Lil-lets has announced a £2m marketing campaign to promote  its latest refresh, which sees new packaging for its existing products and the launch of three new products – including ’teen towels’ for nine to 14-year olds.

It’s good to see a mainstream sanitary brand taking the initiative by moving its products and designs forward – something that in recent years has been largely restricted to more niche, premium brands such as Moxie.

Lil-lets has a strong heritage as the brand that aims to help teens become more comfortable with the changes taking place in their bodies, and it’s great to see it reclaiming that ground.

When it comes to innovation on the brand, the new offer for 9-14 year olds combines a discreet, smaller product with packaging that aims to introduce some ‘girl glamour’ to the younger end of the market, and potentially allows the brand to justify a higher price point – always helpful in a mature category.

Having said that, the brand may come under fire from some quarters if the teen range is openly positioned for 9 years upwards, despite the fact that the launch is presumably a response to biological fact rather than another attempt to sexualise tweens.

On the renovation side, introduction of no-rustle packaging will hopefully support the brand’s somewhat faded positioning as the discreet feminine choice, but Lil-lets will need to build on a good start if it’s to achieve the category rejuvenation it hopes for.

All in all, some fair first steps, but still a long way to go.

Whilst out one weekend recently engaging in customary revelries I was approached with the offer of a free “vodka and Russchian”. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth and thinking it churlish to refuse such an offer, I naturally accepted. When I asked whom to thank for such generosity, I was pointed in the direction of a mysterious looking chap dressed in a trench coat and hat described only as “the Russian.” The vodka and Russchian turned out to be a rather tasty twist on the standard vodka and tonic, imitating a popular way of serving vodka in its spiritual home.

So, full of excitement at my recent discovery and keen to show it off (I’d kept the bottle), I began parading it around the office the next Monday morning only to be told how it had been around for years and they’d known about it for ages and even our HR director used to quaff the stuff back when she was too young to know any better. With the wind taken out of my sails, I started to wonder: why hadn’t I heard about this before? How had I missed this very distinctive product from a market leading minerals brand?
 
I had been so excited though when I thought that I had been a part of a launch and had found something new. So it got me thinking; relaunching an existing product will not only re-alert consumers to a brand they’d forgotten about but may convince those who haven’t seen it before that it is an entirely new one without any of the expense of new product development. Admittedly this was a fairly minor promotion, but the interest generated far exceeded the outlay of dressing a promotions man up as a Russian spy and giving out a few free drinks.

We’ve all talked about the benefits of innovating our way out of a recession during the recent times of doom and gloom but what about renovation? Generate renewed interest in your brand with only a fraction of the cost.