12:26
Exactly.
Joyann Boyce 12:26
Instead of trying to portray, this is what they should feel, this is how we want them to feel. And that's such a flip on marketing. So a lot of time, you get told to, again, going back to cars, you get told to sell the experience of having the car. But really, what is the problem that it's solving, this is the root of business, what is the problem that period products are solving, and therefore, how would people experience them then using it and covering those bases and adding a level of representation on top of that, because you have the aspect of thinking to be inclusive with your language, aspect of telling different stories and narratives. And then, as you mentioned, representation of different skin tones, representations of body size, age, the representation of disabled community, because all these individuals use your product.
Joyann Boyce 13:20
I think, periods is always a good one to talk about when it comes to inclusive marketing because it is such a wide use case. We tell a lot of our clients are like, oh, we want to target everyone. I'm like, everyone is not your target market. Everyone is never your target. They will always be someone who doesn't use it.
Serena Gainda 13:39
Yeah.
Joyann Boyce 13:40
And just to be clear on that, be clear on who doesn't use it, and then go into your diversifying, who does and who engages with it. So many layers, so many layers, but yes, okay, so I've enjoyed the stats, there's probably so much more of all the research that you've delved into, I have one I'm thinking of now that I'll share after, think about one of the worst campaigns you saw of yesteryear that were just not, you're like how, how did this go out into the marketing world? Is that one comes to mind?
Serena Gainda 14:15
So how, how far back are we thinking?
Joyann Boyce 14:19
You can go as far, you can go black and white. You can go newspaper far if you want.
Serena Gainda 14:23
Oh gosh, yeah.
Serena Gainda 14:26
There are so many then. Yeah, so more deaths are made so I'm not entirely sure how you say it but that, they literally had a box. I don't know if I've already mentioned it. I probably have but they just had a, their whole selling point was you can have your sanitary napkins in this really discreet box and no one will be able to tell what it is. And there are other ads sort of vintage ads that really just talk about keeping your secret hidden. And it's just, yeah, it was just so sad. They don't really talk again about the product all that much or about, I don't think they used the word period. It's just a sort of idea that you need to keep it hidden and you need to, you know, it's a secret and we'll help you keep it. There's that kind of vibe in these ads. But yeah, I think my favourite.
Joyann Boyce 15:18
You're favourite of the worst lot, yeah.
Serena Gainda 15:20
My favourite of the worst lot I saw a. So this is for a painkiller to use when you're on your periods. And all, all it is, is a man just talking about how his life is really, really stressful when his wife is going through menstruation because of the cramps and the mood that it puts him in. So it has nothing to do with women. It has nothing to do with you know, the person that's actually menstruating and solving their needs. It was about solving the husband's needs and selling to him the idea that you will have a, you know, calmer wife, that's not going to wear you down. Yeah, that was probably my favourite out of the worse.
Joyann Boyce 16:07
Yeah, it's just putting, putting the man at the centre, you know, they spend so little time in the spotlight, we have to consider the husbands of the scenarios. I'm being sarcastic if anyone can't tell. My favourite of the worst was a newspaper clipping. And it was two parts. There was a part where two women were discussing tampons, and it was like a revolutionary, and basically implied, no, you're still pure, if you use a tampon, like what on earth, and then. So that was from like the 1950s. But as I thought about it, I genuinely remember growing up people saying, if you use a tampon, you're no longer a virgin. And I'm like, hold on, was this started by the marketing is that who perpetuated this idea? And then the second worst of the worst, so that one was, you know, just on the tampons side of things. But it was a newspaper clipping of a woman's legs, skinny white women as per usual, and a thread dangling down between her legs, and a fish attached to it.
Serena Gainda 17:18
Oh, God. I'd seen that ad and I just I don't understand what was going through the marketing teams’ minds at the time. What, what are they trying to, to say?
Joyann Boyce 17:32
Where did they go to school? Like, what, what were they? I just, I don't understand what it, like. That's the thing I remember after I couldn't even tell you what the product was. Because they're literally saying women's private areas smell like fish. And I'm just like, how is that related to periods? We're, we're not going back to the root problem that we're trying to help people with. But you're just going to insult your target market and tell them that they need it or, you know, people are gonna be repulsed by them.
Joyann Boyce 18:00
Yeah.
Joyann Boyce 18:01
Yeah.
Serena Gainda 18:02
Terrible ad.
Joyann Boyce 18:04
They're also my favourite of the worst. We've already spoken about our favourite of the best, which is the Bodyform one, I think. womb stories, which is that was Bodyform one, right, with the illustration. Yes, womb stories was one of my favourite. I'm generally enjoying now, the new, more tech-related companies coming up, where they're just having it part of everyday life. Everything is red. Everything is full-on, there's no blue blood insight. And they're just like, yep, I'm using the tampon on the toilet. It is the extreme other end of it, it is very, in terms of narrative, very real. Nine to five day like, yes, this is the reality of having a tampon. There's no glamour realisation. But I enjoy it because it feels like it's normalising my experiences.
Serena Gainda 18:52
Exactly. Yeah. And we don't even see the ordinary at all. So in some ways, it just does feel fresh, even though it's something so simple, and something everyone goes through. It's yeah, just seeing something so real when we don't. Yeah, it's refreshing.
Joyann Boyce 19:12
There's future, there's hope we're going in the right direction. However, thank you very much for tuning in to another episode of marketing made inclusive. We would love to, if you do see any period campaigns that you're just like, This is top of the notch, tag us on Twitter, a Rhema underscore company. And we just want to see all the campaigns you have. We'll link all the stats we mentioned in the show notes, as well as a link to our period blog, which have all the research that we've done in this area. But thank you so much for joining me. Thank you Serena for being here. And we'll catch everyone next time.
