Company : HUL
Agency: Lowe Lintas
Brand Count : 252
I was delaying writing about this brand for the reason that I doubted whether I will be able to do justice to my favorite brand. An Icon for sure Axe is a success story that is so difficult to emulate. One can only marvel and enjoy.
Axe has got every thing perfect for its success, It got its segments correct, the targeting was exemplary and Positioning : something to drool for. And more over Luck was on its side.
Axe was born in France in the Year 1983. 24 years later, this brand is Unilever's Best selling brand worldwide. It has an iconic status in whichever market it has entered. It is also one of the rare brands which can boast of replicating its entire marketing mix across geographical boundaries. The campaigns that you see in India is what the entire world is watching. For those who propound Glocalisation , AXE is an exception.
Axe deo was launched in India during 1999. The brand launch was very quiet and theoretically the brand was having the strategy of Slow Skimming i.e High Price Low Promotion. Axe at that time was the leading men's deo brand in Europe and was popular in India in the Grey market ( available in duty paid shops) .HLL may have launched this brand inspired by the volume of Axe sold in the Grey market. At that time, the deo market was a nascent one with an estimated market size of Rs 72 crore. HLL had the brands Denim and Rexona and was ruling the market. Axe was priced at a premium above the Denim brand which was positioned as a male deo brand.
Axe initially was launched in the fragrance Java, Alaska and Atlantic. HLL did not bother to fine tune its Promotional mix to Indian market but just imported the promotions .... meaning, the company just ran the ads which was popular in the Europe and other markets. At that time , the product
was also imported from Europe. And IT CLICKED.... rest as they say is History...
Axe in 2002 was having a market share of over 35% and soon HLL phased out Denim brand to concentrate on this Star.
Axe is the naughtiest brand in the Indian market. The brand is targeted at male aged 16-25 . Internationally this brand targets male aged 15-25. I personally feel that it targets all 'Young at heart" naughty guys. The brand has its brand values of Cool, Fashionable and Stylish. And world over, the brand sticks to its core values. The biggest strength of this brand is the underlying message or the DNA which is that the brand users are High on Confidence and always for the Axe users, Girls Makes The First Move. I think the biggest competitive advantage of this brand is its complete monopoly over this brand proposition. All its campaigns revolve round this central theme of Seduction where Girl makes the first move.
I think it has lot of subliminal implications. The brand assumes that Men wants( Likes) to be Seduced . That feeling ( of being seduced) gives a big boost of self confidence to a man. Although many brands take this proposition, Axe just made it perfect.
I have seen lot of ads where girls are seen drooling over Hunks in Motorcycle or in Readymades, or even in Innerwears, but in most of the Axe ads, there are no Hunks, only very ordinary or even skinny kind of people getting assaulted by beautiful girls. That makes the brand more approachable. Had Axe used a Hunk, the promotions couldn't have been so effective. The brand managers were so wise that when they used a celebrity like Ben Affleck, They ensured that the brand is made approachable
See the TVC here : My Favorite Axe ad
Having said that, The males seen in Axe commercials are not Losers: the ads are careful to show them as confident ( in one way or other) or a better term will be self assured. That is ultimate execution.
The power of this Big Idea has ensured that Indian consumers lap up the foreign commercials without any hitch. I don't remember any India centric ad for Axe especially in Television. And Indian consumers are not complaining either.
Along with these , the brand also ensured that customers are constantly engaged with new fragrances and campaigns. In 2005, Axe had a high profile launch of its new fragrance CLICK and before that there was Axe Land campaign and followed by Axe-Academy then Axe Voodoo and the latest one Phenomenon. I have tried most of the fragrances and not all of them are good, but I try it because I like the brand. That is the power of brand.
Axe is one of the rare brands that has embraced new media to the maximum extent. The brand has started its Internet based marketing initiative in India with Axe Land which involved a virtual trip to the Axe world. Globally also this brand has lot of online initiatives which are almost always naughty.In UK the Axe is marketed as LYNX.Checkout the cool web initiatives of this brand :
Axe- feather
Axe Effect
Axe Phenomenon
and also a blog called Evan and Gareth
Not only the brand uses TVC's to its advantage, the print ads of Axe won several accolades in various ad events. The creatives run amok with the kind of flexibility that they get from the positioning.Besides Print, the brand also uses outdoors to its maximum impact. Axe is a classic example of 360 degree branding effort. Now Axe has a common message in over 70 countries where Unil
ever sells this brand. Iconic in a real sense.
