by Gwynn Guilford
Jason Feifer unpacks Axe's marketing strategy, which has been incredibly successful:
Axe may seem frivolous, a brand defined by a decade of ads showing large-chested women lusting over the men who wear it. And yet, if this were just a case of "sex sells," Axe’s siren call would be easy to replicate. It isn’t. Axe, which is owned by Unilever, is a $2.5 billion global brand with relentless growth (retail sales rose 13.6% from 2010 to 2011). Its success is largely the result of a sophisticated, cutting-edge marketing machine that constantly monitors youth culture’s subtle shifts so as to stay hot on the hormone trail. The Unilever product came to dominate the now $5 billion U.S. men’s body-spray market in 2007, only five years after entering it. It currently owns a 72% share of the body-spray category, 58 points higher than its nearest competitor, Old Spice. Procter & Gamble tried to keep up but couldn’t; one copycat, Tag, folded in 2010.
The current strategy:
"We talked to some of the more progressive kids and they were laughing at Axe," says Emma Cookson, chairman of BBH in New York, the agency that took over Axe in 1995. "So we said, 'You have to stop saying it’s a magic potion, like a fine fragrance that just totally transforms the moment. Don’t take yourself so seriously.' "
BBH reformulated the pitch: It became (wink, wink) a magic potion that (nudge, nudge) totally transforms the moment. And that laid the groundwork for today’s metamorphosis, with ads so cartoonish that guys and girls are expected to enjoy them together. "Axe is deliberately not telling the truth, so they’re being truthful about being untruthful. And there’s an honesty there that this generation really relates to," says psychologist Kit Yarrow, who studied teen purchases for her book Gen Buy.
Feifer highlights the recent Axe ad above, which "actually gives a female protagonist a name and identity" and calls it "unprecedented."
The Dish 