Johnson & Johnson is not following the usual script of running print ads and television commercials with its new ad campaign for the company's Baby Lotion. Instead, the company has created something new in both tone and media delivery that it believes will help it bond with a whole new generation of parents and their babies.
J&J's different approach has taken it beyond just producing 30-second spots for television to longer-form cartoons to run on the company's "Touching Bond" website. J&J will seek to channel traffic to www.touchingbond.com with ads running online on its own "Baby Center" network of sites along with others catering to parents of infants and toddlers. The company is putting a greater emphasis on web communications believing that today's parents are gravitating to information and entertainment on the web instead of traditional media outlets.
The tone of J&J's spots also sets it apart, according to a Wall Street Journal report. While commercials for products in the category tend to play up the medicinal benefits of baby lotion, the J&J ads emphasize the bond between mother and child in the act of massaging the baby.
J&J's new campaign carries with it some risks, according to The Journal. The company current holds almost a 50 percent market share of the baby care category but competitors including Baby Magic (Ascendia Brands), and Huggies (Kimberly-Clark) are making concerted pushes to grow their businesses. Taking a different approach, if it doesn't work, could provide others with an opening to reach parents active in the baby-care category.
While J&J is looking to create some buzz with its web videos, it is not completely abandoning television. The company plans to run ads in magazines including American Baby and Parents as well as commercials on the Lifetime, Nick@Nite and TLC cable networks.
Discussion Questions: Is J&J's new approach the right one with today's parents? How much more or less important has the online component become to marketing consumer packaged goods in the current economic and retailing environment?