Playtex Looks to Lift and Separate Branding

Are you a woman? Does the brand name "Playtex" mean anything to you? Anything good? If so, you also may be the new target of the £1m campaign in the UK to reposition Playtex as the underwear brand for women over 50. You might say it hopes to shape women in more ways than one.

Playtex's "Feeling better than ever" campaign will consist of both web and print advertising and its rollout will include an unknown number of British celebrities. The campaign will speak to the target group of women using messaging about being "young at heart" and "coping with a changing body shape."

Tracing its history back to 1932, Playtex's roots are in latex. But technology developed for WWII led to unique new materials perfect for women's undergarments. Playtex came to be a dominant brand of girdles, the name your grandmother used instead of "Spanx."

For decades, Playtex was one of the most popular brand of brassieres. "Cross your heart"? That was Playtex. "It lifts and separates" — that was Playtex, too.

Playtex extended its brand into other areas, including baby goods and tampons. In today's world of Victoria's Secret and Agent Provocateur, it's hard to remember that Playtex pushed imits, back in the day. Among other firsts, it was the first major brand to use actual women (not mannequins) in bra advertising, and the first brand to advertise a tampon on TV.

HanesBrands now runs the Playtex apparel business. Playtex Marketing Manager Marcia Carleschi says that the aim of the new UK campaign is "to reposition Playtex as the lingerie label for British women in their 50s."

That's an admirably tight target, considering so many brands repositioning often shoot for too-wide demographic targets and, consequently, fall short. Or worse, iconic brands "of a certain age" that desperately cling to youth. Playtex easily could have attempted to take on Victoria's Secret. Smartly, it's going a different direction.

Or is it? The challenge facing any brand repositioning by Playtex is best summed up by the landing page on Playtex.com: "Although we may have a name in common... We are two completely separate companies"

Yes, while Playtex is still the brand of the Playtex18 Hour® Bra and Playtex Cross Your Heart® Bra, it is also the brand of the Playtex Diaper Genie and Playtex® Sport® Tampons.

That is to say, the biggest challenge facing any brand positioning is the fragmentation of the brand itself. It's an immediate handicap t any campaign of the messaging is fighting for attention with competing messaging using the same brand name. 

But wait, there's more! The Playtex brand in Europe is independent of HanesBrands, instead falling under the ownership of a private holding company.

That the Playtex brand undertaking is yet another fragmented brand away from its American siblings is probably for the better when it comes to cutting through the confusion.

One bright spot of the announcement? Playtex's new "better than ever" campaign is headed up by an agency called, no kidding, LEG. That's almost as good as Horizon (the agency) repping Horizon (the dairy brand), as we covered this week.

And don't get us started on the apocryphal tales of the brassiere's founders!