Old Spice more than quadrupled their sales of a failing brand by literally not changing the product at all. How did they do it?
Up until 2008, Old Spice's Glacial Falls deodorant was the worst performing deodorant not only in the Old Spice portfolio, but in the entire category. Glacial Falls had little identity and positioned itself on the basis of scent, protection, and performance - not exactly unique. Their target consumer varied in age and had mixed associations from not knowing what a Glacial Falls was to feeling that the brand felt "old". Old Spice considered everything from discontinuing the product, changing the fragrance, repositioning it, and rebranding it.
But in 2008 things changed. Wieden + Kennedy, an ad agency from Portland, Oregon was hired to help the Proctor and Gamble brand change the image of Glacial Falls. Meanwhile, Axe, a new player in the category had begun to differentiate itself not on the way it smelled or how well it protected, but how "women can't resist" guys who use Axe and really focused in on young men. Using a similar positioning strategy, Wieden + Kennedy helped reshape the product by emphasizing the emotional benefits that the user would get. Confidence, energy, but most importantly Swag.
Old Spice ended up re-Branding/Positioning/Targeting Glacial Falls to Old Spice Swagger and heavily targeted middle schoolers to college dudes. This was the deodorant to give you the Swag you need to get through the day and be confident. Robust online campaigns were used to promote the new product in addition to some funny TV ads, including NFL player Brian Urlacher below.
As a result, the campaign was hugely successful. Old Spice literally kept the same exact formula and fragrance as before, and by rebranding it, they more than quadrupled their sales. So if there are any hardcore Glacial Falls fans out there, buy some Swagger, it's the same exact thing. Conversely, for those loyal Swagger fans, you're using the boring, old Glacial Falls stick.
I used Glacial falls shower gel in the original purple bottle and the new Swagger , it is Not! the same fragrance at all, i do not care for the Swagger smell like i did Glacial falls.GF shower gel smelled awsome! Swag is good too but totally different new smell.
ReplyDeleteMight I add that the Swagger deoderant and body spray is Glacial falls but the body wash is totally different. They should have kept the Glacial falls scent in swagger body wash too.
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