Almost everyone knows about AXE body spray. Since the 1990s, this body spray had a distinct craze among millennial teenage boys. This craze wasn’t limited to Bangladesh or the Indian subcontinent; it was a global phenomenon. AXE body spray became wildly popular among teenagers and young men worldwide, mainly because of its appealing advertisements and the image it created as a confidence booster for men. In fact, due to the success of AXE body spray, Unilever rose to the top of the men’s grooming category and introduced products like shampoos, shower gels, and hair waxes in the market. However, despite its peak popularity, by the mid-2010s, the brand’s image began facing negativity. In some markets, AXE’s market share even declined due to its negative image and competitive market pressures. Today, AXE no longer holds the same appeal among the youth. So, what exactly happened to AXE that caused this once immensely popular brand to lose its charm suddenly?
History
In the ’70s and ’80s, options for men’s fragrances were limited to Cologne or Deodorant. However, the scents of these options were very mild. In contrast, aftershave had a strong scent but didn’t last long. This led global FMCG brands to realize that there could be a demand in the market for a product that had a strong scent and lasted longer. This insight led to the launch of the AXE body spray brand in France in 1983. France is known as the capital of European Fragrance Design and Trading, and the world’s best perfume makers train there. This is why the company chose to launch the brand in France. At its launch, AXE body spray was introduced in three variants: Amber, Musk, and Spice. Gradually, AXE spread from France to other European markets, including the UK.
However, due to trademark issues, it is known as Lynx in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and China. Initially launched only as a body spray, by 1987, AXE had introduced Antiperspirants, Deodorant Sticks, and Shower Gels to the market. It was officially launched in India in 1999, and shortly after, it became available in Bangladesh. The brand was launched in the US market in 2002. However, the brand we know today gained its fame around 12 years after its inception when it handed over its marketing responsibilities to a British marketing company called Bartle Bogle Hegarty. Under the guidance of this new marketing agency, AXE took a bolder approach to its marketing, which played a significant role in shaping the brand’s current image and made it immensely popular among the young generation globally.
Rise
From the beginning, AXE marketed its body spray as a product that would guarantee dating success. However, their marketing approach became outdated and repetitive over time. The same type of ads were made over and over again, with no new ideas, which led to a decline in AXE’s sales by the mid-90s. To solve this crisis, Unilever hired the British advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty as AXE’s new marketing team in 1995. According to the co-founder of the new marketing agency, AXE’s ads had a somewhat serious tone, which didn’t resonate with a larger audience. The new generation of young men were savvy and wouldn’t respond to a serious tone. So, they decided to take a more playful approach.
They began presenting the idea that using AXE body spray would make a man more attractive for dating in a more humorous and ironic way. This idea was exaggerated to a great extent and was practically unrealistic. Alongside humor, the ads featured women in seductive roles, which easily grabbed the attention of the male audience. After bringing such bold changes to its marketing strategy, AXE body spray started gaining traction among the younger generation. Surprisingly, the ads also managed to capture a completely new audience group, including millennial teenage boys. Even the young female group responded well to the ads, increasing AXE’s overall popularity.
However, AXE’s marketing was not only about making oneself attractive to women; it also promoted its products as an affordable confidence booster for men. The ads conveyed that no matter how a man looked, using AXE body spray would make him more masculine, and women preferred masculinity when it came to dating. This marketing strategy was highly successful in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. As a result, Unilever launched AXE body spray in the US market in 2002. That year, AXE generated nearly $20 million in revenue in the US. Following the success of the body spray in the US market, AXE launched its Anti-Perspirant and Deodorant product lines in 2004 and introduced shower gels to the US market the following year. Within four years of entering the US market, by 2006, the company generated about $71 million in revenue, which was nearly $50 million more than its competitor TAG, and in 2007, their total revenue was about $335 million. Continuing this success, by 2009, the brand introduced several products for men’s hair care and, a few years later, for face care as well. In this way, AXE climbed to the top position in the men’s grooming segment.
