Axe / Lynx

There is no secret brands are a big part of our lives, they are not only different options with an adherent value, they are also a representation of how and what we buy and a definition of who we are and what kind of life we are living.

In a market with many options, to be able to stand out you have to define what makes your product special and different from others, what are the benefits you are bringing to your customer.

Axe was born in France in 1983 and created by UNILEVER; Axe was created inspired by another Unilever’s brand called “ Impulse” which was a fragranced deodorant body spray for women that promised to attract male attention; they enthusiastically capitalized axe success and launched it to the rest of Europe from 1985 onwards.

The brand offers deodorant body spray, sticks, roll-ons, anti perspirants, aftershaves and shower gels. Axe is considered the number one worldwide brand of men’s grooming products and can be found in over 60 countries; in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom it is named Lynx due to conflicts regarding trademark.

Axe has established itself as one of the most high-profile brands as a result of its unique eye-catching and prolific marketing which offers an exaggerated view of the product’s effect on women. Its products are consistently targeted to 18-25 year old males and not all axe products are marketed in all countries. It claims to be cool, iconic and seductive; they come up with a constant stream of new ideas to keep guys a step ahead in the "mating game". They have an excellent track record of advertising awards and they represent well-established brand leaders in Europe And Latin America.

Axe is a good example of a solid brand consistent to its personality; some might consider it a little bit sexist and male chauvinist but still is a marketing phenomenon that keeps excitement in the market.

AXE Brand Strategy Communication

The brand axe is considered to be one of the most recognized brands in a short period of time thanks to intense and successful campaigns based on previous studies on consumer behavior.

Taking into account the young target audience, they focused their energies into what they considered an important issue to teenagers and young adults “getting the girl”, how to get women’s attention. The objectives of AXE campaigns are to reintroduce men’s personal care products in a hip and attractive way; this is what they consider “The AXE EFFECT”.

The Axe Effect is an internationally recognized name for the increased attention Axe-wearing males receive from eager, and attractive, female pursuers

Axe is promoted extensively through its various advertising campaigns. The highlights of AXE campaign to create their message and communicate to their audience were that if you used their products women will fall over you, you will look and smell good, gaining strong confidence when asking a woman and as final result you will for sure get the girl you dream of. One of the main elements is “ the girl”, everything surround about how you will get it to be able to convince their consumers that the only thing they need is AXE products and they will have the same as the commercial or advertisements implies. They rely on implicit and explicit sexual references in edgy videos design to intricate on the “boy gets girl” theme.

Right now in French market you could find the following products with their campaigns:

-Provocation: the fallen angels

- Dark Temptation: As irresistible as chocolate..

- Hot Fever: Who has the biggest Maracas?

- Cool Metal: Keep a cool head.

- Twist: Fais vibrer les filles.

- Rise Up: Get ready!

- Vice Makes girls less wise.

Also you can find Marine, Musk, Click, Shock, LEndemain Difficile among others.

And for the same type of products and campaigns a new line called DRY:

Dry Full Control

- Dry Provocation

- Dry Dark Temptation

- Dry Sharp Focus

- Dry Click

- Dry Twist

Axe Twist: Are You Ready For the Challenge?

In the original campaign once more axe tries to communicate that good smell can produce the desired impression that helps when it comes to women. They suggest that Axe twist can change and adapt to the situations needed. The comparison with the product shows a man that goes on a date, at the beginning she does not seem quiet interested in him, so big robotic hands changes his appearance and he gets a chance to walk her home, but since that appearance its not the type of a “girl letting him in” the axe magic works again and transform him into a masculine sort of James Dean image.

The campaign launched in France of Axe Twist

The campaign is launched with Clara Morgane and basically she goes on a date with this guy that changes with “the magic of Axe twist” to keep her interested, in the end the changes are so good that he also gets the waitress attention. The campaign also involves the consumer promoting to subscribe in twitter to win a photo-shoot with Clara Morgane. This approach emphasized the fact that axe twist allows to change of smell throughout the day to increase what they considered “your seductive potential” with girls while keeping a real freshness. This product plays with the idea that indeed it is easy to attract women but is harder to keep a girl interested because they get tired easily. 

Axe Dark Temptation

Axe DARK TEMPTATION

In this instance, Axe wanted to create a fragrance that smells so good that women would want to eat it; for this purpose they made a session with women tasting ice cream flavors in which they found out chocolate was the flavor women wanted the most. Dark temptations is created to tell guys how to bee as irresistible as a chocolate to women. “Irresistible as Chocolate” platform was created and developed into core advertising “ a chocolate man who is the representation of this idea. This time I would like to present the different campaigns held around the world, with this type of campaign Axe unleashed a unique guerrilla campaigns in different markets of the world.

The first AXE DARK TEMPTATION AD shows the guy spraying the product and turning into a chocolate man that girls just cannot resist, they kiss, lick, bite and touch him everywhere he goes.

The Second ad is the French version bellow which shows a beautiful woman imitating a cooking show, when it comes to the part of the ingredients a man is put on the table she “tastes” him but apparently the flavor is not appealing so he sprays the new “axe dark temptation” and changed to “ the chocolate man “, the testing begins and this is where it becomes more attractive comprising sensible parts of the body.

In digitally advanced France 200,000 guys received “chocolate nibbles & licks” from girls on social networking site Skyrock. While real life 'Chocolate Guys' caused a stir in youth ‘energy centres.

http://live.axe.com.br/axe-university/

The most controversial one would the Sao Paulo campaign, where 40 attractive women in their lingerie stands around eating chocolate body parts in public places. This campaign is provocative and a little bit suggestive the different approaches depending on the market, also their website for dark temptation is more sexually suggestive with a lot of Lolita’s sort of type girls calling it “the axe university”, while the French site promotes more games and the opportunity to win different presents.