IIM KOZHIKODE

AXE DEODORANT COMMUNICATION STRATEGY

Integrated Marketing Communications Group 4, Section B Anshul Kumar (PGP/15/071) | Amber Yadav (PGP/15/068) | Arnab Guha Mallik (PGP/15/074) | Darshan Sulia (PGP/15/081) | Ashutosh Vikram (PGP/15/210)

IMC, Sec B, Group 4

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Contents
Objective of the Study ............................................................................................................................ 3 Secondary Data Analysis ........................................................................................................................ 3 Brand Positioning of AXE ........................................................................................................................ 3 Target Audience: ..................................................................................................................................... 4 Market Share: ......................................................................................................................................... 4 Brand Image ............................................................................................................................................ 5 Effectiveness Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 5 Product .................................................................................................................................................... 5 Product Offerings .................................................................................................................................... 6 Previous Campaigns of Axe: Analysis .................................................................................................... 6 Axe- Do It Dude Campaign ...................................................................................................................... 9 Consumer behaviour and insights ....................................................................................................... 12 Psychographics...................................................................................................................................... 12 Media Strategy ..................................................................................................................................... 15 Communication Plan for Axe: The next stage ..................................................................................... 17 Creative Plan 1: The Unhooking Code .................................................................................................. 17 Creative Plan 2: The Mating Game ....................................................................................................... 18 Creative Plan 3: Be a part of the marathon .......................................................................................... 18 Creative 4: Are you the one? ................................................................................................................ 19 Creative 5: The Number Game ............................................................................................................. 19

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Product Chosen: Axe Deodorant Product Category: Deodorant/Body Spray

Objective of the Study

To understand the consumer insight of Axe Deodorant and develop a new communication strategy for the deodorant based on the same

Secondary Data Analysis Brand Positioning of AXE

Position in the Competitive Landscape: Insight into Consumers Decisions

High Involvement

High Intellect

High Emotion

Low Involvement

Low Intellect

Low Emotion

AXE products fall in quadrant 3 of the Foot, Cone, & Belding graph: The Habit Formation quadrant (do think feel). It is close to the division between intellect and emotion (quadrant 4) because the campaign message is strongly association with the promise of sex, which is usually considered a self-gratifying desire (messaging emphasizes an instant gratification associated with the use of the product). AXE is a consumer packaged goods that is inexpensive (low involvement) and a necessity that requires little thought in purchasing (low intellect) and minimal emotional investment. AXE wants its consumers to buy the product (impulsively based on the advertising messaging), use it and think about it (whether the product delivers what the message promises), and then react to it. The biggest strength for AXE is the underlying message viz. the brand users are High on Confidence. It emphasizes on the fact that for all AXE users it is the Girls Who Make the First Move.

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Axes biggest competitive advantage is its complete monopoly over its brand proposition. All its campaigns revolve round the central theme of Seduction where Girl makes the first move. Thus AXE has effectively positioned itself as a brand that is cool and fashionable and wearing it makes you irresistibly attractive and gives a confidence for men to mate with women.

Geographic Urban Semi- Urban

Demographic Age:16-35 Gender : Male Income Group : Middle & Upper middle class

Psychographic Lifestyle : Outdoor Fashion Oriented Trendy

Behavioural
Occasion : Regular Usage Rate: Medium Using pattern : Regular

Target Audience:
The primary target audience is men age 16 to 35 that are in high school, college, or are young professionals with no specific income level. The primary locations targeted are on school campuses and in office environments, with advertisements generally directed toward white males in either urban or suburban areas of residence. AXE targets single men with overactive libidos who are concerned with their physical appearance and image, and are fond of womanizing, partying, working out, fighting, drinking, and having lots of sex. Whether they are already a womanizer, or are just coming into their peeking sexual desire, they believe that women are suckers for good-smelling men (and are nave enough to believe that a product alone is enough to get a girl). AXE uses a club like appeal of sexually successful men as a reference group to connect with its audience that is image conscious, spends a lot of money on personal-care products, are avid television viewers, follow fashion fads, buy on impulse, response to humour, and attend to advertisements.

