TERM PAPER

THE MARKETING STRATEGY OF AXE DEODORANT

Submitted to,

Professor Kishore Thomas John

On

September 16, 2014

In partial fulfillment of the requirements of the course

Marketing Management

By

Nivin Vinoi

P14199

PGDM-B

1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY……………………...…………………………...

….3

ANALYSIS …………………………………………………..............................4

INTRODUCTION.……………………………………………………….....…..4

SEGMENTATION………………………………………………………….…..6

TARGETING…………………………………………………………………...6

POSITIONING……………………………………………………….................7

PROMOTIONAL MIX………………………………………………................9

Advertising….………………………………………………....................9

Sales promotion tools...…………………………………………………10

Interactive Marketing…………………………………………………...10

Games and mobile applications………………………………………....10

Events and Experiences…………………………………………………11

Publicity………………………………………………………………....11

Campaigns as part of promotion………………………………………...11

COMPETITIORS……………………………………………………………...12

CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………..................14

REFERENCES………………………………………………………………...14

2

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

This term paper is concentrated on Deo Market and the marketing strategies

implemented by Axe Deodorant, one of the personal care brand from Hindustan

Unilever Limited (HUL). And also it is one of the best-selling brand of

Unilever. Axe, the deodorant that is considered cool, fashionable and stylish by

young men is the world leader in male toiletries. Axe has a mix that is

completely harmonised globally – from its proposition and communication to

the product, as available on the shelf. Axe has become the leading male

deodorant brand in India within just one year of its launch. A study on its STP

model and its promotional model is done here. The competition faced by axe

from the local competitors like fogg, wildstone, addiction etc. is also been

analysed here.

3

ANALYSIS

INTRODUCTION

Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is an Indian consumer goods company,

headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is owned by Anglo-Dutch Company

Unilever which owns a 52% controlling share in HUL. HUL's products include

foods, Homecare Products, personal care products and Water Purifier Brand.

HUL was established in 1933 as Lever Brothers and, in 1956, became known as

Hindustan Lever Limited, as a outcome of a merger between Lever Brothers,

Hindustan Vanaspati Mfg. Co. Ltd. and United Traders Ltd. Among this

category Axe comes in the personal care brand.

Axe (also known as Lynx in the United Kingdom, the Republic of

Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and People's Republic of China) is a brand of

male grooming products, owned by the British–Dutch company Unilever and

marketed towards the young male demographic. Axe was launched in France in

1983 by Unilever. It was inspired by another of Unilever's brands, Impulse. It

has been there in the market for the last 26 years and is currently the best-selling

brand of Unilever, available in more than 60 countries around the world. By

1990s axe became the leading men's deodorant brand in Europe and was

4

popular in India in the Grey market (available in duty paid shops). HLL may

have launched this brand in India inspired by the volume of Axe sold in the

Grey market. Axe's lead product is the fragranced aerosol deodorant body spray.

The brand also includes deodorant stick, deodorant roll-on, anti-perspirant

aerosol spray (called Axe Dry), and anti-perspirant stick (also called Axe Dry),

soaps, aftershaves and shower gels. In January 2012, Unilever launched its first

axe/Lynx product for women in the United Kingdom as part of a worldwide

expansion of the previously men’s-only brand. The Line of products is named

"Axe/Lynx Anarchy".

Axe deodorant was launched in India during 1999. At that time, the deo market

was a nascent one with an estimated market size of Rs 72 crore. HUL had the

brands Denim and Rexona and was ruling the market. Axe was priced at a

premium above the Denim brand which was positioned as a male deodorant

brand. Axe, the deodorant has Tagline “The Axe Effect”, promoted as the

naughtiest brand in the Indian market. The brand is targeted at male aged 16-35.

All its campaigns revolve round this central theme of Seduction where girl

makes the first move. The brand assumes that Men like to be seduced and

positioned as a ‘weapon of seduction’.

5

SEGMENTATION

TARGETING

Axe concentrates only on a single-segment (male 16-35). It mainly targets all

customers who are ‘Young at heart’. The competitive advantage of this brand is

its complete monopoly over this brand proposition. Through its ads, it persuades

youngster’s mind that using this deo will help to attract girls, but it is just that

they present the ad using humor and made something that attracts people very

easily. It’s rarely found that any India centric ad for Axe is aired on Television.

