P.S., which bills itself as a vegan brand, cites all of these technical attributes on its website—but its social marketing is solely, and strategically, about redefining how Americans characterize manhood.
“We’re just saying, ‘Here’s the opposite of toxic masculinity,’” Seo said. “This is a positive manifestation of being a man.”
Brand marketing without the brand
But is it an effective one? In an era of 8-second attention spans, will people make the connection between videos about decent guys and a condom brand?
Ronald Goodstein thinks so. “Having a brand story that evokes emotion—gets an emotional connection with a company—is hugely important,” said Goodstein, who teaches marketing at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. In his analysis, it doesn’t matter that P.S.’s TikTok content has nothing to do with its product because “they’re great stories that move you,” and put the brand in a positive light as a result.
Goodstein also points out that condom marketing commonly addresses itself toward younger consumers—notably Gen Z, which doesn’t like products shoved in their faces. (According to data from NCSolutions, 58% of Gen Z consumers don’t like advertising that interrupts the content they’re watching.) P.S.’s decision to keep condom messaging out of its TikTok videos is, in that context, a savvy decision. “Positive brand associations,” he said, should be enough to “translate into preference at the marketplace.”
Chris Nawrocki is the CMO of Heur, a London-based agency that develops growth strategies for direct-to-consumer brands. He also commends P.S. for “focusing on creating content questioning narratives on modern masculinity to build a brand, instead of aimlessly promoting.”
“The content that they produce is totally organic,” he continued. “They use user-generated content of ‘good guys doing good things’ in the popular green-screen format and talk through the events taking place and how these men should be lauded. They are targeting their demographic of the ‘modern man’ in a very modern way, producing content that they think [viewers] will want to see—feel-good content is huge on TikTok—and engage with. Which they do. Some of their videos have over 3 million views.”
Wear that raincoat, fellas
Not all of P.S.’s content is about heroic men. Its homepage is decidedly more dude-ish and unapologetically sports some impressive puns: “Let the good times unroll,” “Come as you are,” “Where the rubber meets the load,” and so on. But Goodstein considers this jocularity to be fair game, especially given a young-male target audience. “Their website is really witty,” he said.
The homepage and TikTok account serve as counterweights, and Seo was deliberative about what’s on them both. “If you go to our website, it’s kind of a fun, cheeky vibe,” he said, whereas the TikTok page espouses the brand’s depth and “personality.”
“This is what we should aspire to—just be one of the good guys,” Seo said. “It’s not that hard. There are a lot of us out there.”
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