One of the reports term the marketing strategy of Axe as " Adventurous Marketing" .That is true because its risky because the brand deals with Girls & Seduction. Not always every one may like the theme or the campaigns. In India especially there are self styled Cultural Policemen/Women who cries foul for anything and everything. It is really surprising that so far, Axe has escaped their AXE. That also shows that the ad agency is also careful about the concepts put across the Indian media.
While in a more liberal markets, Axe tests new levels of " Adventures" , here the brand plays really safe. It also ensures the campaigns run in Indian media is accepted because most often its the entire family who watches the TV.
I know I just have touched the tip of Marketing Iceberg called Axe.
For the axe fans, check out a blog dedicated to Axe at Axeads
Axe has got every thing perfect for its success, It got its segments correct, the targeting was exemplary and Positioning : something to drool for. And more over Luck was on its side.
Axe was born in France in the Year 1983. 24 years later, this brand is Unilever's Best selling brand worldwide. It has an iconic status in whichever market it has entered. It is also one of the rare brands which can boast of replicating its entire marketing mix across geographical boundaries. The campaigns that you see in India is what the entire world is watching. For those who propound Glocalisation , AXE is an exception.
Axe deo was launched in India during 1999. The brand launch was very quiet and theoretically the brand was having the strategy of Slow Skimming i.e High Price Low Promotion. Axe at that time was the leading men's deo brand in Europe and was popular in India in the Grey market ( available in duty paid shops) .HLL may have launched this brand inspired by the volume of Axe sold in the Grey market. At that time, the deo market was a nascent one with an estimated market size of Rs 72 crore. HLL had the brands Denim and Rexona and was ruling the market. Axe was priced at a premium above the Denim brand which was positioned as a male deo brand.
Axe initially was launched in the fragrance Java, Alaska and Atlantic. HLL did not bother to fine tune its Promotional mix to Indian market but just imported the promotions .... meaning, the company just ran the ads which was popular in the Europe and other markets. At that time , the product
was also imported from Europe. And IT CLICKED.... rest as they say is History...Axe in 2002 was having a market share of over 35% and soon HLL phased out Denim brand to concentrate on this Star.
Axe is the naughtiest brand in the Indian market. The brand is targeted at male aged 16-25 . Internationally this brand targets male aged 15-25. I personally feel that it targets all 'Young at heart" naughty guys. The brand has its brand values of Cool, Fashionable and Stylish. And world over, the brand sticks to its core values. The biggest strength of this brand is the underlying message or the DNA which is that the brand users are High on Confidence and always for the Axe users, Girls Makes The First Move. I think the biggest competitive advantage of this brand is its complete monopoly over this brand proposition. All its campaigns revolve round this central theme of Seduction where Girl makes the first move.
I think it has lot of subliminal implications. The brand assumes that Men wants( Likes) to be Seduced . That feeling ( of being seduced) gives a big boost of self confidence to a man. Although many brands take this proposition, Axe just made it perfect.
I have seen lot of ads where girls are seen drooling over Hunks in Motorcycle or in Readymades, or even in Innerwears, but in most of the Axe ads, there are no Hunks, only very ordinary or even skinny kind of people getting assaulted by beautiful girls. That makes the brand more approachable. Had Axe used a Hunk, the promotions couldn't have been so effective. The brand managers were so wise that when they used a celebrity like Ben Affleck, They ensured that the brand is made approachable
See the TVC here : My Favorite Axe ad
Having said that, The males seen in Axe commercials are not Losers: the ads are careful to show them as confident ( in one way or other) or a better term will be self assured. That is ultimate execution.
The power of this Big Idea has ensured that Indian consumers lap up the foreign commercials without any hitch. I don't remember any India centric ad for Axe especially in Television. And Indian consumers are not complaining either.
Along with these , the brand also ensured that customers are constantly engaged with new fragrances and campaigns. In 2005, Axe had a high profile launch of its new fragrance CLICK and before that there was Axe Land campaign and followed by Axe-Academy then Axe Voodoo and the latest one Phenomenon. I have tried most of the fragrances and not all of them are good, but I try it because I like the brand. That is the power of brand.
