Old Spice - Rebranding Done right: Marketing Lessons Gained from the Case of Old Spice

Institution: Roskilde University Line of Study: Business Administration Authors: Jens Gustav Aagerup Jensen, Lukas Børglum Højland & Nichlas Holme Larsen Student nr: 55436, 55440 & 55619 Supervisor: Boel Jørgensen Characters: 142.529

Roskilde University Business Administration

Old Spice - Rebranding Done right: Marketing Lessons Gained from the Case of Old Spice

1 Roskilde University Business Administration

Table of Content

Chapter 1 - Problem Area ...... 3

Problem Area – Old Spice ...... 3 Research Question: ...... 6 Limitation ...... 6 Chapter 2 - Methodology ...... 7

Introduction...... 7 Case Study Justification ...... 7 Social Constructivism ...... 10 Empirical Data ...... 12 Conclusion ...... 13 Chapter 3 - Theoretical Considerations ...... 13

Introduction...... 13 Vision, Culture and Image ...... 13 Co-creation ...... 17 Customer-Based Brand Equity Model (CBBE) ...... 18 Operationalisation - Conclusion ...... 24 Chapter 4 - Old Spice ...... 25

Old Spice - History ...... 26 Timeline ...... 28 Data Proof ...... 29 Old Spice’s Narrative ...... 30 Conclusion ...... 32 Chapter 5 - Analysis ...... 32

Analysis of the TV commercial” The man your man could smell like.” ...... 33 Humor as the weapon of choice ...... 36 Use of sexual information ...... 39 Co-creation analysis of old spice ...... 41 The Use of Narratives in marketing ...... 43 Customers Segmentation ...... 46

2 Roskilde University Business Administration Cultural meaning and celebrity endorsement ...... 50 Conclusion ...... 54 Chapter 5 - Discussion ...... 56

Vision, Culture and Image Model ...... 56 Customer-based brand equity ...... 59 Discussion - Analysis ...... 62 Chapter 6 - Conclusion ...... 65

Conclusion ...... 65 Perspectivation ...... 67 Reflection ...... 68 Chapter 7 - Bibliography ...... 69

Books ...... 69 Journal Articles ...... 70 Websites ...... 73

Chapter 1 - Problem Area

Problem Area – Old Spice

Since advances in technology are levelling the playing field, the brand becomes a valuable asset (Arvidsson 2005). Branding is, contemporary, a cornerstone in marketing literature and practice, scholars, and marketing practitioners are all seeking to establish and understand brands. No matter the industry, product or service, being a household brand are of particular interest for all companies (Williams 2000; Arvidsson 2005; Gardner & Levy 1955). Establishing a brand is not a straightforward process, and there is no one size fits all model of generating brand equity (Arvidsson 2005). Brands are now such an important aspect that there are models of valuing

3 Roskilde University Business Administration brands; in financial statements, the brand value becomes an asset (Arvidsson 2005). Brands as a trademark, are often seen, as company's’ greatest asset (Arvidsson 2005; Williams 2000; Lury 2004). Maintaining a valuable and relevant brand is no simple task, and requires marketers to constantly reinvent the way in which they appeal to customers and generate brand awareness (Arvidsson 2005; Lury 2004). Marketing a brand is not only marketing the brand itself, but it is also to produce possible buying situations in which the brand is valuable (Keller 2001; Arvidsson 2005). With all this in mind, since brands hold such importance what happens when customers deem the brand obsolete or simply does not have an awareness of the brand's existence? When this occurs, brands have one more chance of sustaining, though, reinventing themselves, known as rebranding. Rebranding is a delicate process in which an organization chooses to offer renewed value propositions in order to develop a new brand identity (Tevi & Otubanjo 2013; Gotsi & Andriopoulos 2007; Stuart & Muzellec 2004). There are multiple reasons why brands might find it appealing to rebrand (Tevi & Otubanjo 2013; Miller et. al 2013). Rebranding can be an efficient tool in for instances cases were brands recognize a decline in sales, stigmas regarding the brand the brand seeks to get rid of or maybe to distance themselves from scandals (Tevi & Otubanjo 2013; Miller et. al 2013; Stuart & Muzellec 2004). Reasons for rebranding comes in two categories of factors i.e. external and internal (Tevi & Otubanjo 2013; Gotsi & Andriopoulos 2007). As there are several grounds for rebranding, likewise, there are numerous degrees of rebranding. Rebranding can range from a total makeover of the name, logo, color usage, product series, on the other end of the spectrum rebranding can also be a repositioning within the market (Tevi & Otubanjo 2013; Gotsi & Andriopoulos 2007; Miller et. al 2013). The degree of rebranding depends on the strategy, and vision for the rebranding. The tricky process of rebranding is developing a new brand, without the loss of current brand equity (Tevi & Otubanjo 2013). Hence, how do some firms effectively transfer brand equity through rebranding? As with branding, there is no theoretical framework suitable for all cases. In recent years, several organizations have sought to rebrand themselves with varying success (Tevi & Otubanjo 2013). Netflix started out as a mail based DVD-rental site, and as streaming became popular Netflix decided to divide into two corporations. One was the original Netflix offering the first service of DVD-rental, and the other was Qwikster a Netflix company. The two names happened to confuse customers, instead of aiding and Netflix decided only to use Netflix (Fastprint.co.uk 2016).

