Conditions of the ‘#NoConditionsApply’ Marketing

When you have 100% confidence in the technical formulation of your product, and you know that you fair better than the most popular and big brand in market, taking the competition head-on is a good strategy. When there is so much of clutter and communications noise in market, it’s pretty difficult to stand a chance to stand out and get consumers’ mindshare with normal communication approach. Therefore, unless you have a solid story there are high chances that you will get lost in the crowd.

Sebamed, a German brand name of Sebapharma GmbH & Co. KG, which manufactures medicinal skin care products, seems to have resorted to this strategy of being direct and taking competition head on. A few months back when we saw their bathing bar ad where they locked horns with none other than Dove itself, a brand from the FMCG behemoth HUL. The fight even went to the courtroom. Sebamed claimed that their bar has the pH of 5.5 which is best for the skin against that of HUL’s soaps and with Dove in particular. Important to note that HUL is the market leader in the Rs 22,000 crore soap segment with a 40% share, followed by Reckitt Benckiser and Godrej Consumer Products, which each have about 12% share. 

The Bombay High Court on 19 January 21 passed an injunction order permitting Sebamed to continue its advertisements targeting Hindustan Unilever’s Dove with no changes. The High Court bench concluded that Sebamed ads were backed by evidence-based data. The catch here is being scientifically evidence based – while HUL retaliation with a print ad claiming that Dove is dermatologists’ number 1 choice, is more anecdotal than factual.

All said and done, what Sebamed gained of the fight is the media traction of the virability of the news being controversial, which, otherwise would have been extremely difficult to garner. Believe me this is purely because they have taken the big brand head-on, seems a well thought strategy of Sebamed.

Recently again we see a similar kind of campaign, though not targeting any particular brand but the entire category per se. This time around, Sebamed is attempting to break this ‘conditions apply’ myth (if I may call it so) and claim that all those promises are misleading that are made under the ‘conditions apply’ umbrella. (Focusing on educating and empowering consumers, the brand through this campaign draws attention towards misleading advertising by various hair care brands and urges consumers to switch to “Sebamed Anti Hair loss shampoo” with pH 5.5 benefits.- ET, Brand Equity, 04 Dec 21)

Sebamed, in their “#NoConditionsApply” campaign, claimed that their brand doesn’t have any conditions applied and thereby making no misleading promises. This time around, because they haven’t locked horn with any particular brand, the chances of this spiralling into a controversy seems low, for who will bell the cat must be the question. Let’s See!

When we have many choices we get confused and to make life easy we resort to oversimplification. There are product variants for extremely specific consumer needs, the needs that sometimes consumers themselves aren’t aware of e.g. what kind of scalp or hair they have or what kind of skin they have. In such a situation getting confused at which variant to buy seems a normal behaviour, and if any company attempts to simplify our life it gives a sense of respite to many consumers.

What is interesting to note here is that complexity of creating varieties as well as simplicity of breaking the myth, both are the results of marketing. When the teams are tasked for generating more demand, such tactics comes to the rescue of marketeers.

This time Sebamed has attempted to identified a ‘Gap’ therefore an opportunity for market expansion. However, it remains to be seen if this “#NoConditionsApply” campaign is effective enough to make an impact.