OLD SPICE MARKETING STRATEGY
Old Spice is a company based in the production and marketing of certain cosmetic products
focused on males. Their mission statement is to rejuvenate their customers' image. It was
founded in 1937 and it has a really powerful marketing strategy which has been able to maintain
the company making sales and being one of the most successful companies in their market.
This photo includes some of the most popular products from Old Spice basics line.
MAIN SLOGANS:
● Forged from Nature.
● Smell like grandpa.
● The mark of a man.
● Smell like a man, man.
● The original. If your grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist.
These slogans are some of the strongest parts of their marketing campaign. Thanks this Old
Spice has been able to target its desired audience over the years..
5 CS ANALYSIS
● CUSTOMERS
-There main target audience is men between the ages of 35 and 55, the new commercials
try to link their products with highfalutin masculinity.
-Target market: Men that have an active lifestyle and are confident about themselves
-Positioning: It is a product sold to people that are a full Man or want to be a Man because it
makes man more manly.
-The image they have is that their product makes you smell like a real Man and that helps
you to attract more women.
-Old spice was ranked third in the US mens and womens deodorant sales in 2018
-Their main selling point is US and Canada as that is where the company receives most of
their sales.
-They have been targeting a lot of women for the last few years, because they knew that
they were the ones buying the products for men. So they focused their marketing strategy in
attracting women to buy their products, for their men to consume them.
-Their main communication channels are both digital and non digital promotion, as well as
many seasonal promotions supporting special events such as the Superbowl. Old spice is
constantly updating digital promotion to ensure customers are engaged and therefore
maintain sales.
-Through constant marketing and great commercials old spice has been able to convince
customers to look up to alpha males and to create the perception in them that is what their
products represent.
● COMPETITORS:
There are many brands on the market that compete for the same set of customers that old
spicy has. The top four competitors for Old Spice are Axe, Nivea, Gillette, Right Guard.
What sets Old Spice apart from its competitors?
Old Spice focusses in a manly product for men or people that want to feel as a man. Their
slogan is “Smell like a man”. Their products boost masculinity which is desired among their
consumers.
● COLLABORATORS:
Collaborators include the supply chain both upstream and downstream. Old Spice's most
important factor to take into consideration is the risk of its operation. This brand sells
products worldwide and the reliability of their collaborators is crucial for the well being of the
brand. Their collaborators have to be able to keep up with the demand the company has.
● CONTEXT:
The Old Spice brand is defined as a men's grooming brand, but what sets them apart from
the rest is the incredible work of their marketing department, which managed to "resurrect"
them through an impactful and groundbreaking advertising, putting them once again at the
Top of the most used men's grooming products.
Some of its competitors are brands like secret or dove, in the usa in 2019 old spice almost
doubled its sales
The revenue of the brand is about 564 million in annual sales.
The current market price of a share is of 124$, 36$ more than in 2018 (88$)
● COMPANY:
Old Spice is an American brand which was founded in 1937. Its first trage audience was
female products. Old spice was initially launched under the name of Early American Old
Spice.
The company originally produced their first products in Los Angeles. These first products
were a woman's scent called Early American Old Spice and the same masculin version. In
the 70´s the company shifted from a shaving brand into a fragrance brand with the
introduction of classic scents like Old Spice Burley
In 1990 Procter & Gamble purchased the brand introducing a wide variety of products such
as deodorant, body washes and body sprays. The classic Old Spice scent remains identical
under the name of “Classic scent”, this product has the following slogan: If your grandfather
hadn't worn it, you wouldn't exist.
● SWOT analysis:
Strengths Weakness
● Successful brand globally ● Many strong competitors in the
● Great product quality market
● Strong brand presence ● Availability of cheaper subtituitive
● Diverse product portfolio products
● affordable
Opportunities Threats
● Expansion in new markets ● Bad consumer reviews (skin
● Creation of a female exclusive line irritation)
● Young generations ● Many strong competitors
● PESTE ANALYSIS
- Political:
1. Judiciary independence: Businesses face a problem when the conflict is between
public interest and proprietary technology. Old Spice has to develop a solid patent
profile to avoid these problems.
2. Government regulations: Old Spice has to carefully look for these regulations and
upcoming ones to protect itself.
- Economical:
1. Employment Rate: If the employment rate is high then it will make it harder to hire
talented workers
2. Price fluctuations: The current economic situation is very harmful to companies like
Old Spice as the high inflation rate causes rapid increases in prices affecting the
budget accuracy.
