It is a new model with a new name, fresh advertising and it goes faster with a throbbing beat. But this is not a car. It is Philips’ new Sensual Vibrating and Pulsating Massager.
A little over a year ago the Dutch electronics group was tip-toeing down the plank of a marketing springboard. Glancing nervously at the deep pool of unknown consequences far below, Philips chose Britain to launch its Warm Intimate Massager for couples, a frightening leap into a global market with billion-dollar potential.
This was a high-risk strategy for a century-old brand known for serious electronics such as medical scanners as well as useful but dull home appliances. The marketing solution chosen by Philips was a product campaign almost tongue-tied by its subtlety.
Without mentioning taboo words — vibrator, dildo or sex toy — Philips ventured boldly into the bedrooms of Middle England. With its ergonomic (but non-penetrative) design and deep purple hue, the Philips massager was designed to persuade nice people in leafy suburbs that an erotic device could be an everyday household appliance, just like an electric toothbrush. Ignoring the vulgarity of sex and lingerie emporiums, the intimate massager was launched in Boots and Selfridges and on Amazon.
Twelve months on and the Philips marketers were scratching their heads. The company refuses to reveal its sale figures but it is clear that customers were not beating down the door at Boots in East Grinstead, demanding intimate massagers. What was missing?
Advertisement
“People didn’t understand what the product was for,” a Philips spokesman said. So understated was the packaging, so subtle the product description and so tasteful was the advertising that consumers did not get it. Satisfaction among users was high, but the message was not getting across.
Online sales were doing well but in-store was a problem. Where should a high street chemist stock the Intimate Massager? The box, cleverly designed to look dull, does not tell tales. Should it sit primly on the shelf next to the Lady Shave — or slum it with the condoms?
The Philips marketing team went back to basics and considered the four “Ps” of marketing: product, price, place and promotion. All the evidence suggested the product worked and Philips wished to differentiate its massager from more common products in order to remain a purveyor of “high-end” marital aids. It would be a mistake to lower the product’s price point because of short-term economic difficulty. Place and promotion were the issues.
Philips concluded that fortune favours the brave and has relaunched the massager, which is no longer intimate but sensual. In bold lettering, the packaging alerts the user that the product may stimulate erogenous zones. Even more daring is a new model, launched at the IFA trade fair in Berlin, the Sensual Vibrating and Pulsating Massager, “with more intense vibration”, explains a Philips spokesman.
Meanwhile, the electronics multinational is experimenting with retail avenues previously unknown to it. The Philips massager is now available at Ann Summers, a mere snooty glance away from the notorious Rampant Rabbit. Philips is also experimenting with Love Honey, an online retailer where it can draw comfort from the ecstatic reviews of satisfied Philips customers, albeit in language the company would never condone.
Advertisement
Emboldened by unflappable Britons who, in the end, barely raised an eyebrow over erotica from Philips, the Dutch company has launched the product in Spain, Germany, France, Denmark and the Benelux countries.
The massager was born out of a consumer product incubator. Gone are the days when the boffins at Eindhoven would invent whizzy things and then figure out if they were useful. Today Philips is marketing-led and marketing tends to look for erogenous zones. The company hints that there could be more such products and we can expect their promotion to be a little less prudish.