Old Spice Group 6

1.
SHOULD THE BRAND TEAM ATTEMPT TO COMPETE WITH OR RESPOND

TO DOVE FOR MEN (DFM)? CAN THE BRAND TEAM COMPETE WITH DFM
WITHOUT DIRECTLY REFERRING TO THE BRAND IN ADVERTISING? SHOULD
OLD SPICE GO DIRECTLY AFTER DFM AND BE THE FIRST BRAND IN P&G
HISTORY TO CALL OUT A COMPETITOR BRAND? Anne/ Katrina
Undeniably Old Spice marketing strategy with Swagger brought tremendous traffic to
the brand sales were up of 175% and volume went up 270%. ( cite the case study)The Old Spice
team was wondering if the strategy reached a plateau and if a change of strategy should be
adopted. Dove which was not directly competing with Old Spice until then, launched Dove for
Men in 2010. They decided to go for a phenomenal entrance in the male personal care product
market by launching its first marketing campaign during the 2010 Superbowl. There are two
choices. The first choice is to do nothing and passively ignore the competition. In a highly
competitive marketplace, it is the solution to exit the market. The second choice is for Wieden +
Kennedy to come up with a strategy. Old spice body wash is an extension of its deodorant and by
competing in this segment - cleansing products - there will be several aspects to consider. Who is
the leader in the body wash segment? Can and will Swagger keep its current leading position ?
Can DFM compete effectively on the Manly attributes that Old Spice embodies so well ?
Considering that Dove for men is an extension of the non-gender Dove, can it effectively
compete against the well established Old Spice?
The dilemma is if Old Spice marketers should refer directly to Dove For Men or not.
What would be the consequences of directly calling out the competitor? What companies do it
and does it pay off? The first example that chronologically was cited by Suggett, P., in its article
is the marketing war between Avis and Hertz (Sugget, P., 2016). During the 1960's, Hertz was
considered the leader in the rental car industry. Avis was far behind and was not as profitable.
During a PR meeting, a director ended the meeting saying that the rental company did not have
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better cars, nor better prices but it did try harder than the competitor, The creative director
jumped on this sentence and made it the slogan of the next marketing campaign, Avis Is Only No.
2, We Try Harder. And against all expectations, it paid off.
The ad "Avis Is Only No. 2, We Try Harder" (which became the tagline) was breakthrough,
honest and had a fighting spirit. If there's one thing America loves, it's a hard-working underdog.
[...]
Other examples that are more contemporary are Verizon vs Sprint, Coke vs Pepsi, and
McDonalds vs Burger King. As per Verizon, they directly called out their competitors, Sprint and
T-Mobile, in their ads with the colorful balls. Verizon blasted them on specific attributes that are
considered determinants of purchase decisions, for instance, coverage and/or internet data.
Verizon directly identified its superior attributes and its direct competitors : T-Mobile and Sprint.
Verizon invites its consumers to clearly choose its service against the others by stating
convincing facts which influence purchasing decisions. As per Verizon’s commercial, Jamie
Foxx showcases the American map, points out the fact that their competitors have fine prints and
are not even using a real sized map, and that Verizon is honestly and truthfully the one that
covers most of the American territory in terms of better coverage. Another ad response to Sprint
is that most of the Verizon’s map is covered in red, as per the Sprint map, it is sparsely covered in
yellow with most of the western half of the nation missing coverage (Miller, H., 2016). As per
the soft beverages industry, the cola war between Coke and Pepsi has been going on for years.
The battle proved that Pepsi was a sizeable competitor, although Coca -Cola still has a 25%
greater part in market shares, it has to spend double the funds in advertising. Coca-Cola can not
afford seating on its laurels and has to always stay ahead of its competitors in order to keep its
position.
As per the fast food industry, McDonald’s and Burger King are considered to be the leaders in
the fast food market. They have effectively competed on the ring by calling each other out. In
order to do so, both brands used either implicit or explicit references to recognizable brand
elements -logo, clown in another commercial featuring McDonald clown sneaking into a Burger
King. At times the brands name specific products and or attributes of their product - the cooking
method used BLT (fried) versus Whopper (boiled) ad, the origin of the meat, and the quantity of
meat in the kid’s menu.
Old Spice’s brand team should attempt to compete with and respond to Dove for Men;
however, not directly. By directly calling out the competition, specifically a new line of products,
they are at risk of giving DFM airplay. For example, Microsoft’s AD campaign directly targeted
Google’s security policies. By creating this fear with users, Google actually received more traffic
from this campaign than Microsoft (Geier, R., N.D.). As per Old Spice, directly calling out DFM
may increase DFM’s brand awareness through Old Spice’s advertising dollars which may be
negatively impact their brand.
To what extent can such strategies work? It takes two to tango. It works as long as the two brand
live up to the challenge of the competition. For this marketing strategy to be effective, the two
brands have to challenge each other by responding to one another. If only one of the brands
attack the other and the other brand does not counterattack it seems like an unfair battle. Let’s
consider how Microsoft brought light to Google’s privacy settings; did it really slow down the
emphasis on Google? Such strategies force each team to outperform their overall marketing
strategy in all the communication media that are utilized such as: in store marketing, experiential
marketing, promotions, discounts, social media and digital presence. By initiating such battle, the
competing brands arouse the suspense and curiosity of the viewers and customers, who are
waiting for more for the next move. For instance, Pepsi and Coca-Cola are almost like a TV
series where consumers are always waiting for the next episode, or almost like a boxing match
where consumers are waiting on the next punch. The risk associated with such strategy is the
attention they may bring on qualitative aspects of the company that are not necessarily mastered.
For instance by pointing out a map of coverage of LGTE, Verizon opened the door to critics who
dig deeper to uncover whether Verizon’s claims were misleading. It also opened the door and
facilitated the competitors strategy. T-mobile responded to the colorful balls ad with a #ballogize
ad with Steve Harvey, clearly identifying that he didn’t get it wrong this time, Verizon did. Sprint
also released a remake of the ad advertising its internet speed. At this stage of product life of
DFM I would refer to brand element without
2. WHAT PRODUCT SHOULD THE BRAND TEAM ADVERTISE? CONSIDER THE