4 Roskilde University Business Administration Tropicana, a juice manufacturer, decided to implement a new design for its cartons, but shortly after the implementation experienced a decline in sales (Fastprint.co.uk 2016). Tropicana quickly decided to switch back to the old containers, and therefore, the rebranding campaign was an utter waste of time and money (Fastprint.co.uk 2016). Other companies have successfully implemented rebranding campaigns. For instance, Apple, formerly known as Apple Computers, decided to rebrand themselves to not only limit themselves to making computers but could now also focus on other features (Forbes.com 2016). Dropping computer from the name proved a huge success and has now made Apple one of the most successful companies in the world (Forbes.com 2016). Burberry wanted people to neglect the stigma attached as gang wear, and therefore implementing new product lines, and celebrity endorsements had a huge triumph in doing so, and are now considered a high-end clothing company (Forbes.com 2016). Men’s grooming and health is a preternatural market, as it is somewhat dominated by product created and marketed for women (Nielly 2014). Some companies have tried to challenge this assumption due to the apparent financial revenue available, however with varying success. Companies like Gucci, Hugo Boss, Lacoste has to some extent opened up the market by selling high-cost fragrances as well as shampoos and body wash products, while companies like Axe and Old Spice went in the opposite direction, selling low-cost product targeting the “average Joe” of America. The project is an inquiry into the selling and marketing of low-cost men's grooming products with Old Spice as the main case. Old Spice is interesting from a rebranding, repositioning perspective as they managed to re-ignite their sales by doing a complete overhaul of their brand. Founded in 1937, Old Spice initially retailed a women's scent, and because of its success, they followed with a men's fragrance the following Christmas and their aftershave product became an institution in America, with virtually nobody unaware of their brand. In 1990, Old Spice became part of Procter & Gamble (P&G), who introduced body washes, deodorants and body spray under the Old Spice brand. The real problem, the real puzzle, however, lies in Old Spice’s effort to rebrand themselves, evolving from an outdated aftershave that a grandfather would use, to something appealing to a younger demographic and becoming financially sustainable. It would not be an implausible notion to call the rebranding effort a matter of indifference or excellence.

5 Roskilde University Business Administration Old Spice launched the campaign first on YouTube in 2010, where it was able to generate buzz among users. Later, Old Spice aired the commercial on TV, following Superbowl Sunday. The commercial was named “The man your man could smell like” (TMYMCSL) (Nielly 2014). This commercial would prove as the final goodbye to the grandfathers and a “hello and welcome” to every football interested male in America. What prevailed the commercial was some assumptions about their market and their brand (Nielly 2014). P&G had hired Wieden+Kennedy, an ad-agency known for Nike’s “Just Do It” campaign, and several Coca-Cola and Bud Light commercials, who via their research learned that women conducted 60 % of all body wash purchases, therefore altering their perspective to focusing not only on men but also women (Nielle 2014). In only a few weeks, the “TMYMCSL” commercial, starring former NFL player Isaiah Mustafa, became a national phenomenon, sparking YouTube impersonators and attracting attentions from talk shows such as Ellen with Ellen Degeneres and Oprah with Oprah Winfrey, while also going viral on many popular websites (Nielly 2014). The rebranding of Old Spice demonstrated courage from Old Spice and Wieden+Kennedy and is considered one of the most successful rebranding campaigns in later years (Apeceffie.com 2011). From a Google search it becomes evident that this was, in fact, one of the most successful cases of rebranding, the case has seen no direct impact from academic research. This paper seeks to investigate what factors allowed for the success of Old Spice; this project aims to explore what rebranding lessons can be learned from a case study of Old Spice, hence, the research question:

Research Question:

“What marketing lessons can be gained from the case study of Old Spice?”

Limitation

Although this project positions itself within the business studies field, the authors have chosen not to go into depth with the market and industry surrounding Old Spice, and hence looked more at the social tendencies surrounding Old Spice. Due to the time constraints for this project as well as the direction the project has taken the authors did not deem it necessary to go out and

6 Roskilde University Business Administration generate their data. The data needed to go into depth with market and industry research were only obtainable for a high price this justified for the authors to take the project in another direction. The authors have chosen not to look at rebranding as such, because, Old Spice did not try to transfer prior brand equity with them, instead focusing on the younger generation. This project concentrates on the external communication about Old Spice and does not go into any internal organizational discussions. Furthermore, this project does not go into depth with the customer segmentation, neither sociological, qualitatively or quantitatively, however, it focuses more on what works when appealing to different cultures in the society.

Chapter 2 - Methodology

Introduction

In this part of the project, authors are set to elaborate on the underlying considerations in this paper. Since this project aims to use theories and analysis of the Old Spice rebranding campaign, to offer propositions as to what other cases of brands seeking to establish a new brand with little regard to the transfer of brand equity through the transition. In this chapter, the methodological considerations become clear. First, a presentation of how the authors perceive a case study, along with how a case study can be useful. Second, a presentation of Social Constructivism. Lastly, the use of sources in relevance to the usefulness and pitfalls entailed in the literature utilized.

Case Study Justification

This paper is set out to investigate the successful facilitators of the Old Spice rebranding campaign, as a case study. Therefore, this section will elaborate the authors understanding and considerations regarding what case studies are, and how case studies can contribute to the greater context for the generation of knowledge.

