The Homa Files

TakeAway: In line with its history of unusual marketing, P&G wants its new website to take advantage of an untapped marketing opportunity with the family man.  Its top rival Unilever took a raunchier approach in its Axe campaign, while P&G’s site focuses on what’s happening outside of the bedroom.

* * * * *

Excerpted from NYTimes, “As the Web Turns” By Andrew Martin, January 12, 2011

The P&G site offers tips on grilling burgers, cleaning toilets and disciplining children. It promises, “We’ll make men out of you yet,” while also promoting Gillette razors, Head & Shoulders shampoo and other company products.

“What we are trying to do is speak to the whole man,” said Jeannie Tharrington, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble Productions. “Certainly, relationships and sex are part of an adult man’s life.”

More and more big companies have discovered the how-to genre as a marketing tool.  In the years since Beinggirl.com was created, Procter & Gamble has started several other lifestyle Web sites, including one that is directed at women, Homemadesimple.com. David Germano, the general manager of ManoftheHouse.com, said consumer data showed that 10 percent of the visitors to the women’s site were men.

ManoftheHouse.com has brought on several writers who had established father-focused blogs.  So are men drawn to a PG-rated Web site when so much R- and X-rated competition is out there? Procter & Gamble says that so far it is pleased with the number of visitors. The site was started in June, and by December it had topped a half a million monthly unique visitors.  By comparison, AskMen.com, a site with similar, if more titillating content, had 5.5 million unique visitors in December, according to comScore, the market research firm.

Jonah Disend, chief executive of the brand strategy firm Redscout, questioned whether ManoftheHouse.com would generate a big following. He said men tended to be more interested in specialized publications about a specific hobby or sport.

“Just because no one’s doing it doesn’t mean there’s a real market for it,” he said.

Edit by AMW

This entry was posted on January 28, 2011 at 6:22 am and is filed under Mktg - Positioning, Social Media & Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.