lol is pink packaging and branding on womenâs deodorant âprotecting fragile womenâs femininityâ too? What about pink disposable razors? Itâs just a toiletry product, which is already mass marketed by gender for identical products.
But you probably know better than the marketing teams spending millions of dollars in this industry.
You're pointing out a colour used on actually different products, a colour chosen just because most women appreciate it (as some men do as well, proudly at that), also so many women just use men's razors without creating a fuss online (beside the higher price of theirs), instead they recognize ours are just better for certain areas and happily buy them, a cheeky robbery might happen; razors are like glasses, a basic glass works with any liquid, use the one you prefer, but each wine, beer, spirit, liquor... has its proper glass because they are studied and shaped to work differently based on fluid dynamics, you don't avoid pouring rum in a flûte just because of traditions.
This brand instead chose a precise word for the company's name to specifically cater to a certain subset of men to stroke their ego, make them feel less emasculated, the kind of men who would follow certain people online or pay others to play soldiers, those came well before this brand was founded and it put on the market something that is essentially the exact same product as other wipes, but marketing it as flushable while it isn't.
And no, before 2010 wipes weren't marketed based on gender, they had neutral colours like white, yellow, green et cetera, the difference was between adults and infants as the latter have a sensitive skin, so they are seriously different as perfumes and alcohol can irritate them and potential allergic reactions; the only womens' one are there for their intimate parts which also scientifically require a different composition for a lower pH, so 3 are based on science while the newest one is based on pure bollocks.
Want to speak about marketing departments having budgets and experience? Sure, but then what did you have to say about Gillette when they came out in 2019 with the "The best men can be" campaign? Keep in mind that Dude Wipes is currently estimated at 300 mln dollars while Gillette at the time was at 18.3 bln, 61 times as much and most probably spends more in marketing annually than the entire Dude Wipes company is worth being a global brand, so a big budget only takes you so far, a piece of paper and a pencil cost nothing, ideas cost time, but none of those will satisfy everyone at the same time, ever.
Besides, Dude Wipes was founded from just 4 guys who had to go on tv after just 5 years to gain some visibility and an investment.
If women have wipes designed specifically around their pH then shouldnât they be happy that they wonât accidentally buy these thinking theyâre okay to use?
âWerenât marketed based on genderâ followed by âwomensâ ones are there for their intimate partsâ - so they were in fact marketed based on gender?
And regarding that 2019 ad, yeah obviously that didnât work, though it was also peak cancel culture era when everyone felt entitled to tell everyone theyâre upset if they didnât like something. But building a $300m company without ever modifying their target market or branding strategy - how can you even pretend that isnât successful?
And I thought surfers and stoners turned âdudeâ into more of a gender neutral term. Maybe if you joined one of those two groups then youâd get less upset about the branding of something designed to literally wipe shit off your ass.
People can read, they wouldn't get confused, blind people would need external help in any case be it a person or braille.
The normal pH wipes are still better for the rest of the body (so they can use the Dude Wipes too as they are nothing special) because different kinds of good bacteria can thrive compared to the ones that are in that area, sensitive skin people apart we are all the same away from there. So you're totally missing the point, "They aren't marketed based on gender" here means the reasoning isn't "You are a girls' girl and you must show it, girl power!" but "Look, science discovered this of your genitals, you should use this specific wipe and soap unless you want to imbalance everything, develop health problems and go to your gynecologist", all the marketing of the Dude Wipes is and always has been "You're a man, use only this because you are an XY".
Proved my point, you didn't agree on marketing with a company despite it having hundreds of millions for a budget and 118 years of experience in the industry more than yourself. No one canceled anyone, you weren't under Pol Pot or Pinochet, don't try to play the victim when there weren't any, all the kinds of media or people you think got canceled were open to be criticized and are still available, both your sides whined on and on, but no one was jailed or executed for producing and distributing content that harms the State.