6

Usually they just import the promotions meaning, the company just ran the ads

which was popular in the Europe and other markets. They believe that Indian

consumers take the foreign commercials without any difficulty. Recently for a

change, Axe decided to go local in its promotional strategy and roped in the

current Bollywood heartthrob Ranbir Kapoor to endorse the brand. The news

came as a surprise since Axe never ran a campaign using a celebrity in India.

Axe launched its new variant Axe Blast with the new celebrity endorsement.

POSITIONING

The company extensively uses TV ads and conducts many campaigns.

Consumers associate a lifestyle of cool clubs, cool music and cool fashion with

Axe. The youth view it as an icon which introduces many 'firsts' to their world

of music and dance – like the first "World's Longest Dance Party" and the first

ever “Axe Voodoo Island Party”. The biggest strength of this brand is the

underlying message that the brand users are high on confidence and always go

for the Axe. It also ensures that customers are constantly engaged with new

fragrances. Some latest editions they introduced are Dark Temptation, Pulse,

Provoke, Peace, Click, Apollo, Music Star, Dimension, Gold Temptation, etc.

They also launches a lot of limited edition fragrances.

Axe is a marketing phenomenon. This brand knows how to keep excitement

ticking in the market. One example is the launch of Axe 3 deo in 2009. This is a

unique innovative product where the brand asks the consumer to use two Axe

7

Deos together to make a new fragrance. So Axe 3 comes in a combo-pack of

two fragrances and the consumer can make a third one by spraying the two deos

together. Axe 3 was launched in other markets in 2007 as a limited edition

product. A typical Axe 3 packs contains two deos marked 1 & 2. These cans

should be sprayed together for a new fragrance. This is a product launched to

keep the excitement going. That is the purpose of limited editions. All those

Axe fans will try out this new product and competitors will have tough time

matching this brand. Axe has always been an unconventional brand. These

seemingly outrageous innovations are in line with the brand's core positioning.

And these launches gives enough reasons for Axe to advertise and that keeps

the brand on top of the share of mind.

The brand has started its Internet based marketing initiative in India with Axe

Land which involved a virtual trip to the Axe world using link

‘theaxeeffect.com’. They are also effectively utilizing the social networking

websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus for their ads and publicities.

Its marketing strategy is always known as "Adventurous Marketing”, because

this brand deals with girls and seduction. Besides TV commercials, the brand

also uses print ads with Polaroid photos to its maximum impact. Axe is a classic

example of global branding effort. Through this effort of campaigning they have

created a huge global image. The axe deodorant always comes in stylish bottle,

8

because of the packaging, it can be easily recognized. The packaging of axe

itself has created brand image for it.

PROMOTIONAL MIX

Promotion is an important part of marketing mix. Through promotion company

communicate with the consumers about their product. To communicate with the

consumers company spends heavily on advertisements and promotional

activities.

9

INTEGRATED MASS COMMUNICATION

ADVERTISING SALES PROMOTION

PUBLIC RELATION

INTARECTIVE MARKETING

AD

PRINT AD’STV AD’SONLINE AD’S

Advertising

To weave the axe brand into the culture the company extensively uses TV

commercials, print ads, billboards etc. Axe commercials are also a big hit on

YouTube. e.g.: to promote its Dark Temptation flavour they showed an ad in

which a boy who has used Axe deo is passing by the roadside and all the girls

around are getting attracted by the chocolate fragrance of the deo.

Sales promotion tools

Discount: To increase the sales the company sometimes slashes down the price

of 150ml bottle does. Through online shopping also we can get Axe deos with

discounts.

Offer: The Company also provide 20% extra in most of the varieties of Axe to

provide more to their customers. They also advertise through online gaming’s

available on their website.

Interactive Marketing

They have a dedicated website-www.theaxeeffect.com for promotion.

Advertisements of Axe are visible all over the web in relevant and web social

networking sites.

