There's a product called Sexcereal that has been getting some special attention lately, on the news, and on The Colbert Report. This cereal claims to give people gender-specific nutritional help for extra sexy performance, and it also claims to be "the first food product to go viral". (Um, a simple suggestion here: the purported accuracy of this statement, and the trendiness of the expression "go viral" notwithstanding, I would seriously recommend against using the expression "go viral" to describe any product having to do with sex. There are a lot of negative connotations to something going viral in sex. Get it?)
Well, this cereal seems to have been marketed like crazy and promoted to the hilt, but I think they've somewhat missed the mark with the slogan, which is: "Sexcereal: Fuel Your Fire", or: "The world's most Passionate Cereal!" Well, I think they have overlooked the considerably catchier: "Sexcereal: Get some breakfast nookie", or: "Sexcereal: For your breakfast nookie". (And you know, the breakfast nookie is the most important nookie of the day!) {<They could actually use that idea too for fun effect as a play on the well-known claim that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And they could also say it's for "Break-sex-fast".}
I think they are overthinking this marketing strategy as like some sort of GNC-type workout fuel source. Most guys will probably eat this and last only a minute anyway, and that would have built the whole thing up completely unrealistically as some miracle power source for long lasting loving. If it's a disappointment, people will remember the hard sell and the serious tone, and they will think it's a gyp. But if they used a fun, lighthearted tone, simply the idea of the cereal might be enough to encourage some additional closeness for couples, but with no performance pressure or anxiety, and even if it's underwhelming, the whole thing would be suffused with such a fun attitude that it might continue to sell itself anyway because of the frisky fun feel. I think a silly and warm and lighthearted approach would work far better here, honestly. Unless they think only nutrition-obsessed fitness workout nuts would be their core market. (Of course, with their marketing approach, I think that's mostly what they're aiming for, and pretty much solely what they're likely to get.)
I would be interested to see what would happen if this product were to be marketed like they are marketing it on the Sexcereal website, and also marketed like I am suggesting here. I think it would be pretty instructive to see what the response would be to each marketing strategy. I just think that the exercise workout energy supplement feel of this current approach would tend to turn off people who are not gym types, and that gym types probably don't need anything remotely like Sexcereal to be able to perform well in bed at any time of the day or night. And of course, young people don't need it at all anyway either, so it would really be more of a novelty product anyway, I'd think. But most of all, with the approach they are using in their marketing, I think they're wasting the whole point of calling the product Sexcereal to begin with, because if you're not going to really go with the sex angle in a playful or suggestive manner, why bother? It seems to me that their advertising approach (from what I have seen of it) is like a woman wearing a sexy skimpy bikini on top of a t-shirt and shorts: what's the point? If you're not getting frisky or ribald with your marketing, why bother referencing sex at all? It defeats the whole point of using sex in/as your branding if you soft-pedal it in your marketing. It's like marketing a badass muscle car as a commuter carpool vehicle crawling through stop-and-go rush hour traffic in the ads: you are throwing away the whole selling point of this product from the get-go when you take such a conservative approach.
Here are further examples of possible Sexcereal slogans to show you what I mean: "Sexcereal: Get it up when you get up" and: "Sexcereal: Wakes up your libido" or: "Sexcereal: Feed your libido". Or maybe: "Sexcereal: The most important meal of the lay".
Here's the link to their website, where you can see the fitness-oriented marketing strategy:
http://www.sexcereal.com