7 Roskilde University Business Administration The general idea within the social sciences is, generalizations to other situations cannot stem from a single case study, and that social science research should mainly focus with generalization (Flyvbjerg 2006). In the original understanding of case studies, there have been accusations of the case study approach influenced heavily by the researcher's subjective opinion, questioning the validation of case studies. Flyvbjerg (2006) proposes the argument, “conventional wisdom of case-study research, which if not directly wrong, is so oversimplified as to be grossly misleading.” (Flyvbjerg 2006). Flyvbjerg (2006) agrees with the proposition that case studies are comprehensive studies of single occurrences, but is not agreeing with the extent to which a case study can apply to a larger context (Flyvbjerg 2006).

Flyvbjerg (2006) provides five misunderstandings derived from the original conceptualization of case studies; the five misunderstandings appear below.

Misunderstanding no. 1 Theoretical knowledge without foundation in a context holds more value compared to knowledge with roots within a concrete case study. Misunderstanding no. 2 Generalizations cannot be drawn on the background of single case studies. Therefore, case studies do not hold value for scientific development. Misunderstanding no. 3 Case studies are mainly valid for the elaboration of the hypothesis. Other methods of research are more applicable to the hypothesis- and theory testing. Misunderstanding no. 4 Researchers doing case studies are more likely to be subjective in their research and are therefore more liable to favor their predetermined ideas. Misunderstanding no. 5 It is often problematic to create a detailed case study and develop a general hypothesis and theories on this background. (Flyvbjerg 2006)

Flyvbjerg (2006) explains why he believed the conceptual notions are misunderstandings.

Misunderstanding no. 1 Flyvbjerg (2006) believes that all knowledge is to some degree context-dependable, and it is not only the truth for case studies. He proposes the argument; everybody can drive a car, or understand the pictures on the TV, but only certain experts are capable of flying a plane or write a symphony. Beginners’ have to apply less effort in learning rational, analytical tools within a

8 Roskilde University Business Administration context and needs more expertise to be able to implement the tools of analysis to the generalized world without context. Hence, Contextual dependent knowledge is at the center of expert knowledge. If presented merely to context independent data and frameworks, would never allow for beginners distance themselves from this level of expertise, they would, in turn, stand at the initial level. Flyvbjerg (2006) furthers, educations should apply thoroughly selected cases with the purpose of allowing students to move from beginners to experts. Social scientist has not been able to produce one unified epistemological understanding of the universe, compared to the one in science. Hence, social scientists do not have any context-independent knowledge to offer (Flyvbjerg 2006). Theories and universal concepts without context do not exist in social sciences. Context- dependent particular theories hold more value in social science.

Misunderstanding no. 2 On the matter of; if one can generalize from a single case study or not Flyvbjerg (2006) has some precautions. He says that some extent misunderstanding 2 holds some significance, but at the same time the generalization cannot be made for all case studies, it depends on the study if generalizations in the form of knowledge are possible from the study. Furthermore, this goes in both social- and natural-science. From the concept of falsification by Karl Popper (1959), which is one of the most challenging tests in science, if one observation disproves the hypothesis, then the hypothesis must be discarded as knowledge. Popper applied the famously known concept about swans, and stated if the hypothesis is; all swans are white, then the observation of one black swan would falsify this assumption (Flyvbjerg 2006). Flyvbjerg (2006) states that the case study is excellent for the discovery of black swans, since, in some instances, the swans might appear to be white, but through in-depth research might be black (Flyvbjerg 2006).

Misunderstanding no. 3 The third misunderstanding, which is case study are best applicable for the development of a hypothesis. Flyvbjerg (2206) proposes, since we have established that the second misunderstanding is not valid, the third is therefore neither. Furthermore, case studies are suitable for development and testing and not limited to neither.

9 Roskilde University Business Administration Misunderstanding no. 4 The fourth misunderstanding revolves around case studies tend to be biased towards the author’s preconceived notion about the matter studied. Flyvbjerg (2006) states that the tendency of biased towards preconceived notions are not only true for case studies but all methods. All area of qualitative studies has more risk of biased interpretations, compared to that of quantitative research. Flyvbjerg (2006) closes this misunderstanding by stating, Experience proves case studies to learn more towards falsification than verification of preconceived notions.

Misunderstanding no. 5 It can be problematic to develop a concrete in-depth case study, and generate hypotheses and theories on this background. Flyvbjerg (2006) argues the contrary and states that the method is perfectly suited for the hypothesis and theory development. Case studies could be with the principles of theory testing.

Conclusion

In this section, authors present the idea and usefulness of the case study method. This project has chosen to perceive the case study, and the situation acceptable for applying knowledge to the greater context, from the ideas of Flyvbjerg (2006).

A case study is perfectly suitable for both generation and testing of hypothesis and theories. All knowledge is to some degree being context dependable. Case studies research are not necessarily tending towards verification of preconceived notion about the research matter, quite the opposite as a matter of fact, case studies tends to lean more towards falsification of said preconceived notions.