Games and mobile applications

Axe launched “THE AXE EFFECT GAMES” in 2009. They are mainly online

flash games build for their promotion. Ax also introduced “AXE EFFECT

10

MOBILE APPLICATIONS” for promotional functions. Some examples for

Axe mobile applications are Axe wake up service, Axe googly etc.

Events and Experiences

AXE organizes upbeat events for its new product launches and it follows this

strategy worldwide. Axe has sponsored a wide range of other events like youth

festivals, music shows. For example they conducts a contest to win “A trip to

Las Vegas”. For that, online banner ads pushed guys to play the online game

and enter the contest. Axe also conducted “Ax Boat Party Contest” in India.

Publicity

Axe has the right storytelling element and the video reinforces the brand's

provocative and contrarian personality. It has always projected its products as

cool, fashionable and stylish. Word of Mouth Marketing is also very important.

Due to good promotional strategies by Axe have always been the talk of the

town.

Campaigns as part of promotion

CALL ME: Targeted at the young urban males, the cool and youthful

brand is positioned as one that helps guys get ahead in the mating game.

As part of this campaign two ads where released showing girls swooning

over Axe men and giving them their telephone numbers. Both films end

11

with the girls giving the boys the number 09987333333.Through a series

of ads in print, outdoors and television, viewers are being encouraged to

call this very same number.

CHOCOLATE MONTH OF THE YEAR: Axe launched another

campaign in November 2008 to promote its new variant Axe Dark

Temptation in India. It was undertaken in association with Yahoo. It was

24 hour online campaign in which a dark man was placed in the centre of

the www.yahoo.co.in homepage on 14th November. This campaign was

mainly used to capture the attention of the young internet users who

visited the Yahoo webpage. This campaign again highlights the

importance of internet as a medium of communication especially if the

target audience is young.

COMPETITIORS

The main competitors against Axe are Fogg, Park Avenue, Engage and

Wildstone.

One year back, Axe commanded a higher share of about 18-19% in Indian deo

market. But now it is relegated to No.3 position after Fogg and Wildstone. Fogg

12

entered into the market with a new technique called No-Gas proposition. The

no-gas segment is now growing at 30% and is already worth around Rs 250-300

crore in the Rs 2500 crore deo market. This segment is now named as body-

perfume segment.

HUL was very slow in reacting to Fogg's entry into the market. Recently Axe

launched its answer to the competition- Axe Signature Collection Deo. It was

surprising that HUL which is supposedly the best marketing machine in India

took so long to respond to competition. Axe Signature deo demands a 3X times

more perfume. The brand has the tagline " Don't Fade Away". Axe Signature is

now running its campaign across the channels. The television commercial

retains the seduction proposition but is now subtle with that message. The

message the new variant is pushing is the long-lasting fragrance. The " Don't

Fade Away " proposition is smart because that idea is different from the current

market leader Fogg's no-gas USP (Unique Selling Proposition). So Axe is now

telling the consumers that it is better than others because other fragrances fade

away. The packing resembles Fogg Black Collection cannot be wished away as

a coincidence. Priced at Rs 225, Axe has priced this variant lower than the

competitor. The launch of Signature is expected to arrest the growth of Fogg

and Wildstone. Since this is a launch from Axe, old loyalists are bound to try it.

Rest is all dependent on the delivery of the promise.

13

CONCLUSION

Through this study I came to know about various important aspects of Deo

Market and how one of the leading brand of deodorant AXE, promote its

product and tries to retain its customers through: advertisement, public relation,

interactive marketing and sales promotion, which is very important for any

brand to maintain its good position in the market. The STP (Segmentation,

Targeting, and Positioning) model described above helps us comprehend the

marketing process for Axe at a much more granular level. Through this study

we find out how HUL effectively uses the 4P approach (Product offerings,

place, promotion used, and price).

REFERENCES

1. Philip Kotler, Kevin Lane Keller, Abraham Kozhy, Mithileshwar Jha

(2013). Identifying Market Segments and Targets. Marketing

Management 14e, 190-201.

2. http://marketingpractice.blogspot.in

3. www.theaxeeffect.com

4. http://www.thehindubusinessline.com

5. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axe_(brand)

14

6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindustan_Unilever

15

16