Market Share:
Axe dominates the deodorant market with a 14% market share with revenue of 1300 crores.
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Brand Image
If one uses AXE, he will get lots of women who would woo him anytime, anywhere, anyplace, regardless of who he is. The aggressively run ad, The AXE Effect: It Can Happen Anywhere illustrates the animalistic attraction a women have towards the scent of AXE; self-declared as scientifically formulated to make you smell more attractive to members of the female persuasion. The use of dirty humour and racy sexual innuendos also helps AXE grab and retain their target audience. AXE plays on the fantasies of males, breaking through the clutter and noise of other advertisements and bolstering its brand image. The reason AXE has found so much success with its advertising campaign is because of extensive research conducted on their target audience. The young male population is the hardest demographic to reach they avoid most advertisements conveyed through non-personal print and broadband media, and are usually unresponsive to those they do see. AXE unlocked the secret to reaching their target demographic interactive media and video gaming. AXE considers its website information for men, providing ample amounts of compelling entertainment on the site to create a deeper bond with their audience, involving them through gaming activities they enjoyed so much. The imaging and messaging throughout all aspects of the AXE campaign are consistent.

Effectiveness Analysis
AXE utilizes a multi-media, comprehensive campaign to establish strong branding of their company and products. Sex, women, success, and desire should all come to mind when a man thinks of AXE. The internet, television, print, and poster ads all convey the consistent message that drives AXE brand awareness, image branding, and brand equity (valuable reputation as the leading body product for young males) by motivating audiences to believe in their message and take action.

Product
VARIETY OF AXE DEOs: Axe offers a wide range of fragrances and flavours in their deodorants. Some variants of axe are:-voodoo, twist, phoenix, click, dark temptation, dimension etc..

QUALITY: All the variants of axe deodorants are tested dermatologically and have no kind of side effects on the skin. It offers a fragrance which has long lasting effect.
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DESIGN: The bottle of the AXE deodorant looks sturdier and it has twisting top which is quite unique in design compared to its competitors. PACKAGING: The axe deodorant available in a stylish bottle, it is the primary container of the axe. There is no secondary package for the axe deodorant rather than its labelling of Lynx in foreign market. The packaging is done in a way that it can be easily recognized due to the choice of bright colours for its graphics. The packaging of axe itself has created brand for it.

Product Offerings
Pricing has been done considering the middle and higher income group. New , Continually advancing / striving Expanding in to soaps and talc segments to provide even more male grooming needs

Previous Campaigns of Axe: Analysis

Axe Deodorant Confessional 1999 Axe Deodorant Wedding Cake 2000

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Axe Deodorant Snow White 2003

Axe Deodorant Britney 2004

Axe Deodorant Fallen Angel 2006

In an attempt to keep Axe brand proposition fresh, interesting and relevant, it launched various new variants like dark temptations and many other. Axe new variant drive the business by: Attracting new users to the brand Maintaining the brands price premium Growing volume and value sales of Axe deodorant products

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In 2008 Axe launched the most successful global hit in its history. It was called Dark Temptation. It was driven by a strong fragrance story: That the chocolate fragrance would make guys smell good enough to eat Axe Dark temptation- 2008

In 2009 and 2010 two less successful variants were launched: Instinct and Twist. Instinct dramatized the leather attributes of the fragrance, helping guys find their inner cave man. Twist dramatized the dual changing fragrance attributes of the product; promising girls would 'never tire of how guys smelt'. Axe Instinct-2009

Axe Excite Film 2011 Globally, angels are icons of innocence, purity, wholesomeness and 'virtue'. The concept of Angels provided a universal relevant visual language. Angel is seen as symbol of purity across all religion.

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The deodorant was named Excite. It was supposed to be a fragrance that would excite even the nicest of 'nice girls' to forgo their virtue at the exposure of the AXE effect. Axe ad after US Presidential Elections. With 55% of the female vote, a second term was a definite. Well done Mr Obama!