3. Level of household income and savings rate: THis rate is a very accurate way of
predicting the global sales. As this rate goes up less people are willing to pay for a
premium Old Spice product
4. Exchange rate: The value of the dollar is very significant for the ease of imports and
exports.
- Social:
1. Demographic Trend: As the global population develops the target audience evolves.
The biggest age group in our society is our eldery people. Old spice should develop
specific products target this audience.
2. Societal norms and Hierarchy: Old Spice should study the norms of today's society to
target a wider audience.
- Technological:
1. Technology disruption: Old Spice has to assess whether it can live with the fast pace
of technology disruption in its industry.
2. Cost of produccion: They have to take into consideration the current cost of
automatizacion.
3. E-commerce: Old Spice has to develop a modern and accessible online shop for
everyone to buy with accessibility.
- Environmental:
1. Recycle policies: Old Spice has to use recyclable packages and products to adhere
to those policies and target a wider audience.
2. Renewable technologies: The use of green energies will reduce the cost of electricity
and create a better image to the consumer.
3. Influence: The company has to produce a positive influence on the environment and
its consumers and this will create brand loyalty to its customers.
PART2:Market research of the new target audience.
After doing a market research and segmentation of Old Spice principle buyers we saw that
the main consumers are men between the ages of 35 to 55. We were able to obtain these
results by searching in reliable sources of information
(https://www.adweek.com/performance-marketing/how-old-spice-swaggerized-their-brand-
and-men-everywhere/; https://www.transformationmarketing.com/marketing-campaing-
success-old-spice/; https://www.adweek.com/performance-marketing/how-old-spice-
swaggerized-their-brand-and-men-everywhere/ )
These sources don't include visual aid to illustrate this market segmentation but all affirm
that the main consumers are between these ages.
After discussing in the group what we believed about the current market situation we came
up with the idea of doing a penetration into new markets. We believe that old spice should
concentrate their attention on emerging markets (young consumers) primarily. After
achieving this goal our main focus is to attract females with a new product line that may be
produced under a new brand name.
1)
Our objective for this market research is to identify if old spice could enter the new market of
younger men between the ages of 18 and 35 and have a successful launch of their product
line. Old spice is a well established company which has been in the market for more than 80
years, however it is seeking to attract new generation to buy their products due to the high
competition in the market and that their campaigns of the last few year have been
emphasised in attracting the the woman in a men’s life, this meaning they were focusing
their promotion in women which wanted their men to use old spice. The problem of this
campaign is that the excluded young consumers as they normally tend to not have women
buying their cosmetic products. Old spice was targeting older consumers attracting their
women as they identified that they were the ones which bought all cosmetic products, but
not in the case of single and younger men. Our proposal is to produce a new campaign that
includes modern visual design to confront the competition in this new market (H&S, AXE,
NIVEA…).
2)
The research methodology that we are going to use is a mix of many types of research.
First of all we are going to do a market segmentation to divide the audience that we want to
target. Our research has to have a big sample size to make it as reliable as possible. For this
reason we’ve chosen to carry out an online survey that is going to be made of many
questions such as :
1. Have you ever considered using old spice?
2. What are your necessities when it comes to consuming products like old spice?
3. What substitutive products do you consume instead of old spice?
4. …
This online survey is an accessible tool for everyone that can be targeted to a specific
audience using the technology to our advantage. Another survey that we have decided to
produce is customer satisfaction with the products as this can be used as an index of not
only the customers that we attract but the customers we retain.
3)
After the study we expect two different response variables among young people from 18 to
35, firstly, the ones who (since the new style of advertising campaign in 2020) have at least
once considered to try Old Spice, and secondly, those who have tried old spice and were
satisfied with the product but have preferred to stick with their trusted brands (AXE, Dove,
Nivea…)
4)
According to the official results (once received and analysed) we would have different
courses of action. We might find that the first survey receives positive responses, indicating
that the brand is still continuously growing and allowing us to determine what sort of
strengths the product has. On the other hand we could find that the second survey reveals a
low customer satisfaction, this can help Old Spice identify some of the firm’s/product’s
weaknesses. Nonetheless, these surveys will reveal the course of action that we should
take, whether that be finding new ways of modifying products to satisfy customer needs or
maybe finding a better target audience. According to the expected results we should, in any
case, focus on understanding the negative results (such as why customers stick with their
“trusted brands” rather than continuing their use of our product) and trying to improve our
products/release innovative products that might improve our firm. Another course of action
could be adding a few questions to a new survey so that consumers are able to give their
reasons for why they might prefer other brands. This would be very useful for the firm as the
information could be used to facilitate the pinpointing of weaknesses and the addressing of
them as soon as possible.