Social Constructivism

The inquiry of this project is founded in social constructionism because our area of research is situated in such a situation where the individual subjectively constructs right and wrong, true or

10 Roskilde University Business Administration false. The lack of objectivity is the epistemological anchor, as it limits the understanding of what can be investigated, understood and analyzed within the realm of social science (Galbin 2014) (Delanty & Strydom 2003). Knowledge is therefore subjectively constructed and perceived as, not as a mirror of reality, but as a reflection of understanding or perception of the same picture (Galbin 2014). With social constructionism, the creation of theory, recognition, and perception, correlation and causality are situated, therefore disregarding a unifying dogmatic and universal understanding of knowledge and truth (Galbin 2014). In context, this standpoint emphasizes the need for a deeper understanding of the social conjectures within the society that creates the intersubjective perceptions of the particular individual. When conducting research from a social constructionist standpoint, reflection and self-critique are vital as we aim to capture a glimpse of a worldview. This entail, that our theory is reflected upon with self-critique and the ability to situate the author and the underlying research and empirical material. In that process, language and rhetoric’s become key factors in understanding how social realities are constructed, both in theory and in the analysis. Our communicative tools, such as film, pictures, and language are what scholars, businesses, essentially everyone utilize when they try to influence the social perception of other individuals. It is essential to understand the communicative tools used by these entities. This notion will be key in this project, as we set out to figure out why certain communicative choices were made to appeal to particular groups in society.

In its nature, social constructivism deals with sociology and communication, making it an obvious foundation for understanding marketing, and how it can be successful. In our case, it can help us understand why Old Spice’s communication was successful in the given sociological situation. As the sociological world develops, different methods of communication vary in success. Hence it is vital to understand the sociological realm that allowed Old Spice’s communication to result in increased brand equity and sales. This standpoint does not deny genetic inheritance, however, chooses to focus on investigating the social life of the individual and aim to group these individuals into a fraction of the society. Grouping individuals according to some factors, such as age, gender, interests, preferred communication outlets and the environment in which they lead their lives. This gathering of social factors, can, in turn, be described as a culture, with various characteristics. Uncovering the values of this culture should,

11 Roskilde University Business Administration therefore, be a goal for the researcher when trying to understand why communication is successful. The shared values of the group or culture can be understood by looking beyond the superficial by deconstructing the existing norms and habits. The interesting is not the surface of the social construction, but what lies underneath and what creates the construction.

Empirical Data

The aim of this section is to explore the credibility and validity of the sources we have used in this research project. Our empirical data consists of secondary data. The only primary evidence in this research project is the data we have generated when we have gone into depth with analyzing the commercial TMYMCSL. During the research, we have used several journal articles, academic books, and various websites. The websites have mainly been used to gain information about the background of Old Spice from the establishment, and all the way to the rebranding campaign. The databases we have used to find journal articles includes Google Scholar, ProQuest, JStor, and Summon. The academic books we have used we have found through libraries. To ensure the sources have a high level of credibility and validity, we have mainly used sources from professors or researchers, who have written articles, journal articles or have made websites to show their research. However, there may be hidden biases, as they can have done some of the research for either P&G or Old Spice to promote their success. However, this we deem does not influence our research. We have chosen not to use much data regarding market or industry research, as we simply deem it would be too extensive to go into depth with a market and industry analysis. Furthermore, the data we would need to do this analysis are both hard and expensive to come by, and hence we chose to take the research in another direction. We could have gone out and done surveys regarding Old Spice and their consumers in Denmark. However, we have opted not to as it would be too time-consuming. Moreover, Old Spice does not have strong brand recognition in Denmark, and Old Spice is not sold in any grocery stores, which could have made our research useless with too many outliers as people simply does not have any knowledge about the brand.

12 Roskilde University Business Administration Conclusion

In this section, authors concluded how a case study could contribute to the generation of knowledge, in more than merely hypothesis creation. Case studies can be useful for making generalizations about social science phenomena. Furthermore, the common perception of case studies traded for the definition from Flyvbjerg (2006). Social Constructivism is the foundation in which this project takes a point of departure, and construct the epistemological considerations. The last part states the literature review and what one should be aware of when using sources.

Chapter 3 - Theoretical Considerations

Introduction

In this chapter, we will introduce our theoretical framework, which is founded in the marketing discipline as stated by the curriculum. We have chosen to engage with theory that can help explain what can create value for customers in marketing, and how said Three goals drove the creation of CBBE. Trough ‘Vision, culture and image’ we will see how a company's overall strategy, or narrative, amount in external marketing efforts. These efforts can then apply to by Keller and his Customer-Based Brand-Equity model. Co-creation is a tool that marketing can use, if the situation is right, we would argue that Old Spice, to some extent, has utilized Co- creation, and we have therefore chosen to include it as part of the theoretical framework.

Vision, Culture and Image

The Vision Culture and Image model (VCI), developed by Mary Jo Hatch a professor from McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia, and Majken Schultz a professor at CBS in Denmark. VCI identifies three essential elements; companies must align with, to strengthen their corporate brand, vision culture, and image. The element of vision centers around the top management of the business's ambition for the enterprise. The issue of culture, centers

13 Roskilde University Business Administration around the organization's attitude, values and behavior, translating how the employees through all the layers in the company feel about the enterprise. The element of image centers around the external impression of the business. This element includes all stakeholders like customers, shareholders, media the general public, etc. (Hatch & Schultz 2001).

The creators of this theory have developed a set of questions for the managers in companies to identify where their “strategic stars” fall out of line, and hence building a strong corporate brand (Hatch & Schultz 2001). The first couple of questions centers around the relationship between the managers and employees, hence the vision and culture of the company. The second couple of issues looks at culture and image. These questions aim to reveal gaps in the attitude of the employees and the external impression of the company. The last questions center around the vision and image difference. These questions aim to explore if the managers of a company are taking the company in a different direction than what the stakeholders of the business want (Hatch & Schultz 2001).

As a part of their theory, Hatch and Schultz developed a toolkit to help managers with strengthening their corporate brand.

