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TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY……………………...…………………………...….3
ANALYSIS …………………………………………………..............................4
INTRODUCTION.……………………………………………………….....…..4
SEGMENTATION………………………………………………………….…..6
TARGETING…………………………………………………………………...6
POSITIONING……………………………………………………….................7
PROMOTIONAL MIX………………………………………………................9
Advertising….………………………………………………....................9
Interactive Marketing…………………………………………………...10
Publicity………………………………………………………………....11
COMPETITIORS……………………………………………………………...12
CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………..................14
REFERENCES………………………………………………………………...14
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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
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,
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ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
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 Vanaspati Mfg. Co. Ltd. and United Traders Ltd. Among this category
marketed towards the young male demographic. Axe was launched in France in
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 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
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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
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’.
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SEGMENTATION
TARGETING
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.
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
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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
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
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
fragrances and the consumer can make a third one by spraying the two deos
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product. A typical Axe 3 packs contains two deos marked 1 & 2. These cans
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
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
branding effort. Through this effort of campaigning they have created a huge
global image. The axe deodorant always comes in stylish bottle, because of the
packaging, it can be easily recognized. The packaging of axe itself has created
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PROMOTIONAL MIX
AD
communicate with the consumers about their product. To communicate with the
activities.
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
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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
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
Interactive Marketing
Advertisements of Axe are visible all over the web in relevant and web social
networking sites.
Axe launched “THE AXE EFFECT GAMES” in 2009. They are mainly online
flash games build for their promotion. Ax also introduced “AXE EFFECT
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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
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.
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
with the girls giving the boys the number 09987333333.Through a series
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CHOCOLATE MONTH OF THE YEAR: Axe launched another
24 hour online campaign in which a dark man was placed in the centre of
mainly used to capture the attention of the young internet users who visited
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
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
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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
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
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
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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
interactive marketing and sales promotion, which is very important for any brand
to maintain its good position in the market. The STP (Segmentation, Targeting,
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
REFERENCES
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)
6. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindustan_Unilever
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