Nov 18, 2009
Dove might be aware that men shower, but they don’t let it affect their marketing.
Like this post?
I needed soap at Target and you know what I couldn’t find?
Soap.
There were stacks and stacks of “beauty bars,” though.
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© 2012 Abuyo. All rights reserved.
Dove is aware that most men are too lazy to go and shop themselves, and thus let their wives (who like the concept of beauty bars) shop for them..
Men don’t buy soap, do they? My husband just uses shampoo on his head and body. I call it a prison shower.
Now me, I have shampoo, conditioner, hot oil treatment, body wash, exfoliation cream, foot scrub, and sensitive face wash. Smart marketers know – women – that’s where the money is.
They have different types of soap?
I think Caleb’s comment sums up the reason for Dove’s marketing. Men use soap–they just don’t particularly care what kind of soap it is.
What does beauty bar even mean? Does it clean? Does it kill bacteria? All I am looking for is clean. I don’t need to be pretty.
Target has mens soaps in a different aisle. I know this because we use Irish Spring in our house and I couldn’t find it the “beauty bar” aisle where the dove was. I finally found Irish Spring with the mens shaving cream. Weird. Since when do men and women use different bars of soap?
So if Molly is wondering why I’m so attentive, sensitive, and understanding today, I can tell her it’s cuz I showered.
Someone should give you a trophy.
Real men just chip off the sediment… ?
Go with the body wash, bro.
Ah…the good ole days when a man’s soap was full of lava pumice and scraped the heck out of your skin!
Stetson needs to make a leather and pine smelling soap. I’d buy that.
I agree. My wife wants to try making soap–I told her I want some that smells like pine.
Or A-1
Look for Grandpa’s Pine Tar soap. It is brown and smells like the woods. I actually like it and buy it whenever I find some in a store.
Costco. Irish Spring. 12 pack.
That’s what I use as well. Though I like the blue one and costco only carries the green (or something… Can’t tell since I’m colorblind) and I only have one bar left! I guess I’ll have to try the green.
I – a female – am fond of Dove Beauty Bars. We recently restocked at costco, and I let my girls (ages 3 & 2) decide which Dove color to pick: white, green or orange. They picked orange. My first shower using this new color, I though, ‘oh boy, Pablo (DH) isn’t gonna like this too much” it was such a perfume, flowery smell. I liked it, but knew my manly man would not. The packaging should have been a give away. oops
Amen!
best ‘man’ soap is Tesco Value Soap multi pack for 13p – for you folk across the pond that is three bars for less than a quarter!
Dove targets women. Irish Spring targets men. Their packaging reflects that… I dunno, it just makes sense to me.
i called it ‘body wash’ once in reference to the item my husband was looking for at Walgreens, and he stopped, turned to me, and decreed, “it’s soap.”
well then. it’s soap.
also, Dove is nice but it really is like 50% lotion. so you’ll be nice and soft and REALLY girly-smelling, but not as clean as you could be.
They used to say “1/4 moisturizing cream.” (Or was it “creme”?) With my eczema, I need that, although I am a guy.
I chuckled when I read all of this. The bar of soap pictured is my hubby’s soap of choice. Tee hee!
dove targets to ladies for a reason!
next time check our irish spring or old spice. they have soaps.
I don’t know the last time I used soap. I use body wash and kinda figured every guy did?
Wait…does that mean you use a loofah? If so, then, no, not every guy does.
I’m not judging you, though. I promise.
I don’t know that my husband uses soap (more like the the fully body shampoo thing). And he certainly doesn’t buy it. That’s my job. So, good marketing by Dove. They know who buys the soap… I mean, beauty bars.
The reason for full body shampoo is full body hair. That is why men do that…real men I mean.
‘I wash myself with a rag on a stick!’
Actually, this same thing happened to me at giant eagle (a grocery store around here). I was annoyed that I couldn’t find DIAL bars.
I just use axe body wash with an axe scrubber. I know the ads are bad but I don’t have a TV so they don’t bother me.
Assignment for you guys: if you were going to market a soap to men, what would it be called and what would it smell like? Would it be something like, “Landscape” — smells like freshly mowed grass with light overtones of fuel. Just wondering…
: ) I always wondered about that. There aren’t nearly as many “man” soaps as there are beauty bars. Dr. Awesome, on the “To Every Man a Manswer” blog, wrote about this tragedy.
“Beauty bar” sounds like some kind of confectionery which will make me look better. Glad I read this post.
If you are a man using Dove it means you either
Married
Live with parents
too cheap to buy something that’s manly.