Promotion on Other Markets

Before developing our own marketing campaign for Neutrogena Wave in Russia, we decided to investigate what they do in other markets. The product has been launched in the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia and some regions of Middle East. Here we give a detailed overview of the tools used to promote Neutrogena Wave there.

J&J supports its new product with a significant marketing campaign. It includes both so called “standard” elements and innovative methods.

As for standard elements:

• Heavyweight television advertising
• Standard online ads
• Print ads
• A microsite. It featured product information, eductional material and promotional mechanic to enter prize draw promoted in-store and loose insert in pack.
• Web banners
•  Promotional stickers
• Discount coupons: are supplied with the Neutrogena Wave allowing consumers to receive money-off of the pads the device uses.
• Brand ambassadors

As we see it, these instruments are widely used by the competitors and are a kind of a “must-have”. However, the company aims at making Neutrogena Wave different and memorable. To achieve this, they have also used some unusual and more creative ways to promote the brand in general and Neutrogena Wave in particular. The examples you can find below:

J&J has launched a website to promote Neutrogena Wave in advance of its main launch. The site aims to drive sign up to J&J’s Neutrogena Young Skin CRM program which offers a variety of skin and fashion tips. Consumers who join the programme will be entered into a prize draw to win a trip to New York and $1000 spending money. Runners-up prizes include £150 TopShop shopping vouchers. 

-  The company has organized a donation campaign of $1 for every Wave Sonic Power-Cleaner sold up to $200, 000 to GlobalGiving, which is an internet-based network that connects donors directly to the causes they care most about. Quizzes were organized on Neutrogena Facebook page. followers can choose which charities should receive the money:  they can support a disaster relief, environmental or educational cause. Each sphere is headed by Neutrogena brand ambassadors Vanessa Hudgens, Hayden Panettiere and Miranda Cogrove.

-  In addition to the donation campaign, brand ambassadors call the customers to buy Promotion Bags designed by them personally. Miranda’s (center) is a heart constructed of pencils – made to benefit educational courses. Vanessa’s (right) 

-  In the Middle East, as part of the online campaign, Johnson & Johnson wanted to approach people by using social mainstreams like Facebook. The Facebook application was a competition, and can be considered as a race. Johnson & Johnson had to choose 300 girls from Lebanon, Kuwait and United Arab Emirates. These girls were called as "Ambassadors". Each Ambassador had to race by inviting friends to help build the longest wave. The Ambassador who will have the 1st hundred followers will be the winner. The application was divided into 2 parts:

1.      The Ambassadors were invited to the application so they can register themselves in a limited time. 

2.      The Ambassadors will invite their friends to the application then the friends would come to the application fill up the registration form and choose the ambassador to follow.

- A focused ad campaign that was driven by a contest to send the winners to a Vanessa Hudgens’s concert in Los Angeles and have them receive a complete makeover using Neurogena products. The purpose of the campaign was to promote Neutrgena’s line of acne products for teens with its Pink Grapefruit Acne Wash headlining the list. This is achieved through the association and recommendation of the brand’s celebrity spokesperson, Vanessa Hudgens.

We believe that these innovative methods have allowed Neutrogena to strengthen its brand and promote their new product. They have not only introduced Neutrogena Wave, but also involved a customer and made him/her participate. We think, this is a very wise decision since customers see that the company cares about them and wants to be closer, which creates positive associations and positive presupposition towards the promoted product.