14 Roskilde University Business Administration

// The corporate brand toolkit, Hatch & Schultz 2001

In this example of the Corporate Brand Toolkit, the questions they set are included and illustrated above. According to Hatch and Schultz, the Vision-Culture gap can appear if the managers of a company try to move the company in a direction, which the employees either do not understand or support (Hatch & Schultz 2001). One example of this happening could be that the management of a company set a too ambitious goal for the company, which is unrealistic. When it fails, the administration blames the employers and the employees start behaving suspicious and with cynicism. Distrust as such, can ruin a corporation from within, which is why Hatch and Schultz developed a set of questions the managers should ask themselves and the employees to uncover if any gap is emerging. The authors of this model put emphasis on how time-consuming a process it is to go into depth with this model (Hatch & Schultz 2001). Since we are external researchers we will not go into depth with this model, however, we will elaborate on a few of the below questions, which can further our research of the brand of Old Spice.

Does your company practice the values it promotes?

15 Roskilde University Business Administration

Does your company’s vision inspire all its subcultures?

Are your vision and culture sufficiently differentiated from those of your competitors?

What image do stakeholders associate with your company?

In what ways do your employees and stakeholders interact?

Do your employees care what stakeholders think of the company?

Who are your stakeholders?

What do your stakeholders want from your company?

Are you effectively communicate your vision to your stakeholders?

(Hatch & Schultz 2001)

By going in depth and answering all these questions from the Corporate brand toolkit, and identifying all parts of the corporate brand as well as uncovering holes or emerging gaps in it, companies can benefit from this tool to help them establish a strong corporate branding strategy (Hatch & Schultz 2001). This tool takes away a lot of the ambiguity in making and maintaining a corporate band. The result of using this toolkit for managers is they can take charge of their brand, and they can use the strategic stars as competitive weapons against competitors, to stand out (Hatch & Schultz 2001).

16 Roskilde University Business Administration Co-creation

For several years, the concept of the market has been well established as a place in which the customer and firms exchange value. Companies offer goods and services in a trade for capital. The roles of the business and client were clearly defined. The firm was in charge of production and distribution, whereas, the customer's task was merely purchasing commodities. In 2000 Prahalad & Ramaswamy, proposed the idea of co-creation. Co-creation is, in short, the idea that firms and consumers collaborate in generating value for both parties. In the original concept of the market, there is no interaction between customers and companies, before the exchange. Later the consumer has evolved and is more conscience about preferences, and what makes value for them individually. The evolution of consumers, arguably due to the age of information and the availability of products worldwide, has blurred the unique roles from the conceptual idea of the market (Prahalad & Ramaswamy 2004; Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2000).

Further elaborating on the concept of co-creation, will entail both what co-creation is and what is not co-creation. Co-creation is not about customer focus and does not entail that the client is always right. Co-creation is more concerned with the joined creation of value through interactions between the company and consumers; firms does not have the same focus on pleasing customers as previously (Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004). Co-creation is concerned with the individuality of all consumers. The added interaction opportunities allow for services suitable for individual needs. The company does not offer a unified service; communication allows for service relevant to the context (Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004). Co-creation is dependent on consumers to provide problems and be involved with solving of said problems. Co- creation is concerned with companies offering a platform for the interaction between not only the firm and consumers but also for consumers. Co-creation ends the idea of by standing customer waiting to explore what the brand perceives as their interest. For co-creation to be successful, a requirement is the informed and actively engaging customers (Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004).

The interaction between customers and the company is the facilitator for co-creation, because, with the absence of communication, the foundation for co-creation is no longer present. Without foundation for co-creation, it would take us back to the initial idea of the market. Prahalad and Ramaswamy 2004 argues, co-creation needs to be perceived by firms as a source of value.

17 Roskilde University Business Administration Furthermore, businesses utilizing co-creation and understands the concept of customizable experiences for the customers, are more likely to be part of this value creation. Co-creation is concerned with allowing and permit consumers to be part of the value creation process. Or as Humphreys & Grayson (2008) puts it: “The terms ‘co-creation’, ‘co-production’, and ‘prosumption’ refer to situations in which consumers collaborate with companies or with other customers to produce things of value.” (Humpreys & Grayson 2008). Furthermore, when a firm seeks to utilize co-creation, a critical mindset shift necessary is from a marketing perspective, "firms are no longer marketing to, but are marketing with customers" (Lusch & Vargo 2006). Payne et al. (2007) state that effective co-creation demands “the ability to manage expectations, communications and promises between both parties throughout the co-creation process.” (Payne et al. 2007). For the successful implementation, the focus must be on clients value, generated through interactions between consumers and the firm. Moreover, the user expects transparency and fairness from the necessary, in order to develop a mutually beneficial relationship.