However, as the brand continued to do well, its advertisements became increasingly outrageous. For example, in one AXE ad, popular Hollywood star Ben Affleck was featured. The ad showed that even though Ben Affleck was a famous Hollywood star, women were more attracted to an ordinary young man who used AXE body spray. While these types of ads initially worked like a charm for the brand and increased sales, they turned out to be detrimental to the brand in the following decade.
What Happened to Axe?
Although AXE managed to maintain a top position in the market throughout the first decade of the 21st century, its sales began to decline gradually. This decline in AXE’s sales was primarily due to changing consumer perceptions and the emergence of new competition in the market.
AXE had been following the same marketing strategy for a long time which was popular among teenagers in the 90s and the following decade. However, by the second decade of the 21st century, people started to perceive AXE body spray advertisements differently. Even though the ads portrayed women in a seductive manner, people began to realize that the ads were quite sexist. While AXE had relied on the principle of “Sex Sells” for a long time, the way the brand represented women in its ads started to generate public backlash. At the same time, the #MeToo movement further accelerated the shift in attitudes toward the brand globally. During this period, AXE’s primary target customers also started realizing that the brand had actually been insulting their personalities all along. AXE always tried to convey the message that regardless of how one looks, women would be attracted to them if they used AXE. While this once worked as a confidence booster, consumers started to realize that this messaging was, in fact, undermining their individuality. As a result, when the teenagers of the 90s and early 2000s became adult consumers, they didn’t remain loyal to AXE. Moreover, Generation Z teenagers never really accepted AXE in the same way. This tech-savvy generation is much more confident from a young age than previous generations and is always precise about their likes, dislikes, and needs. Therefore, AXE’s selling proposition never quite appealed to this Gen-Z generation.
As a consequence of all these factors, AXE’s sales began to decline. Additionally, by this time, competitor brands had become quite active in challenging AXE’s market dominance. Globally, AXE was competing with brands like Nivea Man, Old Spice, and Hugo Boss. In the Indian market, brands like Set Wet, Wild Stone, and Fogg joined the competition, challenging AXE’s market share. These brands had marketing strategies similar to AXE, focusing on opposite-sex attraction, but they were not as exaggerated as AXE’s campaigns. Moreover, these brands also emphasized the quality of their products in their advertising. For example, Fogg focused on differentiating itself from gas body sprays in its advertisements. As a result, Fogg Perfume outperformed all other body sprays, including AXE, in the Indian market. In 2013, AXE lost its top position to Fogg. The following year, as competition increased, AXE’s position further declined, and according to the Times of India, Fogg held the top spot with a 17% market share in a market worth approximately INR 2,100 crore, while AXE’s market share fell to 6%, placing it in the third position. The same reasons led to AXE losing market share in Bangladesh as well.
How AXE is Turning Around
As AXE lost market share to competitors and its sales continued to decline, AXE’s marketing team began working on reinventing the brand. To achieve this, the company entrusted an Amsterdam-based company called ‘72andsunny’ with the responsibility of relaunching AXE. The Executive Creative Director of this agency, Carlo Cavallone, described AXE’s then-current marketing narrative as outdated. According to him, AXE’s approach of solely capitalizing on women’s attraction to men was no longer resonating with the new generation of consumers. He suggested that if AXE wanted to sell the concept of women’s attraction to men, they needed to include women’s perspectives in their ad campaigns, which would require a complete overhaul of the brand’s entire marketing system.
To achieve this, Unilever conducted interviews with around 3,500 men in 10 different countries to gather insights into their experiences and how they defined masculinity. The brand also spoke to women to understand their perspectives on masculinity and what kind of men they preferred. Following this comprehensive market research, AXE was relaunched in 2016 under the tagline “Find Your Magic,” where the ads showed that their products help fuel individuality in both men and women. Additionally, AXE introduced a premium lineup called the AXE Collection and ran campaigns like blind perfume tests through popular influencers. The goal of these initiatives was to break the social stigma surrounding AXE and promote it as a high-end product that could compete with other premium segment perfume brands in the market.
The campaign to reinvent the brand eventually proved to be quite successful. It began to shift consumer perceptions of AXE, albeit slowly. Although AXE is still the number one brand globally in terms of sales figures, there remains a significant consumer group that still holds onto AXE’s old brand image, and it may take more time to regain acceptance among them.
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