• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, May 11, 2016

The Skinny Cow’s pink packages were designed to appeal to women seeking delicious treats with fewer calories and less fat than standard fare.

But plenty of guys enjoy them, too. In fact, many female fans say they’re often left high and dry, because the men in their lives, shy about eating something perceived as “unmanly,” sneak the products out of the freezer. 

“We know that women are the predominant purchasers of Skinny Cow, and that has been at the core of our marketing campaigns to date,” Kevin George, director of marketing-snacks portfolio at Nestle Dreyer's Ice Cream, tells Marketing Daily. “However, through customer feedback and social chatter we began hearing, more and more, that once the product was brought home, the men in the household were eating the Skinny Cow ice cream…essentially ‘stealing’ Skinny Cow from the ladies in their life.”

This insight has inspired an elaborate, tongue-in-cheek marketing effort. 

The brand has created a limited edition of its new Chocolatey Dipped Ice Cream Sandwiches boxed in special, blue “Skinny Cow for Him” packaging. These are the exact same sandwiches being sold in the brand’s standard pink packages through Skinny Cow’s normal retail distribution channels, but in a “manlier” package – and only through one special promotional platform. 

Between May 24 and June 4, female fans will be invited to register their names and email addresses on a dedicated microsite in order to request a free “Skinny Cow For Him” package. Flash giveaways of the limited number of packages will be held on the site each Tuesday during the promotional period, on a first-come, first-served basis. 

According to George, Nestle currently has no plans to launch  Skinny Cow for Him as an actual product; the brand is just using the special packages “as a fun way to bring our customers’ feedback to life.”

The microsite will also feature results (including an infographic) of a survey in which men and women were asked about the various types of things men “steal” from women.

In addition, female YouTube influencers and their husbands will create four original videos that showcase items the men steal from their wives. 

Also, the brand will feature a video (15- and 40-second versions) about the Skinny Cow for Him promotion, with callouts about the microsite and the giveaways, on paid Facebook and on Skinny Cow’s YouTube channel (as well as on the promotional microsite itself). 

Skinny Cow will also work with social media influencers to drive awareness of the promotion.

The brand’s recent messaging puts more stress on “indulgence” and taste than calories or fat content (a message that might, intentionally or not, attract more of those stealthy men, as well as more women). However, Skinny Cow remains committed to delivering products that are “everyday indulgences” with fewer calories and less fat than full-fat competitors, according to Nestle. 

“This commitment is in our name, Skinny Cow, so we are putting less emphasis on this attribute in our marketing messaging,” a brand representative explains.