Customer-Based Brand Equity Model (CBBE)

Organizations in all industries, whether it being for profit or non-profit, has a vision of establishing a strong brand. High brand equity is often equivalent to being beneficial for a firm in the context of customer relations, loyalty, less vulnerability towards competitors and greater efficiency in reach customers through marketing means. Keller (2001) Argues that two questions often arise when an organization seeks to build their brand: “What makes a brand strong?” and “how do you build a strong brand?” These questions are at the foundation of CBBE. So, the aim of CBBE is a “unique perspective on what brand equity is and how it should best be built, measured, and managed.” (Keller 2001)

The CBBE was created to fulfill three goals; 1) the model needed to utilize state of the art thinking and should not neglect either academic or business oriented idea. Furthermore, the model should be rational. 2) The versatility of the design was a crucial part of the underlying framework for the creation of the model. The model needed to suit all industries and an

18 Roskilde University Business Administration enormous impact on a wide span of cases. 3) The model should be far-reaching and include both branding topics and recommendations and understandings of brand equity. (Keller 2001)

Steps of Brand Building

According to the CBBE, there is a sequential route to the brand building, at it can be done in four steps, it is important to acknowledge that the four steps are reliant on the previous steps completion for the model to function as intended, hence the sequential. The focus, in particular, is to achieve goals with both current and prospective customers. The initial step is concerned with ensuring that clients can identify the brand. Secondly, draw cognitive links to services or products offered by the organization, based on the brand. Thirdly, provide customers with the relevant value propositions to establish the brand as desired by the enormous impact on, and generate brand responses. The final step is to connect with the customers in order to form a brand relationship. (Keller 2001)

As briefly mentioned, the establishment of brand equity is not achievable in random order, it needs to be done in the order as stated above which is the ‘Branding Ladder’ i.e. meaning is not established without the identity have, already, been provided. Customer’s responses are reliant on the meaning, and relationship cannot exist without the elicitation of the appropriate responses. (Keller 2001)

Brand Identity

To accomplish the true brand identity, a fundamental concept is brand salience. It is awareness, in short, brand salience deals with how well your brand stands out from the competition. Furthermore, it is crucial that customers recognize your brand, and is aware of the existence. To establish brand salience, it is central to recognize who your customers are. Building brand awareness requires more than merely just for customers to understand your brand, customers must also be able to identify what services or products your brand's portfolio entails. Brand Salience underlies the foundation for brand equity and requires three factors.

19 Roskilde University Business Administration 1: Salience affects the properties that generate the brand image, hence, gives meaning to the brand for the customers.

2: For customers to select one brand over another, it is important that the clients can relate to what needs the brand’s products fulfill. Brand salience is a prerequisite for part of the customer's consideration set, hence, being among the select few that the clients include in consideration when acquiring a product from that market. (Keller 2001)

3: One of the areas where brand salience is most important is when customers have ‘low involvement’ in the purchase of services or goods. When customers do not possess ‘purchase motivation,' customers have no interest in buying the service or product. ‘Purchase ability,' customers have no knowledge of the products offered in the market.

Distinguishing brand awareness into breadth and depth is possible. Where the latter is concerned with, if consumer easily can identify the brand. The former is concerned with under which circumstance of consumption customers relate to the brand. High salience demands both depth and breadth.

Brand meaning

As mentioned above brand salience is required to develop brand equity, but is not sufficient by its lonesome in all situations. Often customers need more than merely brand identity, and when brand identity is no longer adequate for the multifaceted clients, brand meaning becomes necessary to get customers to choose your brand. When intending to establishing a brand, it is important to have a brand image. Brand image and meaning are what perceptions consumers should have about the brand, along with the visions and values of the brand. (Keller 2001)

Brand performance is the cornerstone of establishing brand meaning, hence, generating brand equity. The product or services are the main source of experience for customers regarding a given brand. Moreover, communications from the brand along with ‘word to mouth’ are secondary sources. For a marketing campaign to be successful, it is dependent on a functional

20 Roskilde University Business Administration product, able to meet customer expectations and demands. To found brand loyalty, it is crucial that the product at least lives up to customer expectations, or if possible exceed expectations. Studies show a correlation between quality and financial performance, for instance, high-quality, high return on investment. So, no matter the marketing campaign, the performance of the product is of crucial importance. To define brand performance, there are five categories that aid in the assessment of brand performance. Though, these may vary slightly dependent on the industry. (Keller 2001)

1: Primary characteristics and secondary features Consumers tend to have opinions towards how functional the primary characteristics are, and assess them as low, medium, high or very high. Possibly, consumers have opinions on the secondary feature, and that it should complement the primary characteristics. 2: Reliability, durability, and serviceability Reliability are concerned with the performance of the product, and especially from purchase to purchase. Durability is the anticipated amount of value in regards to cost. Serviceability stretches both from the duration of repairs, and all the way to how customer service interacts with their clients. 3: Service effectiveness, efficiency, and empathy Service effectiveness regards meeting customers service expectations. Service efficiency is how services are supplied for instance how fast customer service reacts and responds to customers. Service empathy is how the customers perceive the brand as being caring and have customer best interest as a top priority. 4: Style and Design A brand's performance depends on style and design of the product. In some industries, the style and design are alpha omega. 5: Price The pricing of a brand, has a humongous impact on how customers label the brand. And what category of brands it falls within. (Keller 2001)

Whereas brand performance has the product at the center that is not the case with brand imagery. Brand imagery is conceptual and deals with how the brand responds to customer’s emotional and social demands. Four criteria’s can be setup as to understand brand imagery.

