Out of the target market and out of luck
Submitted by TDD on Sat, 08/04/2007 - 23:46.
For whatever reason, I decided I was going to purchase some men's scented toilet water. Arriving at the isle in the drugstore where all the men's scented products are, I began to look for something that smelled nice, not over-powering, and was reasonably priced. Then it started.
Looking over the 'choices', there was: Axe and Tag. Same thing. 'Okay', I thought, 'there must be something else.' Old Spice on the bottom. This was where the advertising started messing with my head.
Axe and Tag. Not marketed to a 35 years old man. More importantly, I'd be far too embarrassed to purchase it for fear the person at the counter would think I believed the advertising and I was an idiot. Axe was almost sold out. College/University city. No surprises there. Price was reasonable. How did it smell? Maybe they improved it since the last time I got a smell of Axe. Was Tag different?. That advertising kept playing through my mind. Not even going to try it! I'd be too embarrassed to be even seen picking up a bottle of Axe or Tag let alone smelling it. Nope. I am a man. I'm not some cheese eating high school boy. I want a man's scent. Bruce Campbell!
The Old Spice advertising featuring Bruce Campbell started going through my mind. Yeah. Experience. Bruce Campbell. Ash. Cool. Suave. Good looking. Good.... The price! More expensive than Axe. Does Axe smell better? Axe advertising plays in head. No way! I can't be seen even touching that stuff! Okay. Old Spice. But the price. This back and forth went on until I finally left the store without any new scent. Where was the stuff I wanted?
It was bad enough the store had such a small selection of products, but I thought about the advertising for Axe and Old Spice and I realized that I wasn't in the target market. The advertisers aren't interested in me. Where was the 'Smells nice. Good price.' product? There isn't any.
This makes women go crazy for you when you are young, inexperienced, and immature; and this is for the experienced, successful, suave, handsome man. You're a creep. You're a weirdo. You don't fit in. There is no, 'Smells nice. Good price.' for you, TDD. What are you doing here? You don't belong here.
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Go get a bottle of Burberry Brit and resign to the fact that you are now an old man with expensive (yet fashionable) after shave.
I'll second the Brit idea.
But that's a really good point you bring up there TDD, there's no toilet water clearly targeting anyone older than college these days. Is that because Brut already owns that market? Kidding. ;)
hah! Guessing that they are targeting the younger crowds who have "yet to become dedicated to a scent"/can't teach an old dog new tricks sort of thinking.
Hmmm. They probably just reckon that over 30's are buying 'real' cologne's, like have moved on to Polo, L'Eau d'Issey Pour Homme or Aqua de Gio.. or wait.. wasn't there something called Cologne that had a dorky cork-topped bottle in the seventies? I'm having sudden scent flash-backs here.. I'm not thinking of English Leather's Wind Drift After Shave, at least I hope not....
Sadly, it seems once you pass the age of 24 years old you are considered old by advertisers. Not that I care what advertisers say, but when all my choices of products on the shelves seem to be for someone else it can be a little disheartening. Is my money not any good?
I bought a stick of Old Spice deodorant, and compared it to a stick of deodorant I had bought previously that cost a few dollars less, and was not a big brand name product. Similar smell and ingredients. Old Spice has Bruce Campbell pushing it, so I guess it is supposed to be better. I think Old Spice sells for more than Axe/Lynx/Tag.
The only men I knew who are over 30 years old and used Axe were salespeople. I'm not sure why. They had something going on about whomever was the first to have sex with a female client won some pooled cash. I don't know what it was exactly, I just found the whole thing immature, disrespectful of women, and unprofessional. Maybe that's why I don't like the Axe scent. Maybe they believed the Axe ads. Still, I'm certain they had more sex than me.
In my twenties, I wore Brut. I haven't even thought of the stuff until now. I rarely purchase toilet water anymore. I have a bottle of Diesel eau de toilette in my bathroom cabinet. It's been there for a couple of years at least. I don't recall where it came from.
So, in this case, sex doesn't sell? ;)
I guess I see your point. ;)
And there is this:
Dance
*flashback*
What was that tv commercial from years ago? It featured a woman taking a man's shirt from a closet. Putting the white dress shirt on, as well as a Fedora, she seems to be fantasizing while she wears the shirt and smells it. The phone-rings.
She suddenly goes into a surprised,"Who could that be?" expression and seems nervous. She answers the phone
"Hi, honey." Relaxes and smiles. "I was just thinking about you."
Was that for Brut?
To me, that is far sexier than Dance or the ice cream woman.
Didn't Kelly LeBrock do that for Brut? (Under the link is "the essence of man").
The ad I'm remembering might be for Brut. The ad I'm thinking of probably ran in the 1980s.
Hai Karate. I found some one of those ads searching for the possible Brut ad. Axe? Lynx? Tag? You're just wearing your father's renamed and repackaged Hai Karate, kid.
Too true! "A scent so seductive it comes with self defense instructions".. Or how did that line go? All I remember is that the Karate-chops usually tipped trays and things over for comedic effect and the poor Hai Karate man was soon on the floor [switch to his angle with camera] with a woman seductivly leaning over him purring.
Yeah, axe/lynx is exactly that but today.
I thought Hai Karate only ran those ads in the UK though.
I don't know if they only ran in the UK.
