OMG! More Old Spice Talk!
This afternoon, Duncan and I were talking about the insanely hot little Old Spice campaign that is going right now, and it led to our discussing whether or not this viral success will be reflected in actual increased sales of the product. This led to our disagreeing about whether or not it is easier to re-position a brand, or to create a new brand.
Specifically, if you were P&G and had Old Spice, would you ditch it and start over, or would you try and re-create it?
Obviously Old Spice has had some well documented success in actually turning the brand around, so this particular example isn’t the best one, but it’s the current topic of discussion.
ANYWAYS, I was reading some older articles (pre-current campaign) about P&G’s efforts to re-position the Old Spice brand, and I thought this article was interesting. Specifically, how the Wieden & Kennedy used the perceived weakness (the brand is old and tired) as a strength against the new and hipper AXE line of products from Unilever.
Research aimed at the target consumer found something unexpected: the Old Spice brand’s legacy was a benefit rather than a burden. The reason was that younger consumers tend to seek out venerable products they perceive as cool because they are authentic; examples include Converse sneakers and Lee jeans.
“Previous generations loved Old Spice and had a more emotional attachment to it,” said Monica Taylor, an art director at Wieden & Kennedy who is one of two creative directors on the account. “I remember my dad using it; it was such a deep, rich brand.”
Mark Fitzloff, a copywriter at Wieden & Kennedy who is the other creative director on the account, chimed in: “If you put Nikes on your feet, you’re making a statement. If you’re using Old Spice, you’re not. Procter wanted to see if they could change that.”
“Our timing was good because this is a moment when everyone appreciates authenticity, when retro is not necessarily a bad word,” Mr. Fitzloff said. “So we can say, ‘You can either be authentic or trendy.’ ”
That also helps Old Spice, which has been around for decades, to sharpen its differentiation from Axe, which Unilever introduced in the United States only four years ago.
“They have a clean slate,” Ms. Taylor said of the Axe products, which also include fragrances, deodorants and body washes, “but they have had to invent a personality.”
To underscore authenticity for Old Spice, the campaign gives a prominent role to the brand’s original trappings and trade dress, including the cursive script logo, the clipper ship from the fragrance bottles and the vintage whistled commercial jingle. But they are treated playfully rather than reverentially, in a manner Ms. Taylor described as an “inside-the-joke feeling.”
For example, a print ad for Old Spice fragrance, featuring a 1968 photograph of the actress Faye Dunaway sprawled out before a roaring fire, declares, “If your grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist.”
We could argue forever about whether or not repositioning is easier or harder than starting fresh, but there are probably lots of good examples to support both arguments and good justifications for each approach.