21 Roskilde University Business Administration 1: User Profiles Concerned with who uses the product, the persons utilizing the product can, in turn, shape the brand image in other users. The user profile can be several factors, for instance, demographics, race, gender or age. 2: Purchase and usage situation Purchase situation regard where the product is available for purchase since sometimes the product is not reachable if the outlet is in a special store or online, then the situation can be that the store is too far away or the website can’t ship the product in time. Usage situation is under what circumstances the product is useful. 3: Personality and Values Brands can employ qualities that often linked with human behavior such as honesty, exhilaration (dangerous or imaginative), adequacy (reliable or smart), sophistication (Upper class or delightful) and roughness (outdoorsy and jagged) 4: History, heritage and experiences Brands can employ actual history of the firm; for example, describe the legacy of the organization. (Keller 2001)

For brand association, three concepts that all need to be present for a successful brand meaning; Strength, favorability and uniqueness, one is worthless without the present of the others. Strength; is the brand easily recognizable, Favorability; is the brand valuable to customers and Uniqueness; is the brand separating itself from other brands. Though a brand is strong and easily identifiable, that is of no use if it is not favorable among customers. If the brand is not strong, but not unique, a client might as well choose another brand. These associations need to be in place for the consumer to invest in one particular brand over another. Establishing a brand with strong, favorable and unique associations are no easy task for the marketing team, but it is an essential part of creating CBBE. (Keller 2001)

Brand Responses

Brand responses mean how consumers respond to marketing efforts and communications from the brand. This step of the ladder is concerned with how customers feel and think about the brand.

Brand Judgments

22 Roskilde University Business Administration Brand Judgment focus lies within the personal user experience and brand experience by the customers. Brand judgment refers to how consumers respond to the brand performance, and imagery set forth by the brand. Brand judgment has four sub-categories.

1: Brand Quality Customers may have several different opinions regarding the brand, but the most important aspect is that of quality. Customers perceived the quality of the brand is crucial. 2: Brand Credibility Customers can form judgments of the brand based on other factors than quality. Brand credibility is not only the brand but the organization that is creating the brand. Brand credibility further divides into three concepts 1; brand expertise (capable, pioneering), 2; brand trustworthiness (reliable) and 3; brand likeability (amusing, motivating). 3: Brand Consideration Brand consideration is the idea that even though you have a strong brand image and customers recognize the brand, it is still of the utmost importance that the clients consider your brand when purchasing within the market segment. Brand consideration is heavily dependent on the associations of the brand image. 4: Brand Superiority The perception of the client if the brand is unique and better. It is relying on customers associating as being unique or better by the brand image. (Keller 2001)

Brand Feelings is what customer’s feelings are towards the brand, and “the social currency evoked by the brand.” Brand feeling can be six types;

Warmth is if the brand makes consumers feel relaxed. Fun might make customers feel happy and cheerful. Excitement makes the customer feel inspired, eccentric and makes them feel that they live. Security is a brand that makes customers feels safe; the brand can make consumers worry less. Social approval is when customers feel approved by others because of their brand selection and furthermore emphasized if people treat them with advantage based on the brand. Self-respect Makes individuals using the brand more confident; consumers might feel pride or satisfaction. (Keller 2001)

Brand Relationship

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At the very end of the sequential steps, we have the brand relationship. The brand relationship is focusing on the relationship and the identity of the consumers based on the brand. The concept of brand resonance is concerned with the how aligned customers and the brand are. Brand resonance can be understood by four concepts, which are; Behavioral loyalty is the initiating part of brand resonance and is basically the frequency and quantity of purchases made by customers. In order to generate profits, the brand must achieve repeated purchases and often. Attitudinal attachment Behavioral loyalty is a necessity but is not adequate on its own for the generation of brand resonance. Brands is purchased due to factors outside the brand, such as price or availability, etc. Attitudinal attachment requires more than for customers to favor the brand. Customers need to love the brand, and looking forward to purchasing it, or being extremely fond of it. The sense of community the brand can form identities with a customer community, thereby, making a community around the brand. Through community, customers become attached to each other and the brand. Active engagement is best described by Keller “perhaps the strongest affirmation of brand loyalty occurs when clients are willing to invest time, energy, money, or other resources into the brand beyond those expended during purchase or consumption of the brand. “(Keller 2001)

Operationalization - Conclusion

‘Vision, Culture & image’ (VCI), ‘Co-creation’ and the Customer-Based Brand-Equity model (CBBE), will function as our underlying, theoretical foundation for analysis. However, as the project advances, the reader will recognize that our analysis is heavy with a theoretical discussion along with the analysis. This section will then seek to discuss how our underlying theory will function as the common thread through the entire project. VCI is a functional tool that companies can use as an internal exercise to create a compass for their internal and external communication. The internal part, the culture, will be of little interest in the remainder of the project, as, in relation to our research, the primary objective is to investigate how external

24 Roskilde University Business Administration communication, the image, is created and conducted successfully. CBBE is the model that explains how companies can build a strong brand via creating an image, as explained by VCI. The image created by Old Spice will be analyzed through a deeper look into their ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’, commercial, and the following response campaign, with a special focus on attention creating aspects such as the use of humor and sexual information. CBBE should be seen as a model that Old Spice is against, by looking at how well their marketing efforts compare with Keller’s model to explain their success. Co-creation will feature as a detailed point analysis, where we see Old Spice use this piece of theory in action, with a particular response campaign. Furthermore, we will investigate how Old Spice, via the use of co- creation, build a narrative together with their customers.

The theories we have chosen, are all founded in the business discipline, with a focus on how business can increase their external communication, however since our research question seeks to invest how marketing can be successful, he needs to obtain knowledge of how the recipients of these marketing's efforts are affected by the marketing. This aspect will be somewhat touched upon in the analysis, by working with sociological concepts and utilizing them in relation to marketing theory. However, since this project is part of a bachelor in business, with marketing as the main discipline, we have chosen to base our theory solely on efforts from that discipline, and drawing upon other ideas from sociology when necessary. For example, we draw upon Talcott Parsons and his contributions, when analyzing how to communicate to individuals. We will, therefore, draw on theoretical concepts when we feel the need to, however, our foundation is as stated above.

