Marketing condoms for the female buyer

Move over fellas; the condom aisle isn’t just for men anymore. Well, it never was really, but as retail pharmacies become more adept at discreetly merchandising intimacy health — remember when the pharmacist had to pull the condom display from behind the counter? — there is a trend developing toward marketing condoms with the female buyer in mind.

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The Female Health Co. in May announced a targeted media plan and a focus on developing a line of women’s reproductive health products in support of its one SKU — the FC2 Female Condom. The company will concentrate on targeting women who are dissatisfied with the side effects of hormonal birth control, and who feel that the traditional male condom offers less enjoyment.



And both Lovability Inc. and Sustain Condoms are relatively new companies entering the prophylactic space with a focus on marketing toward women. Lovability has designed a condom it thinks women will feel comfortable carrying in their purses. They contract manufacture through NRS Global Partners, and their Indiegogo capital-raising campaign was 184% funded on Feb. 15.



Meanwhile, Sustain Condoms has committed 10% of pre-tax profits to reproductive health care as part of its 10%4Women initiative in an effort to address the estimated 17.4 million women in need of publicly funded reproductive health and family planning services.



Overall, 80% of millennials agree that condom use is important, but only 35% say they always use one, according to a recent Trojan survey. And while 83% of women feel it’s a shared responsibility to suggest using a condom, only 13% of women bought condoms for their most recent sexual encounter.



Don’t be a glass-half-empty merchandiser, however, because that 87% who did not buy represents a market opportunity. And the category could use the boost in actively buying consumers — sales of male contraceptives were flat (up 0.4%) for the 52 weeks ended Dec. 28, 2014, reaching $382.5 million across total U.S. multi-outlets, according to IRI. Sales of female contraceptives (made up of almost entirely emergency contraceptives) totaled $277.7 million on 15.6% growth.



“Condoms are mostly marketed toward men,” said Meika Hollender, marketing director for Sustain Condoms in an interview last year with “Running Late with Scott Rogowsky,” a local New York talk show. “Women have been conditioned to think that men are supposed to buy the condoms and carry the condoms.”