Axe- Do It Dude Campaign

Brand owner: Unilever Agency: LoweOpen Brand: Axe

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Country: Thailand Channels used: Online video, social media Media budget: Up to 500k About the Campaign: Do It Dude was unique social media campaign launched by Axe to increase the level of active engagement of it fan both online as well offline. Axe had about 10% market share in Thailand, thus it was very important for the company to come up with something unique. Axe has been positioned as someone who helps males in mating game. The major issue was the fact that people loved its commercials but there was no engagement, moreover the image was easily replicable. Objectives: To be number 1 from 5th in brand engagement by the end of 2011 Increase the number of fans on Facebook Increase level of engagement

Concept: People are confident while chatting on Facebook and other platforms but when it comes to real life situation males were not very confident. Implementation Axe created a real guy- Dude. Dude lives online on the Axe Facebook page and he is been shown as a guy who is flirtatious and does unthinkable and never gets discouraged.

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People of Facebook were asked to share their pick-up tricks with other dudes:

The most interesting tricks were actually implemented by the Dude in the real world. Axe team used to secretly follow Dude and film his attempts. This helped users to know what worked and what not.

In the last step Dude shared the results. Between May-July 2011, the campaign helped in bringing an incremental of US$ 485,000 to the business compared to the previous year. The campaign has huge impact amongst the youth; people started wearing t-shirts with Dude symbol.
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Consumer behaviour and insights Psychographics

AXE appeals to the innate need for sex, attributed to the acquired need for esteem, prestige, power, and desirability. AXE has tapped into a sensitive area of the male brain by doing this, as sex is often seen as a necessity for young males. AXE, however, is a personal hygiene product, not a sex product. By establishing a correlation between hygiene and sex, AXE has positioned itself as the facilitator of the need for sex, making the product a necessity rather than a want for consumers; the first thing that comes to mind when you think of AXE is not hygiene, but sex. AXE seems to have asked them, why do men use deodorants? And answered with: to get women. Men buy deodorant because of a social expectation that has gained importance to the male image. It is more important than ever for men to look and smell as clean and attractive as women, as current society has placed an increasing value on physical appearance. When men buy deodorant, AXE wants them to recognize their product and recall their advertisements, remembering how this product will help them achieve that image they desire. AXE is a lifestyle product, and there is a strong AXE market that craves that lifestyle. LOCATION If AXE customers are to get a lot of ladies because of the product, then they need to be somewhere with a high population density where there are a lot of ladies to be had. School campuses and office environments are the most effective locations to target. Urban and suburban communities with high population density, especially surrounding centres of commerce, provide a large consumer base of young men (in college or joining the workforce).

MOTIVE: A single man that frequently dates and parties (or has the desire to do so) has more of a motivation to buy AXE than a married man. ACTIVITIES/ OPINIONS/ INTERESTS: Hobbies of the AXE man include womanizing, partying, drinking, fighting, working out, and having lots of sex. They are social, and would much rather go out to round up some women than stay at home and watch TV that is if they can tear themselves away from their videogames. Those in the target audience that do not already live this lifestyle, desire it, and AXE is their way of achieving it. Men who use AXE are more interested in having a good time with the ladies than other social issues in the world (a reflection of intellectual capabilities). The men are single (or see themselves as a risk-taker), live alone (or with roommates), go out often, and find numerous women when they go out.

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PERSONALITY: There are different personalities of AXE consumers Men that are already womanizers will benefit from AXE because it will help them continue their lust for women and help them in their endeavours. Men that are toward the younger target age are just coming into their peeking sexual desire and AXE will help them develop their style by attracting the ladies. LIFSTYLES: The lifestyle of AXEs male target audience is single living; life revolves around finding a new woman (or two) every day. Cleanliness is important: women like to get AXE men dirty, so they have to shower a lot because thats how dirty boys get clean. They do not need to spend money on their women because AXE is all a woman needs to find them desirable. AXE makes its man playful, smooth, debonair, and lusted after regardless of whether he was so to begin or not. Men who never thought they were capable of getting women can now consider it an option, because AXE does the work for them.

THE VALS SYSTEM: AXE consumers most fit into the action-oriented, Strivers and Experiencers category. They are image conscious, spend a lot of money on personal-care products, are avid television viewers, follow fashions and fads, buy on impulse, respond to humour, and attend to advertisements. The target audience is in the lower or upper middle class. The consumers have lofty goals, as they are worthy of all the sex and women they are going to get with the scent of AXE The social norm and value for the market is that sex is good and promiscuous sex is even better. The more women a man can get is a sign of masculinity and gender domination.