Axe is one of the rare brands that has embraced new media to the maximum extent. The brand has started its Internet based marketing initiative in India with Axe Land which involved a virtual trip to the Axe world. Globally also this brand has lot of online initiatives which are almost always naughty.In UK the Axe is marketed as LYNX.Checkout the cool web initiatives of this brand :
Axe- feather
Axe Effect
Axe Phenomenon
and also a blog called Evan and Gareth
Not only the brand uses TVC's to its advantage, the print ads of Axe won several accolades in various ad events. The creatives run amok with the kind of flexibility that they get from the positioning.Besides Print, the brand also uses outdoors to its maximum impact. Axe is a classic example of 360 degree branding effort. Now Axe has a common message in over 70 countries where Unil
ever sells this brand. Iconic in a real sense.One of the reports term the marketing strategy of Axe as " Adventurous Marketing" .That is true because its risky because the brand deals with Girls & Seduction. Not always every one may like the theme or the campaigns. In India especially there are self styled Cultural Policemen/Women who cries foul for anything and everything. It is really surprising that so far, Axe has escaped their AXE. That also shows that the ad agency is also careful about the concepts put across the Indian media.
While in a more liberal markets, Axe tests new levels of " Adventures" , here the brand plays really safe. It also ensures the campaigns run in Indian media is accepted because most often its the entire family who watches the TV.
I know I just have touched the tip of Marketing Iceberg called Axe.
For the axe fans, check out a blog dedicated to Axe at Axeads
The ad with Ben Affleck is one of the coolest commercials ever. I can watch it over and over again and cann't help smiling.
ReplyDeleteOne of the first things that I learned in graduate school in the US was how to format written text for better readability. Your posts have brought back some of those memories. I felt distracted from the content because of your style of formatting periods and commas in the text.
ReplyDeleteYou use one space between a period and the start of the next sentence. The rule of thumb in publishing is that there should be two spaces for better readability. For instance, instead of "... emulate. One ..." writing "... emulate. One ..." makes the text more readable. Are you using an automatic justifying tool that garbles your text?
Another common occurrence is text such as "... propound Glocalisation , AXE is ..." which is usually written as "... propound Glocalisation, AXE is ..." with no space between the comma and the word preceding it.
Your text will be much more readable if you follow such simple rules. You can find more such rules in any good book on writing. This comment is primarily for your benefit. You may choose not to display it if you wish.
Regards
Biswajit
Thanks Biswajit for your valuable suggestions. I will keep that in mind.
ReplyDeleteThanks Credit Thinker, You are very correct. This ad is never boring.
Fortunately, right now, I'm doing my undergraduate thesis about Axe.I'm lucky to find your blog site. I have one question so far, why they (unilever) use different name (lynx) for several markets rather than use "Axe" for all markets? If u dont mind, I'll have another questions next time..thank you Harish Biswajit
ReplyDelete"Unilever was unable to use Axe in UK and Ireland due to trademark problems so it was lanched as Lynx":
Deletehttp://www.slideshare.net/anafts/plan-marketing-axe
Thanks alot....I'm doing my MBA,I had to complete my marketing project on Axe. With no time in hand,I found it really difficult to get the right information but your article has saved my day....Thank you Evlyn D
ReplyDeleteHi, this is Ujjawal , i was searching about a good case study and your case study have helped me a lot.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
this answer is for harish biswajit
ReplyDeleteUnilever were unable to use the name Axe in the United Kingdom and Ireland due to trademark problems so it was launched as Lynx.
I agree Axe has done a great job internationally and in India, and holds top position in the category.But there are more lessons to learn going forward as more players are getting in and how to hold the turf..pl ref my blog: http://www.ohbrand.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteHiiiiiiii Sir your writing ROCKSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.......MISS colloge classes...thanks...Anurag Gupta
ReplyDeleteWould it be correct to say that today the Axe effect is not having an effect. The brand is loosing to other "sexier" brands like Wildstone and set wet. And while it created the category it has not really been able to manage the market evolution that is happening in India.
ReplyDeleteFor French reader, you can discovert the last campaign of Lynx (Axe) in my blog http://www.marketingdelamarque.fr/street-marketing-axe-ete/
ReplyDeleteFrom my part, Axe is one of the best example of efficient marketing strategy to raise his turn over on a market... Fun, Sexy, and loosers are the great deals to succeed
Ludo
Rightly wondered how it escaped the women's rights groups. The ads (along with similar ads of other brands) have now been taken off air because of a government directive..!
ReplyDeleteI disagree with the way adv has been done for AXE Deo. Company seems carelessness about moral impact of adv on minds of childs & others.
ReplyDeleteInitial strategy for positioning was commendable.
ReplyDeleteBut considering it's long term impact on the entire market, may be AXE would have started diluting its campaigns to also capture non-attracted audience (specially sector of youth who perceive Axe ads as offensive).
Hersh