Fashion Forward Hygiene
Target's Up & Up pantiliners featuring a women's hand carrying a purse bring to mind the busy women shopper on the run. The Affirm bladder control pads use the same purple and orange colors in the packaging.
Private label feminine hygiene gets a new look.
Feminine hygiene, the once whispered about commodity, pigeon-holed in back aisles of drug and mass merchandise stores is now shedding its commodity status and entering the world of fashion accessory. It’s a marketing shift that follows two trends, the aging of the population and a more open society.
According to Packaged Facts, a market research firm, sales in this category have been declining since 2002 due to the aging of the population. The research firm reports that sanitary pads and tampons account for 76% of the feminine hygiene market. Manufacturers have had to rethink the market’s needs and are now providing products for this aging generation in the form of better-designed bladder control options.
On the flip side, the traditional demographic for these products, young women, is more open to talking about their personal care issues. Younger women want products to fit into their lifestyles and clothing styles. The result is a category that is changing rapidly with branded products leading the innovation and advertising charge. Women can now find black pantiliners for more discreet protection as well as liners designed for thong-style underwear. Tampax’s introduction of the Pearl plastic applicator tampon added a new product to the category. What could be a better fashion accessory than pearls? Bladder control products are also a far cry from adult diapers coming in a variety of sizes. Pre-menopausal women are finding that their bladder care products can do double duty and it is more convenient to buy one product than two or three. These market shifts mean that the non-wovens industry is no longer stagnant with Package Facts projecting the market to reach $3.15 billion in 2010.
Private Needs
With so many new products in the market where do private label options fit? The answer is front and center. This private label category competes well on price in this tighter economy. Information Resources Inc. (IRI) reports (excluding WalMart) that the average branded price for sanitary napkins and tampons is $4.39 and private label is $2.71 for sanitary napkins and $3.64 for tampons. As these are products that women buy regularly throughout the year, retailers have the ability to advertise private label specials and provide in-store signage to market to women.
CVS Pharmacy, Woonsocket, RI, has introduced several new offerings in this category including a new look to their hospital-style maxi pads, new ultrathin pads with Sensadry that compares to Always brand, new and improved ultra thin with wings that compares to Always, and new CVS brand multi-pack tampons that have the familiar rainbow of color that the Tampax Pearl brand features. In keeping with women’s fashion needs, CVS offers liners in a variety of sizes such as long liners. Store shelf signage compares the pricing including offers for buy one, get one free. CVS also offers a competitive line of vaginal medications, yeast treatments, and cleansing cloths to compare to the national brands.
Walgreens, Deerfield, IL, offers a variety of options under the W brand. In keeping with women’s needs to carry these products in their purses, the chain has two value priced mini-products, a To-Go package of pantiliners priced at 89 cents and their Perfection brand of tampons that compare to Tampax, 8 for $2.99, and a small personal cleansing cloth product, 16 cloths for $2.99. In the bladder control line, found in another part of the store, Walgreen’s offers the Certainty brand for women with pads in a variety of sizes including a small package of 26 liners for $3.59.
WalMart, Bentonville, AK, is right in the fashion running with its Equate line of tampons and sanitary napkins. Their products comparing to Tampax Pearl and Kotex both feature brightly colored flowers that again encourages women to feel as if these products no longer must be stashed under their bathroom sinks. The retailer’s bladder control products, Options by Assurance fits any size needs and price point with 6 package options: 14,16, 20, 30, 42 and 60 priced from $3.46 to $9.88. The Assurance brand has underpads, underwear, and a day and night product.
Mass merchandiser Target, Minneapolis, MN, is offering new rebranded products under the new Up & Up label. The all white packages feature boldly colored arrows and a woman’s hand holding a purse. This new design is unlike any other branded or private label feminine hygiene product. Up & Up has products comparing to some of the national brands. The compare to Carefree liners have a bold orange arrow (Carefree is branded as pink) and the compare to Kotex liners have a bold purple arrow (Kotex is branded with orange and yellow tones.) They both have the same tagline, “delightfully dependable.” The woman shopping for the private label Carefree equivalent, or any equivalent, will have to take a long look to find the right package she is seeking. Target has not given up its Affirm bladder control line in favor of Up & Up and offers multi-sizes at various price points.
Smaller Private Label Lines
Smaller feminine care lines can be found at both K-Mart, Hoffman Estates, Il and Rite Aid, Camp Hill, PA.
K-Mart’s American Fare label has a variety of “compare to” products including tampons and pantiliners packaged in boxes such as purple to compare to Always, pink to compare to Carefree, and orange to compare to Kotex. They also offer Life Care, a private label line of bladder control pads to compare to Poise, as well as disposable underpads, protective underwear, and overnight protection.
K-Mart, in response to the tight economy announced at the end of September, a smart assist savings card for unemployed workers. The program, “… gives eligible customers a 20 percent discount off more than 1,500 regularly priced high-quality private label grocery and drugstore staples for up to six months….”
Rite-Aid’s program features a few offerings including a new long ultra thin pad with a dri soft cotton-like cover compared to Always brand. Stores also feature shelf signs that point to their private label values with “get more value with Rite Aid.”
Retailers are also all offering vaginal medications and yeast and bladder treatment products to compare to more costly national brands. As the cost of health care increases, women will make more trips first to drug stores and mass merchandisers to treat their symptoms then to doctor’s offices. It’s an interesting side effect of the recession but also an opportunity for retailers. Women are responding well to ads and discount coupons. Private label can capture the same interest and showcase their offerings as women seek solutions and value that allow them to carry on their lives without any modifications at any time of the day, night or month.
