Old Spice - (Not So Old Anymore)

When you think of Old Spice what comes to mind? Is it deodorant? Maybe it’s the kind that your grandpa uses or your dad uses? Although Old Spice has gone this route of targeting older middle aged men they have since alternated that view of themselves and have switched to targeting younger men and women. If you’ve seen their eye-catching and humorous commercials on television you probably know somewhat what I am talking about.

Old Spice is a company brought to you by Procter and Gamble and it specializes in men’s products such as deodorant, antiperspirant, body wash, cologne, body sprays, after shaves, and hair care & styling. Some of Old Spices biggest competitors would be Axe, Right Guard & Degree for Men.

What makes Old Spice’s TV ads so effective and so appealing to the common man and women? Old Spice really knows who their target customers are, the different divisions of customers, and really articulates their products benefits to these customers. Who are these various customers that Old Spice is attempting to reach during their ads? Young adult males ages (18-35) would be the primary audience. These bros would care about personal hygiene and might come across (or want to come across) as confident, strong, brute, adventurous, or just plain MAN! The Old Spice ads create a need to the watching customer. That need implies that if you use this product you will become a fearless, attractive, self-assured man’s man, the kind of man that a beautiful women would want to be with. Old Spice suggests that a man will set himself apart from other guys when he uses their brand.

Another customer subdivision would be the girlfriends or wives of these young men. These women would purchase the Old Spice brand in order to fulfill the need of wanting their beaus to be more stallion, more confident, and more attractive. The commercials clearly state this premise when the macho, brave heroine states, “THE MAN YOUR MAN COULD SMELL LIKE” implying that if your boyfriend or husband uses Old Spice then he too can be a courageous, fearless, stud of a man who builds his girlfriend her dream kitchen with his bare hands.

One more customer segment for the Old Spice campaign would stem off of the aforementioned one and would be the mothers that would want their sons to meet a nice girl. A lot of these ads play on sports network channels such as ESPN where you can find young males watching (Old Spice’s target audience.) They also play on more gender neutral channels such as NBC and ABC when women would be watching as well (another target audience.) Old Spice has also stapled itself on online ads, magazine ads, and in social media.

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