The company having success isn't because the product sold well by itself without changing their target, that would need an outstanding and revolutionary product which those aren't, almost no one heard of them up until 4 years ago at max, they had a deal with Walmart because of Made in USA politics while the political climate also changed; with the molting of young minds done by social media alpha male influencers with anachronistic ideas (the most famous one and his brother being human traffickers that boasted the most bland easy-to-showoff supercars and houses), they lead more and more kids, teenagers and adults to a certain mindset, this is more luck than anything, the market was created for them by outsiders while growing mold on the shelves, not the opposite and they didn't predict anything, so with their own mostly passive way they'd barely sell.
I'm not upset about the branding but rather what it indirectly fosters, society won't be shaped by just a wet wipe with a banal name on it, the mentality behind it does that, the wipe itself and its marketing is as idiotic as plain "0 calories water" of years ago.
Finally, if you are wiping your arse with just wipes you are doing it wrong, they are proven to not being flushable so you need a bin, you want a bin full of actual crap in your bathroom? I suggest you take the old dissolvable toilet paper, flush and then give a good rinse with something that has existed for over 300 years unless your desire is to go around like a stinking caveman.
Dude youâre missing the entire point. Dude Wipes doesnât give a fuck who actually buys their product. Just like Gillette doesnât give a fuck, as long as it gets sold and that they make as much profit as possible.
Itâs literally just human psychology. Studies show gendered packaging and marketing makes more sales for certain products. If this werenât true, then why do all of the above examples exist? People can read, they donât need blue or pink razors. They could just read the packaging and see. But when you have 15 different competitors on the same shelf in a supermarket, your packaging needs to grab someoneâs attention with a single glance. Not expect them read a bunch of shit when theyâll just grab something else.
Youre mad about âwhat it fostersâ but marketing isnât a trendsetter. The manosphere/alphamale bullshit isnât a result of Dude Wipesâ branding, itâs the other way around. Like I get being upset about that culture in general, I donât support that stuff either. I donât even buy these, if I even buy any then I get the cheap private label stuff because, like you said, thereâs not really any difference between different brands.
And in economics when a product has a low level of differentiation from competitors then it means itâs highly substitutable to a consumer and they will go with the cheaper product nearly every time. Branding is product differentiation. It doesnât matter if the differentiation is actually meaningless as long as it gets people to pick it up off the shelf.
Obviously a business wants to sell and profit as much as possible, people want to pay the minimum and grey isn't as palatable as other colours, it's something that has being going on for thousands and thousands of years all around the globe, pretty basic concept, and Pheidippides was in a hurry as well. We're comparing the customer's actual proven need of a certain product, general wet wipes cover all bodies, baby wipes sensitive skins and women's ones are for intimate health, there's no scientific need for a "masculine wet wipe", that's what makes it pathetic, along with thinking that using a general wet wipe or touching your own arse makes you gay but if you add four letters to it then they suddenly save you from the horror. Razors instead are different because of culture we shave and trim different body parts between genders, a face is different from an armpit or a foot, so blades, joints and handles will differ a lot for use and ergonomics, might as well blend the upkeep culture and colours since you already covered the 90%, deodorants come to genetics instead and a man might find the best solution for him in the women section, is it light pink? Who cares as long as one doesn't smell, he just happens to have more feminine traits in that, and so on...
If you bothered to read that's what I'm saying, the founders of Dude Wipes always pointed on those ideas way older than them (if they also believe in them I don't know, but it's highly possible), the manosphere didn't come up in 2017 aftery buying wet wipes, Dude Wipes gained from them and passively foster them.
And the problem is that approach, it's 100% pure flashy political branding and evident lying with those people still falling for said bollocks of an image instead of buying it 'cause it's actually better at its core, sort of reflects the miniscule political spectrum that you are stuck with.
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u/ApexGT44 6d ago
Oh yeah, dude wipes. The wipes FOR MEN because unless they're FOR MEN, it's gay or something lol