The problem was, the ads had worked too well in persuading the Insecure Novices and Enthusiastic Novices to buy the product. Geeks and dorks everywhere were now buying Axe by the caseload, and it was hurting the brand's image. Eventually (in the United States, at least), to most high-school and college-age males, Axe had essentially become the brand for pathetic losers and, not surprisingly, sales took a huge hit.
Then Axe faced another big problem. Insecure high-school students had been so convincingly persuaded that Axe would make them sexually appealing that they began completely dousing themselves in it.... It got to the point where the students were reeking so heavily of it that it was becoming a distraction at school.This is akin to the marketing problem affecting Schlitz beer. It's become so associated with losers that few people will admit to using it; and, of course, the people who use it tend to reek of it heavily.
On the upside, both for Axe and Schlitz, both products are very likely to be available at your local store. Somebody is still forking over cash for the stuff. As long as that continues, hey! You're in business.
7 comments:
They could start targeting each others' markets, I suppose.
I think that could work. For one thing, they aren't already marketing to the same demographic, judging from the ad campaign on Schlitz's website (featuring spokesmodel Miss December 1968, with the tagline: "Things had better body in those days." Things?).
For another, Schiltz customers could use some cologne, and geeky college boys are always looking for a drink. Especially the ones who need to drink down the humiliation of not getting the girl, even though they were positively soaked with Axe body spray.
Hey now, my mom and dad drink Schlitz beer (yes, they make beer as well as malt liquor). It's actually a source of embarrassment to me and my brothers as we're beer snobs.
When we go out for wings or Mexican (when they come to town), my mom will order Dos Equis or Guinness, but for home consumption, they prefer Schlitz. Mostly they're wine drinkers though.
One of the faculty members in my department at Flat State U banned Ax because an overly-drenched undergrad's effluvium triggered an asthma attack.
Schlitz, for when Natural Light is too wussy, you are too far south for Pabst, and you're too nerdy for Coors.
And (ak!) Zima was the drink of choice in my undergrad days . . . on the dry campus of a church college where maybe 15% of the on-campus residents were of age.
LittleRed1
I'm a beer ignoramus, scarcely able to tell one from another. At parties, if I drink beer at all, I grab whatever brand no one else seems to want. Cheap date.
As for body sprays, what possesses a man to use any brand? Who wants a guy to smell like something other than himself? It's all weird to me.
I remember reading about "Teen Spirit" deodorant. They discovered that you can't use "teen" in the name if you actually want to attract teens. What you'll get is pre-teens aspiring to be teens.
All I ask of a deodorant is that it stop the production of smells I don't want and add absolutely nothing of its own. If I have to smell something, I'll take B.O. over a perfume any day.
As for body sprays, what possesses a man to use any brand?
This, apparently.
I did buy some Old Spice body spray, which I use on the dog if he's been rolling in some hunter's discarded deer carcass.
Perfumed body spray?
Are they practicing to be Arabs?
Post a Comment