VIRTUES AND LIABILITIES OF CONTINUING THE SWAGGER CAMPAIGN, OF
ADVERTISING SHOWTIME, OF ADVERTISING THE UMBRELLA BRAND, OR OF
FOCUSING ON BODY WASH. PICK AN OPTION AND DEVELOP MESSAGING
AROUND THAT OPTION. (I.E. WHAT SHOULD THE BRAND SAY?)
Old spice has many products to focus their advertising efforts on. The company was
successful by promoting their Swagger product line, but turning that focus back to the umbrella
brand could be a good thing. Old Spice has been able to utilize their branding team and create a
175 percent increase in their sales and volume during Swagger’s promotions (Rucker &
O’Connell, 2008). However, the Swagger campaign may have reached its potential and it could
be a great opportunity for Old Spice to use their success to promote a variety of their brand under
the umbrella brand strategy. By focusing on one scent, then that only specifically targets a
specific niche of people. Not all people like the same scent, but because Old Spice built their
brand by the success of Swagger, then they will have greater brand awareness to enter the market
with more scents and products in their line. To be successful entering the market with their
umbrella brand, then Old Spice’s “brand positioning requires that consumers understand what the
brand offers and what makes it a superior competitive choice” over other brands (Kotler &
Keller, 2012). Old Spice’s messaging would need to “appeal to a larger group of users who
represented the brand’s persona” (Rucker & O’Connell, 2008) Old Spice has already been able to
identify one specific market through their Swagger users, and now the company will be able to
expand their messaging and products to the broader range within that market. Old Spice could
return to the “manliness” campaign and return to modern masculinity which made Swagger
successful, but they can also expand to a broader brand scope. Old Spice needs to teach
consumers “who the product is by it a name and other brand elements to identify it – as well as
what the product does and why consumers should care” (Kotler & Keller, 2012). Old Spice
needs to do the same thing they did for Swagger and promote each of their products the same
way enabling consumers to have awareness and build relationship with Old Spice’s specific
brand elements under their umbrella.
There is a huge financial liability involved in any marketing approach and this is does not even
account for the loss of revenue from the return in investment that pertained to this marketing approach.
Refocusing their efforts to the Umbrella Brand might be beneficial but it can also backfire in terms of
financial loss and customers.
Another liability would be to determine what other product should be marketed after Swagger
was such a success, but not they must leverage the Umbrella Brand. A few questions will be involved, for
instance, would another campaign be as successful and would it make sense to spend as much money as
we did in prior campaigns this time around? There are many other questions of which need to be
answered before investing in another risky venture. The Umbrella Brand might be another successful
business endeavor but we must create a strategy that we’ll be able to prove it to become profitable
without sacrificing quality and losing customer loyalty.
Finally, the challenge of having to decide whether to devote further time and effort to the
competitors that Old Spice faces is now an issue that we must deal with since the Swagger campaigns
success. Once we find the answers needed to continue this marketing initiative, we’ll be better suited to
take more financial risks in the future without jumping through all the hurdles that the Swagger campaign
was faced with. The Umbrella Brand might become a good investment, but additional research must be
conducted prior to their start.
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2008). A framework for marketing management. Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Rucker, D. D., & O'Connell, M. (2008). Old Spice: Repeating Success in the Face of
Competitive Threat. Kellogg School of Management, 786.
3.IN WHICH MEDIA SHOULD THE BRAND LAUNCH? SHOULD OLD SPICE
ADVERTISE DURING THE SUPER BOWL AS A RESPONSE TO DFM’S PLANNED
APPEARANCE? OF SHOULD THE BRAND CONSIDER A MORE TRADITIONAL
MEDIA FLIGHT? IF MULTIPLE MEDIA FORMS ARE USED, SHOULD THEY BE
LAUNCHED
Old Spice personified its Brand by creating “The Old Spice Man” a character who
brought a humorously relatable element to the Brands advertisements, promoting the sayings
“Smell like a Man, man” and “The Man Your Man could Smell Like” to both garner the interest
of men but more importantly tap into the spending power of women, thereby expanding its target
audience and consumer base. This single character, “The Old Spice Man” has been called the
catalyst for Old Spice’s 2009 online presence, grabbing 2.5million likes, with more than 5
International Old Spice pages, and 50 million views across various online video channels
(“Consumption, Culture, & Identity,” 2013). Since Old Spice has already been successful with
digital media, building on their online and social media presence would help increase Brand
relevance and customer retention.
Besides the low cost of social media advertising, it is an interactive platform by which
