Dr. Pepper’s “for men only” ad campaign for its new diet “Ten” soft drink may be backfiring with both genders.
So, far, the campaign is not moving the perception of their intended target and seems to be hurting women’s perception in the process.
Dr. Pepper’s perception with men 18+ has largely been flat since the campaign launched on Monday, October 10th and has even tapered off a bit since then.
On the other hand, the campaign appears to have driven women’s perception of Dr. Pepper down, which may have an adverse effect on the overall brand’s sales of a product like Diet Dr. Pepper.
Dr. Pepper was measured with YouGov BrandIndex’s Buzz score, which asks respondents: "If you've heard anything about the brand in the last two weeks, through advertising, news or word of mouth, was it positive or negative?"
A score can range from 100 to -100 and is compiled by subtracting negative feedback from positive. A zero score means equal positive and negative feedback.
For men, Dr. Pepper’s buzz score went from 21. 5 on the day the campaign broke to 16.4, clearly losing a bit of altitude for the intended gender.
However, for women in the same period, the score started at a higher point – 32.9 – and has now sunk to 18.4, losing nearly half its score.