Target Audience: For Young men like to womanize who desire a life of sexual promiscuity care about their image without wanting to try too hard

Dissatisfaction: The current market alternatives for AXE are other personal hygiene products, most of which have been around for many years. While AXE offers a complete line of grooming products (deodorant, body wash, and body spray), most male hygienic products are traditionally boring, coming in the form of deodorant or cologne spray. Few men care about the particular smell of their grooming products, and even fewer know what scent women will like; they do know, however, that women dont like it when they smell bad. This is one reason why AXE has found so much success the company comes right out and directly says that women like
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the smell of their products, in fact, they more than like it, women shamelessly lust over the smell! Men wear deodorants to smell nice (as courtesy to anyone around them, male or female), however the larger picture is that men care about their image and grooming habits in order to impress women and hopefully attract one to come home with them. AXE is for men who desire something superior from their personal grooming products, and it is no secret that sex is the ultimate male desire. Those who are dissatisfied with traditional, simple deodorants or standard shower soaps colognes that are too sophisticated or stiff traditional hygiene product that only clean or cover up; dont deliver more tired of not getting woman to lust after them product that leave them unnoticed by ladies

Position in the Competitive Landscape: Insight into Consumers Decisions AXE products fall in quadrant 3 of the Foot, Cone, & Belding graph: The Habit Formation quadrant (do think feel). It is close to the division between intellect and emotion (quadrant 4) because the campaign message is strongly association with the promise of sex, which is usually considered a selfgratifying desire (messaging emphasizes an instant gratification associated with the use of the product). AXE is a consumer packaged product that is inexpensive (low involvement) and a necessity that requires little thought in purchasing (low intellect) and minimal emotional investment. The primary target audience is men age 14 to 34 that are in high school, college, or are young professionals with no specific income level. The primary locations targeted are on school campuses and in office environments, with advertisements generally directed toward white males in either urban or suburban areas of residence. AXE targets single men with overactive libidos who are concerned with their physical appearance and image, and are fond of womanizing, partying, working out, fighting, drinking, and having lots of sex. Given the primary target age group, college men and men just entering the workforce are the most viable consumers. High school boys also fall in AXEs target audience, however, they are not a primary market as sex is more difficult to acquire

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Media Strategy
The media mix for the AXE campaign is television, print, and internet. i. Television: Television is the most effective medium in the AXE campaign for increasing the reach of the advertisement messaging. The primary message to convey is the lifestyle and image the product promises. Because of televisions closeness to reality and ability to demonstrate the brand personality humour, lust, edgy, alternative, youthful, playful it is the most effective for implementing the brand identity. Television has broad reach and can be dramatically intrusive, engaging viewers with high impact messages. The high production quality increases the entertainment value of the advertisements, as well as makes the stylistic ads attractive and recognizable, helping them to break through the clutter and remain on top-ofmind awareness (high impact). Though costly, these benefits and the ability for mass reach and pervasiveness make television advertising a wise investment. Cable TV is exceptionally beneficial as it is highly targetable. Print: Print is a highly effective medium for the AXE campaign as the superior print quality helps deliver the brand message and image through attractive advertisements. Readers/viewers are generally involved and interested, and print vehicles such as magazines have long issue life and pass-along readership rates. The long lead times and limited two dimensional messages are not drawbacks as this brand has consistent messaging that is not time bound. Also, print allows for high market selectivity to communicate the message, essential for such a specified target audience. Internet: AXE utilizes a website as the internet component of advertising. It blurs the distinction between advertising and entertainment, as the website is highly interactive and more of a gaming source with AXE products as the characters. It is the most effective way for AXE to interact with consumers in the target market. AXE also has a strong share of voice online.

ii.

iii.

Media Plan Media Vehicles: National Media Television commercial ads Print magazine and poster ads Internet website

Media Used (Media Mix) i. Magazines: Consumer magazines with specific demographic, psychographic and geographic audiences that match that of AXEs audience; monthly or weekly circulation:
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ii. iii.

