Women trends: When brands cross the line

January 25, 2007 by  

Last summer, my sister was livid that she was pitched cosmetics in a Long Island medical office when she was there for routine ob/gyn. It sounded creepy to me and I hoped it didn’t portend a new marketing-to-women trend mixing beauty and medicine.

It brings up my defiant streak: Don’t even dare try this on me, Doc, and any brand who gets in my face this way – you suck!

Reading this article I see my fear is justified. But I think it can backfire on academic medicine and private physicians as well as diminish the Clinique brand. Why would they risk it? Why not appeal to women’s desire and demand for simplicity, value and basics. A fabulous Clinique bundle at Costco? Very large sizes of cleanser, moisturizer, sunscreen?

”I am seduced by fancy packaging as much as the next person,” Dr. Brademas said. ”But I have a theory that all these skin-care things come out of the same vat in New Jersey.”

Skin Deep: A Word From Our Sponsor: “Clinique is blurring the lines between cosmetics and medicine.”

There are reasons that beauty companies might seek an alliance with a medical institution or with doctors. Americans spent about $7.8 billion last year on skin-care products, according to Euromonitor International, a market research firm. In such a competitive market, cosmetics companies like to ally with doctors and medical schools because such relationships can infuse a brand with an aura of scientific credibility.

(Via NYT > Fashion and Style.)

Post to Twitter

Filed under: career, Consciousness, going solo
Tagged:
Comments: None