Sponges and marketing

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always wondered about the marketing strategies of rather odd or basic products, such as sponges. Can you really do an innovative marketing strategy to sell sponges ?

As you might have guessed, the answer is yes of course. But, how, you ask me ?

The marketing and communication strategy I chose to focus upon is Spontex’s, a french brand created in the 1930's and whose principal product is sponges... 

In 1999, Spontex launched a communication campaign starring a cute-as-can-be hedgehog, fallen in love with a sponge, whose characteristic was to be as scratching as the very same hedgehog.

Since then, the hedgehog has been the unstopped symbol of Spontex’s campaign, which allowed creating a somehow very cheeky tone in the very unsexy universe of sponges.

This campaign caused a huge buzz when it was broadcasted, and lead me to a question : how did the brand maintain the tone of the campaign?

The use of social media by Spontex is surprisingly very successful. The Facebook fan page (https://www.facebook.com/spontex) for the brand rassembles 197 419 fans. Their facebook strategy 

- Official posts, at least once a week

- Maintaining the same cheeky, and quite daring sometimes, tone as for the TV or print ads. For example, they have been publishing recently once a week, the "hot resolutions" of Ernie (the hedgehog, whose name appears to be quite known to Spontex lovers) 

Resolution n°9 - "In 2012, I will start music"

The hot resolutions are very followed by the fans of the facebook page and get between 100 and more than 400 likes, and 20 comments per post. 

One interesting thing to note is also the international success of Spontex's communication. Lots of amateur fan pages are created on Facebook, among which you can find a Ernie fan page in Germany (264 fans). 

- A harmonious communication between the print ads, the official website and the facebook page. Impertinent tone, and direct phrases are used : the allusions to sex are quite obvious and efficiently builds the loyalty of consumers to the brand. The official website directly refers to the Facebook page for games such as "find the G point"

- Keeping up with the news

Saint Valentine was one occasion for Spontex to publish a nice photo, in which the brand incited you to tag your friends...

... but more than that, Spontex also hijacks high-interest political facts, such as the current presidential election in France. 

This week, Nicolas Sarkozy, current French president, announced its candidacy to the 2012 Presidential election, with the slogan "La France forte" ("A strong France"), which Spontex diverted in to "La France frotte" (France is scrubing). A very nice pull, liked by nearly 700 people on the Spontex official page, and commented by nearly 40 users. 

However, to end with this analysis, Spontex's strategy has not always been the best, as shows the following video, broadcasted last year for Saint Valentine's day...