Apparently Poise is thinking “light bladder leakage” sounds nicer than “incontinence”, and that framing its products as “feminine” will do better than as “geriatric”. They are probably correct.
I do know I ran into one problem discussed in the industry. The New York Times quotes market researcher Rob Walker:
“[T]he biggest challenge for the industry is that vast numbers of sufferers are too embarrassed to raise the problem of incontinence with their health practitioner, or worse, even buy available products at a retail outlet.”
Or, in my case, to realize they existed. I initially assumed that if you leaked at all, you needed full-on diapers, which of course would not be available in my size. It did not occur to me to even look for pads designed for stress incontinence. I ran across Poise pads by accident one day when the local Rite Aid was reorganizing stock.
To address that, Mr. Walker added, “the commercial opportunity here is for the big international hygiene players to humanize (or even Viagra-ize) incontinence, making products as accessible, consumer-friendly and embarrassment-free as, for example, women’s sanitary protection.”
I first wrote about stress incontinence a few years ago in quite a bit of detail. I haven’t been finding the “wings”, so I’ve been wearing “moderate” pads. I will probably try the new “hourglass” shape. FYI, Poise also has samples and coupons available at their site.
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