Cute and Funny to Sell Gross

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May 18, 2011 by Dane Carlson | 1 Comment

Nasopure sells a bottle of saline water that you squirt up your nose to wash away mucus. How do you sell an outrageous product like this? Would you believe that cute and funny videos seem to be working for Nasopure? The Wall Street Journal has more on their marketing:

A consultant warned, “Don’t ever show the actual nose washing, because it’s gross.” But her gut told her otherwise. To sell this kind of product, “you need to be a little outrageous,” Dr. Solomon says.

Indeed, products that are fundamentally icky require a special approach to marketing. “It’s going to be a bit more challenging to market a gross product,” says Bruce I. Newman, a professor of marketing at DePaul University. He suggests hammering home the benefits and attaching a visual image that “makes it attractive to all kinds of people, even though it’s unglamorous.”

Dr. Solomon did just that. She rounded up some of her cutest patients—think two-year-olds with long blond curls—and got them to demonstrate Nasopure, complete with water running out of their noses. She persuaded a handsome young man to take off his shirt, stand in a shower and strike a “Zoolander” pose while squirting saline up his nose.