customers are able to engage with both Old Spice and those who have become the face of the
Brand by way of the “Old Spice Man”. Additionally, digital media supports the efforts of
traditional media by providing access to media after advertisements have been aired on
Television. Advancements in technology allow to customers to search and share Brand
advertisements.Video can be posted to all social media sites by the Brand to reinforce products
and promotions as well as a means to increase or ensure full audience capture. Overall, a digital
media approach immortalizes the advertisement as the media will now be seen more than once
and posted several times over and by various means.
While focusing on maintaining their digital media efforts, Old Spice should also consider
advertising during the Super Bowl in response to their competitor, Dove for Men, doing so in
addition to increasing their audience and potential customer base. In 2008, viewership for the
SuperBowl game was 97.45M and increased to 98.7M in 2009. In 2015 for SuperBowl 50, the
event reached record levels with the largest audience in TV history with 114.4M viewers
(Pallotta, 2015). This event has a broad and vast audience that includes both men and women of
diverse backgrounds and incomes that Old Spice could potentially reach, an audience “that was
impossible to duplicate with a single insertion in other media vehicles” (Rucker & O’Connell,
2008).
Without neglecting any of its standing successful advertising efforts, Old Spice should
maintain a mix of traditional and digital media advertising to promote their products, inclusive of
television advertising, in-store promotions, and social media engagement. Old Spice should
launch sequential advertisements under the Umbrella Brand of “Old Spice” by using multiple
Old Spice Men, one specific to each product with well-developed characters that are relevant and
tangible with entertaining narratives that represent that Brand, support the product identity and
create memorable viewing experiences, that can be easily translated into a purchase and
customer retention. An all at once approach may confuse or overwhelm consumers, specifically
because the nature of the product which involves scent, a challenge within in itself. Ultimately,
Old Spice should look to utilize all avenues available to them to promote their products while
employing strategies for customer engagement that have been successful for them in the past.
They have created a niche through their use of “storytelling” to sell their products and can
continue to garner interest if they remain innovative in their approach to product offerings and
promotions.
References
Coca Cola Vs Pepsi retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNsURuvpTk8
Coca Cola Melhores Comercais retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=3uE3W53vYig
Consumption, Culture, & Identity (2013, December 13). Old Spice: New Consumers [Blog
Post]. Retrieved from: https://cci13.wordpress.com/2013/12/16/old-spice-new-consumers/
Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2008). A framework for marketing management. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Prentice Hall.
Main Event fight Coke vs Pepsi retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=RADx8wRmPME
Miller, H., (2016, August 10th). Verizon claps back at Sprint with new Jamie Foxx
advertisement. Comic Book retrieved from
http://comicbook.com/popculturenow/2016/08/10/verizon-claps-back-at-sprint-with-new-jamie-
foxx-ads/
Pallotta, F. (2015, February 2). Bowl XLIX posts the largest audience in TV history. Retrieved
from: http://money.cnn.com/2015/02/02/media/super-bowl-ratings/
Rucker, D. D., & O'Connell, M. (2008). Old Spice: Repeating Success in the Face of
Competitive Threat. Kellogg School of Management, 786.
Sugget,P.(2012, october 12). Is it a good strategy to call out your competitors?
Retrieved from https://www.thebalance.com/is-it-a-good-strategy-to-call-out-your-
competitors-39280
The problem with Verizon and the colorful balls commercial (2016, february 15th) retrieved
from youtube:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrYobwGGecQ
2)Microsoft / Google war

https://www.trewmarketing.com/smartmarketingblog/best-practices/want-to-
market-against-your-competitors-proceed-carefully
4) Coca Cola vs Pepsi https://www.marketingmag.com.au/hubs-c/battle-brands-

coca-cola-life-vs-pepsi-next/
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1.

SHOULD THE BRAND TEAM ATTEMPT TO COMPETE WITH OR RESPOND

compete against the well established Old Spice?

2, We Try Harder. And against all expectations, it paid off.

meat in the kid’s menu.

negatively impact their brand.

DFM I would refer to brand element without

2. WHAT PRODUCT SHOULD THE BRAND TEAM ADVERTISE? CONSIDER THE

brand elements under their umbrella.

financial loss and customers.

conducted prior to their start.

relevance and customer retention.

Television. Advancements in technology allow to customers to search and share Brand

and posted several times over and by various means.

Coca Cola Melhores Comercais retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?

2)Microsoft / Google war

4) Coca Cola vs Pepsi https://www.marketingmag.com.au/hubs-c/battle-brands-

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