Recent statistics from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the kingpin contraceptive provider, reveal expenditures for oral pills and condoms top the charts for contraception products worldwide.

According to Sulak, the new hit wonder will be Seasonale, which will reduce women's menstrual cycle from 13 to a mere four per year. "It's really just a repackaging of what doctors have been doing for years." Instead of working on a monthly cycle of pills, Seasonale, set to launch on the market in 2002/2003, should be taken on a three-month cycle, eliminating menstruation to once per season. Seasonale is currently under clinical trials at the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School.

Although branding is slightly skewed by the prescription process, hype for groundbreaking products such as Yasmin and Seasonale tends to rope consumers in.

However, as useful as the Pill may be, it does not protect against sexually transmitted disease (STD). Condoms are actually the only dual device that are effective in reducing both pregnancy and STDs. Condoms are also the only non-surgical method of male contraception marketed throughout the world, and they are recognized as highly effective against the sexual transmission of HIV/AIDS. Nevertheless, condoms are underutilized compared with oral contraceptives and, for many consumers, are an unacceptable option.

Following the publicity surrounding the emergence of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s, the condom market and distribution channels have grown, causing a continued rise in sales volumes. Worldwide, UNFPA's condom support doubled from 1992 to 1997 and expenditures are forecasted to increase.

Despite the condom’s recent rise in popularity, it’s nothing new; the first condom dates back to 100 AD. A 1200 to 1500 year-old painting in France depicts a man using a condom during sexual intercourse and condoms were widely used against syphilis in the 1500s.

Like the Pill, condoms get a bad rap. Although physical side effects are minimal if at all, using condoms as contraception means interrupting sexual play and consumers complain of a desensitization of pleasure. And since pleasure, or specifically, safe pleasure, is the objective in sex, branding should thrive around it.

Sex, however, is a new marketing scheme for the "erection apparel" market. Throughout the 1980s and 90s, condom producers relied on staid and true "safe sex" messages like the one used by Condomi, a large European manufacturer: Be safe and have fun. A Trojan print ad from 1996 highlighted safety as well: You wouldn’t jump out of the plane without one.

While the safe sex public advocacy got the ball rolling for the condom market, sales, along with public discomfort with buying condoms remained a liability. The evolution of the normalization of condoms entailed putting safe sex branding on the back seat and the spotlight back on the product focus: sexual pleasure.

Carter-Wallace, Inc., which produces Trojan, controls more than 65% of the US condom market. Branding for Trojan focuses on sensation with products named "Ultra Pleasure," "Very Sensitive" and "Ultra Thin."

London International Group, which produces Durex condoms, controls about 20% of the condom market worldwide and the company bills itself as the number one condom manufacturer. Durex also plays up pleasure with product names like "Ultimate Feeling," "Ultra Comfort" and "High Sensation." Further to the sex focus in marketing for condoms, Durex claims its ad campaigns, which target men and women, led to a 35% increase in sales to women.

Until radical changes occur in the contraception industry, couples will just have to keep doing it with few changes in their brands and methods of contraceptives.

But for the manufacturers, developing a solution with the functional aspects to improve current methods of contraception and STD prevention is only half the battle. The real success will be in selling that new product to the individual. For that, we recommend a return to the bedroom for a more emotional approach, appealing directly to the consumer’s desire.    

[28-Jan-2002]