Old Spice has been a long standing global brand of cosmetics for men. Their range includes after-shave lotion, lather shaving cream, talcum powder, shampoos and hair cream. In India the first and most successful product launched was after-shave lotion.
In the year 1986, the market share of Old Spice products in India was as follows:
- After-shave lotion – 65%
- Lather shaving cream – 9%
- Talcum powder – 1%
- Shampoo trace
- Hair cream trace
Colfax Lab. Ltd. The manufacturers had been marketing the products in the west through departmental stores. They planned a strategy to boost their products sale in India in 1987 and decided to reduce reliance on after-shave lotion and promote other products as well, as they had found there was good market for other products too.
Shampoo: As Colfax had only one type of shampoo, whereas competitors had several types, they decided to lie low on this product.
Talcum powder: As talcum powder was purchased mostly by women, and Old Spice was a brand for men, the sale was restricted. Hence it was decided to promote lather shaving cream along with after-shave lotion as the two products complemented each other.
A market survey gave the following figures of use of cosmetics by men:
- Shaving cream is used by 94% men
After-shave lotion by 79% - Hair cream by 33%
Talcum powder by 86% - Shampoo by 63%\
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Advertising Plan
Advertising budget was not enough for undertaking a full-fledged multi-product campaign. After-shave lotion to be the umbrella product and from 1985 the Surfer Ad campaign was launched. The advertisement gives a masculine Macho image to the product. It gave a fillip to the after-shave lotion and had marginal impact on other product sales. 40 towns with 70% business were selected for the campaign. TV was taken as the primary medium. Product differentiation was through package size, with introduction of 50 ml pack with atomiser.
Objectives of the advertising plan were to increase awareness of the product in customer’s minds and encourage trial usage of lather shaving cream. Strategy was to keep the brand personality of lather shaving cream same as that of aftershave lotion, that of a masculine macho man and gradually increase focus on lather shaving cream without decreasing importance of after-shave lotion.
Since the lather shaving cream was a superior product as compared to other shaving creams, keeping advertisements of both the products, lather shaving cream and aftershave lotion consistent, improved the brand image of both the products.
The product was targeted towards 25 plus men with income of 10,000 per month. Research had shown that as the brand image is most important, brand character had to be clearly defined too.
Old Spice man is adventurous with a devil-may-care attitude. His activities and sports have a touch of danger. He thrives on risks and women pine for him. Creative strategy lead to making of the Polo film, horses symbolising the machos in men, who are irresistibly attractive to the elitist women.
Polo is intrinsically adventurous and full of risks. Medium had to be elitist i.e. TV which provides the following:
- Maximum excitement to brand for large target audience.
- High reach
Quick building of sales - Cost effective
Three spots a month were given of 20 seconds duration on the national network.
Old Spice brand has remained one of the most respected brands worldwide. In 1988 lather shaving cream advertisement was among top 10 advertisements in the world