Promoting “Passion Categories”
Victoria Lowell believes that selling lipstick is a lot like promoting television shows about dogs, diseases, or dieting.
The newly named senior vice president of marketing for three of Discovery Communications’ cable networks says many of the ideas she employed at Procter & Gamble promoting Cover Girl Cosmetics are equally applicable to her portfolio of Animal Planet, FitTV, and Discovery Health: They all belong to “passion categories” in which the public feels an emotional bond with the products.
Lowell links cosmetics and certain niche TV channels with categories such as food, travel, cars, and fashion. Certain strategies work better for these types of products for which users carry a heavier association than “general entertainment” networks and commodity-type goods such as paper towels or gasoline.
“The key to networks is differentiation,” she says. “Even if you look at consumer packaged goods, mascara is mascara is mascara. It can be very difficult to differentiate between Cover Girl and Revlon.”
At Cover Girl, Lowell led the relaunch of the brand five years ago. Its “Easy. Breezy. Beautiful” campaign accompanied a complete overhaul of its products, merchandising, and packaging. At Discovery Health she has followed that up with marketing and ad campaigns for the National Body Challenge and took a page from her Cover Girl strategies by positioning the network as “Real Life. Medicine. Miracles.”
Events and grassroots marketing are a critical component of campaigns for such “passion” categories, according to Lowell. “It’s not only reaching out more effectively through mass media,” she says. “It’s event-oriented things, online content, the ability for people to interact directly with the brands and be able to touch us. It’s all about total connection with the consumer.”
At Discovery Health that has translated into tying itself closely to the American Heart Association, the March of Dimes, and other “affinity” groups. As in cosmetics, “you try to create an overall position for the network that consumers can relate to and feel good about so that you’ll be top of mind in their selection set,” Lowell says.
