Old Spice Campaign - Case Study Example

Paper 3 Introduction “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” is a campaign by fragrance maker Old Spice, which features former Football player Isaiah Mustafa shirtless in a number of locations, such as on a tropical beach, in the shower, on horseback, and on a yacht. This campaign was first launched in order to market the Red Zone after Hours Body Wash, although it was expanded subsequently to include some of Old Spice’s other products due to the initial ads’ successes. While Old Spice products are targeted at men, this particular campaign was targeted at female viewers as Old Spice determined that the purchase decision-making for home products was made by females, including for male members of the household. The entire campaign was mainly centered on Isaiah Mustafa, a former Football player who is referred to in the campaign as the ‘Old Spice Man’. Mustafa addresses himself to the audience in rapid-fire and confident monologues in promoting Old Spice products and their benefits. As Mustafa recites the monologues, he goes through different costumes, locations, activities, and extraordinary situations in an uninterrupted take as he maintains eye contact constantly with his audience in a nonchalant way. Mustafa and Old Spice capitalized on the popularity of these ads by releasing numerous videos online, which featured the former in-character. Mustafa also responded through social media to the videos, for example on Twitter and Facebook. However, the campaign came to an end in 2011 after reaching its peak without addressing several important issues. These were where the consumers wanted the campaign to take them, how to keep their audience and fans passionate and engaged about Old Spice, and how to leverage the success of the campaigns to make it integral to the brand. Proposal for a New Campaign or New Idea The most significant element of the success gained by the Old Spice campaign was the acting by Isaiah Mustafa, whose masculine, attractive character was appealing to the campaigns mainly female target market. Unsurprisingly, hostility and outrage met Old Spice’s decision to replace Mustafa, especially as the target market had become deeply attached to him. Instead, Old Spice should have included a woman alongside Mustafa who was equally humorous and original in order to capture the male segment as well. Rather than replacing Mustafa, this new profile would be a supplement of the previous campaign, while also providing Old Spice with the opportunity to appreciate female fans publicly. The new campaign would be aimed at challenging Mustafa’s female fans to become an ‘Old Spice Girl’ through online proposal submissions, specifically by uploading their own videos on YouTube and Instragram. Old Spice would then nominate ten females who fans would vote on to become the girl next to Mustafa in a new campaign, this time through Facebook. In turn, Old Spice would have the opportunity to introduce a fresh character without alienating the dedicated fans, while also giving the female fans a sense of belonging towards the new commercial as they would be directly involved in the new commercial. The previous Old Spice commercials have already identified the importance of the female segment in rejuvenating the company’s waning influence and sales. Indeed, 60% of grooming products used by men are purchased by women, while women are also influential in the acceptance of grooming products by men. Considering this, a new campaign should display an exaggerated perfect couple, in keeping with the original campaign that involves an exaggerated perfect man. The tagline for the new campaign will be Old Spice Lady Meets Old Spice Man. The Target Group Women are the target group for this new campaign and there are several things that a marketer targeting this group should know. Indeed, in marketing to the female segment, Kraft and Weber (2012) notes that it is risky to use a one-size-fits-all approach, although there are several generalizations that can be made about the segment. The first one is that the female segment prefers to build relationships, which means that the marketer would have to use personalization tools and gather marketing intelligence in order to use specific messages that target female consumers. Negative campaigns do not work for the female segment and, as a result, any campaign targeting women should give them positive reasons to purchase their products (Kraft & Weber, 2012). In addition, this market segment tends to shop around prior to making their purchasing decision, while they are also sensitive to stereotyping that makes women subservient to men. Moreover, campaigns that target the female segment should not go to extremes since the segment wants a product that caters to their holistic needs, rather than only focusing on the way in which they differ from their male counterparts (Raman, 2012). The affluence of baby boomer women, born between 1946 and 1964, means that they wield more purchasing power compared to other female segments and this is a portion of the market that no marketer should ignore. This target group made investments over the ‘boom’ years of the US economy and have successful careers, which makes them the most financially empowered female segment. Within this segment, the highest priority in making a purchase involves their experience and memories, while they are also more discerning than other segments and expect superior product quality (Raman, 2012). Therefore, Old Spice will have to sell their products as an experience for these women to have control the grooming aspect of their men’s lives. Theoretical Basis for New Idea’s Effectiveness The incongruity-resolution theory is the basis for this new campaign, in which incongruity is defined as the relationship present between elements of an idea, event, object, and social expectation (Galloway, 2009). An event is considered incongruous is the arrangement of individual elements of an idea or event are not compatible with the expected or normal pattern. In this case, shower wash for men should be a strictly masculine affair but the Old Spice girl is in control of what the Old Spice man uses in the shower. This theory is essentialist in nature because it attempts to offer sufficient and necessary conditions for specific phenomena to happen, especially so as to define the phenomenon’s essence. Such an approach will be grounded in the assumption that the important elements in the humorous advertisement and its situation is incongruous, which should surprise the audience (Galloway, 2009). While the female market segment may expect some specific features on the basis of their earlier experiences under similar conditions and situations, the advertisement will evoke situations that are not in compliance with the expectations of the female audience. So as to be humorous, however, the context of the situation should be non-threatening and safe and, in this case, there is nothing threatening about making women deciding on the shower wash used by their men (Galloway, 2009). Immediately the audience detects that the ad has incongruence, she begins to interpret the situation through a number of steps. Initially, the ad would present an obvious meaning that would not make sense to the woman in the shower wash context. It is only when information or knowledge provided earlier in the advertisement, such as the Old Spice lady meeting the Old Spice man, will this situation be resolved and considered humorous (Galloway, 2009). Message Appeal, Speakers, and Channel used The new campaign will use emotional appeals to humor and sex. Such emotional appeals can be used to build feelings of intrigue and confidence in the Old Spice brand, reinforce its value, and to promote a sense of urgency for women to take charge of how their men smell by buying them Old Spice shower wash (Taute et al, 2011). The ad will try to evoke positive and humorous emotional responses in the female segment of the market, specifically by giving women a sense of power over their men’s grooming. The speakers for this ad campaign are celebrities, in which the original celebrity Isaiah Mustafa will keep his place alongside a similarly popular female selected by fans of Mustafa from the initial ad campaign. As such, rather than replacing Mustafa, the campaign should reward female fans for their support by making one of them an Old Spice girl. Finally, the ad campaign will use the internet as its main channel, especially in inviting females to become the new Old Spice Girl by posting their videos on YouTube and Instragram, while also inviting fans to select the best Old Spice girl through social media. References Galloway, G. (2009). Humor and ad liking: Evidence that sensation seeking moderates the effects of incongruity‐resolution humor. Psychology & Marketing, 26(9), 779-792 Kraft, H., & Weber, J. M. (2012). A look at gender differences and marketing implications. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 3(21), 247-253 Raman, R. V. (2012). An empirical study on “marketing to women”. International Journal of Marketing and Management Research, 3(3), 51-66 Taute, H. A., McQuitty, S., & Sautter, E. P. (2011). Emotional information management and responses to emotional appeals. Journal of Advertising, 40(3), 31-44 Read More