Sports Illustrated (circulation: 3.32 million/ week) one ad/month Maxim Magazine (circulation: 4.3 million/ month) one ad/month ESPN Magazine (circulation: 1.7 million/ bi-weekly) one ad/month

Posters on the street - reach depends on traffic in that area Cable TV: Cartoon Network 4 ads/month Star Cricket 3 ads/month Ten Sports 4 ads/month M TV 3 ads/month ESPN - 3 ads/month

iv.

AXE advertisements appear at carefully planned times in order to maximize the effects of the messaging and reach the target audience when and where they are most receptive. The internet site is a constant reference for AXE users or potential users to learn more about the products and brand image (or just be entertained). Print advertisements generally appear once in each magazine, and poster print ads are hung in areas of high traffic in urban cities or on college campuses. Television advertisements are run in prime access, prime time, or late night day parts. These commercials are run on the television programs the target audience will be watching almost all programming on the networks advertising AXE ads are viewed by the target audience, so the specific television program is less important than the network used to advertise on. Young males tend to watch any/all of the network television channels listed; thusly the time of day is the most important factor (when they are watching). The ad size of print advertisements in magazines is one full page ad (usually one per magazine). The length of AXE broadcast commercials is 30 seconds. Day parts Prime Access Mon -Fri 7:30pm to 8:00pm Prime Time Mon -Sat 8:00pm to 11:00pm Sun 7:00pm to 11:00pm Late Night Mon-Sun 11:30pm to 1:00am

v.

vi.

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Communication Plan for Axe: The next stage

Carrying on with the theme of AXE as designed to be irresistible to women, invoking an animalistic attraction that makes them desperate for sex anytime, anywhere, anyplace and that it provides men with an image of desirability and success while delivering a lifestyle of sexual power that every man craves, we suggest the following communication creatives for the next set of advertisement The derived insights for Axe on the basis of the study done for the project suggests that for the urban male, it is the mating game (getting laid with a woman) and for a semi-urban audience , it is the numbers game (the number of girls that a guy has surrounding him). The creative briefs suggested below revolves around the theme suggested and the insights drawn from our study and research

Creative Plan 1: The Unhooking Code

Rationale: This creative appeals men on the sexual desire of seeing a woman naked and subsequently have sex. The ad suggests the target audience that the new unhooking code for making a woman naked is The Axe Effect with the tagline, New Unhooking Code: The Axe Effect and appeals by saying, Get Yours now

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Creative Plan 2: The Mating Game

Rationale: The mating game is one of the insights that we derived for the axe urban audience as a result of our study. This ad talks about the mating game with the guy in the ad taking to the target saying, I am game, are you? suggesting that he has found girls to play the game of sex with the Axe Effect

Creative Plan 3: Be a part of the marathon

Rationale: Axe Girls running behind the guy with the Axe effect is an old theme. Here we repackage it by using contestants from the miss world pageant creating an appeal of having the prettiest of the lot to run after you with the Axe Effect and asks the target to be a part of the marathon with the girls

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Creative 4: Are you the one?

Rationale: A sexy female asking the target if is he is the one that she has been looking for all this while. It directly appeals the target to use Axe and be the one that sexy girls look for in order to get laid

Creative 5: The Number Game

Rationale: This creative talks about the number game and can be targeted at the semi-urban audience with the powerful pitch of letting the semi-urban guy to decide and attract as many females as he likes with the Axe Effect. This is in relation to the semi-urban insight of Axe on the number game
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References Audience Analysis (AXE bodyspray): "jstonewall.com/axeaudience.html" Euromonitor database http://thisisnotadvertising.wordpress.com/2011/11/07/15-years-of-axe-effect-the-worldsmost-sexist-advertising-campaign/ http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2009/axe-instinct-the-power-of-leather-curves/ www.warc.com http://www.thefrisky.com/2012-08-21/headless-pair-of-boobs-romanced-by-cousin-itt-anaxe-commercial/ http://www.canneslions.com/resources/downloads/Grand-Prix-2011-submission.pdf http://www.iaauae.org/media-files/2007/09/09/20070909_IAA-InterAd-XII-Case-Brief-f-.pdf http://www.business-standard.com/india/news/can-axe-retain-its-effect/415654/

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