As much as I hate EwhTube:
Hai Karate: be careful how you use it.
Hai Karate: Gamesman
Hai Karate: The Joey Bishop Show
That last one had a young Regis Philbin in it!
Aaah scary!
I remember the Hai Karate ads from when I lived in the USA, so they ran there as well.
I remember the Hai Karate ads. I even bought some, when I first began shaving (lo, those many years ago...)
The lead character usually looked a little like Harold Lloyd, possibly nerd-ier. (This is in the old sense of the word nerd, where it did NOT imply computing prowess ;~> ). The end result was him being mobbed by these too-good-looking models - i.e. girls wouldn't normally look at him twice. [The Axe ad, where the nerdy guy gets in the elevator just after another guy has sprayed on Axe, and HE (the nerd) gets all the action in the elevator), meshes very well with the Hai Karate ad].
I'd recommend Drakkar Noir, for a smells nice, but doesn't cost the farm (wellll, maybe a piece of the farm).
Drakkar Noir is synonymous with the passionate, sensuous and seductive male image.
*Looks in mirror*
Can you suggest something else?
Well... :-)
It sounds like you need a new mirror - one with software that automatically corrects for minor problems - and I have the right thing to sell to you [wait a sec... this sounds like a sales pitch for vaporware!]
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Don't you consider yourself passionate? (About something!)
And possibly sensuous on occasion?
And if you're involved with advertising, aren't you sometimes seductive, in one way or another?
Besides, you don't necessarily believe the manufacturer's hype, do you? ;->
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[I'm probably older than you are (35 is pretty far back in the rear view mirror), and the only reason I stopped using Drakkar for awhile, is because of large losses in my business several years ago. When I need a cologne, I buy Drakkar. (Jeez, that sounds like a tagline - and I'm not even IN this business!)]
Heck, go a little nuts and try Victor&Rolf's "flower bomb" for men.
It's like a pink Pepe le Pew! ;P
Perfumes smell different on different "colours" (i'm not talking about race). What's your hair colour TDD? Blond, brunette or...?
My hair started out very blonde, turned a brown later on in childhood, got a bit darker later on in life, and now is just starting to turn white.
Hai Karate trivia! Wikipedia entry.
Also fun, the Hai Karate promo "the sounds of self defence"
Also see the attached lessons in self defence that came in every package
Ha! Dabitch, that Hai Karate stuff you posted is great! Hai Karate looks more and more like Axe/Lynx....
I'm currently addicted to Manüfactum catalogue, drooling over all the high quality, no bullshit classic stuff I never knew I so desperately need. They have Rasierwasser too of course, perhaps you'll find your new scent here, maybe Schweizer Pitralon is your thing or the simply menthol refreshing classic from the 1940s Tüff Rasierwasser will treat your sensitive skin right.
:)
I found an box of Swiss Army eau de toilette spray someone gave to me as a gift, and I had forgotten about. I also found a bottle of Preferred Stock Some people seem to give me this stuff for Xmas, or my birthday, and I forget I have it.
Right now, I just using an inexpensive store brand body wash, and an inexpensive after-shave. I don't have anyone to impress....
>> Hai Karate looks more and more like Axe/Lynx....
Too true, it's like they just dusted off the proposition&strategy and updated the entire campaign with new executions.
>>Too true, it's like they just dusted off the proposition&strategy and updated the entire campaign with new executions.
I wonder if they have approached Regis Philbin yet? ;)
That swiss army bottle looks great.
The Swiss probably have the best smelling soldiers around! ;)
TDD should be a planner, he just found interesting insight!
How much does the job pay?
As a planner you can name your salary. I call mine Fred.
So, what did Hai Karate fail to have that Axe/Lynx has now? Same idea with both. You could probably mix 'n' match Hai Karate and Axe/Lynx ads without seeing much of a difference. Axe/Lynx seems to be going strong, and Hai Karate is long gone. Did Hai Karate just arrive the party too early?
Hai Karate kept going though the 1970s, so it was hardly a failure. It appeared in the book I Can Sell You Anything as that rarest of things, a novelty brand that went mainstream.
Y'know, Colin still has some Hai Karate talcum powder somewhere in the back of the medicine cabinet. Probably a collector's item now.
No, it wasn't a failure, and I'm not sure I am saying that. I'm just trying to find out why Hai Karate is no longer being sold while Axe/Lynx, using the carbon copy of the Hai Karate advertising, is the leading brand in its category today.
Possibly it smells like "Dad's cologne" to kids today. ;) Meanwhile dad wears what the missus buys and she sure as hell ain't buying Hai Karate. There's the problem with this strategy, bachelours/young studs only need apply.
That makes sense. I guess we can expect the same fate for Axe/Lynx as Hai Karate when Axe/Lynx eventually becomes "Dad's cologne". Then will we see a new scent using a third carbon copy of the Hai Karate ads? ;)
Do they fail or does it work well enough to keep a brand afloat for however long they want it? There are more examples on this site of strategies like this, Robblink showed us Old Spice in 2003. Then there was Musk, remember Musk that drove men AND women crazy?
I think it would be interesting to hear those who created the Hai Karate ads comment on the current Axe/Lynx ads.
Valerie Leon was one of the Hai Karate ad girls. You can see some EwhTube clips here