Chapter 4 - Old Spice

This chapter functions as a background chapter for the reader to get an idea about the history of Old Spice. The first part describes the events throughout the last century. Afterward, we have created a timeline to shortly and visibly show the history of Old Spice. After the timeline, we will present some data showing how the commercial TMYMCSL affected Old Spice regarding followers on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.

25 Roskilde University Business Administration The last part of this chapter will describe Old Spice’s narrative by looking at their website to get an idea of how they are branding themselves.

Old Spice - History

Old Spice’s history began in 1934 by a man named William Lightfoot Schultz. Schultz was making soap and toiletries. However, he wanted to start his firm. Hence establishing a firm called Shulton Inc. The first scent he made was a women’s scent. Schultz influenced by his mother and one of her rose jars, created his first scent was called “Early American Old Spice.” To this day, the first scent can still be found in the Old Spice products being sold today (Biebel 2012). The first scent for men saw the light of day in 1938 with great success, and at Christmas followed men’s products. The company kept expanding and had orders coming in from all over the US as well as 75 other countries. During world war two, the Schultz factory was converted into a military manufacturing factory, to help with making metal dyes amongst others for the army. Everywhere the troops went, the Old Spice brand went with them, especially their aftershave fragrance aiding in the expansion of the firm (Biebel 2012). In 1946, the company relocated back to Clifton in New Jersey. With the company’s location in New Jersey, they also made products for Nina Ricci, Pierre Cardin and Jacqueline Cochran amongst others (Biebel 2012). In 1950 William Lightfoot Schultz died and hence the company was passed on to his son George Schultz. Schultz had quickly realized that their greatest sales were in the men’s products, which meant that their lines throughout the twentieth century were men’s fragrances. Old Spice Lime, Blue Stratos, Night spice and York Town were amongst the fragrances sold for men since the beginning of the history of Old Spice (Biebel 2012). In 1970 George Schultz sold the Shulton Company, to another manufacturer, the American Cyanamid. American Cyanamid mainly made chemical products, and many of the fragrances from the original Old Spice brand became discarded. However, American Cyanamid kept the Shulton name for their consumer care division (Biebel 2012). In 1990 The American Cyanamid sold the Old Spice Brand to Procter & Gamble. Procter & Gamble is a large consumer care product company. They own other well-known brands such as

26 Roskilde University Business Administration Gillette, Pantene, Duracell, Braun, Always, Head & Shoulders and many others. When Procter & Gamble bought Old Spice in 1990, it was evident that there were signs of decline in both the popularity and hence also in the sales. Arguably it was because Old Spice was by the vast majority of the US and the other countries sold in associated with old men. During the 1990’s Procter & Gamble chose, as a way to get younger people to open their eyes for the brand, to give Old Spice deodorants to many schools in the US, to give it to the boys in the 5th grade. This step was one of many made by Procter & Gamble to try to re-brand Old Spice from being for old men to be something the younger generation would use as well (Nielly 2014). By 2006, it is evident that Procter & Gamble needs to do something about the continuing declining sales and popularity of Old Spice. Procter & Gamble hires the Marketing Agency Wieden+Kennedy, to help them re-brand Old Spice. Wieden+Kennedy is known from the “Just Do It” campaign from Nike, which showed to be wildly successful (Nielly 2014). in 2010 Wieden+Kennedy launched a campaign for Old Spice called TMYMCSL. The campaign became a success overnight, and as a way to capitalize on the success, they made a response campaign. Later in 2010 Old Spice made a response campaign, which was made in two and a half day, where they shot 186 small videos where the manly man made personal responses to people who had commented on the video on social media (Apeceffie.com 2011). From 2010 and because of these campaigns Old Spice turned their decline in sales and popularity to an incline (Nielly 2014). Since the beginning of Old Spice, the brand has had a tradition of a unique packaging of its products; this has caught attention for collectors for many years (Biebel 2012). One of Schultz's main points once he started his company was that he only used reusable containers for the products, the containers were usually small boxes and jars. The decorations were large beautiful ships which were on the containers, they left a potpourri scent, which was also the scent who inspired him in the first place. Old Spice furthermore made shaving mugs, and today they are high valuable items for collectors. Even though the containers have changed today, now they are made of glass plastic and sometimes ceramic, the colors used in the beginning and the pull-out stopper still applies for the brand (Biebel 2012).

27 Roskilde University Business Administration Timeline

//Created by authors

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Data Proof

To break down the numbers the award winning commercial TMYMCSL, a document released by the Effie award shows the numbers it put up. The first 24 hours it had gained more views on YouTube, than Obama’s acceptance speech in 2008 (Apaceffie.com 2011). The commercial gained more than 1.2 billion media impressions, both within the US and outside of the US as well (Apaceffie.com 2011). The Old Spice Twitter account gained an impressive 2700% increase in followers and 800 % increase in Facebook interactions, furthermore, their website had an increase of 300 % in traffic, and their YouTube channel became the most viewed sponsored channel, and their subscribers went up from 65.000 to 150.000(Apaceffie.com 2011)

//Apachieffe.com 2011

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As can be seen in the figure above, they had an increase in units sold on 60 % for the Old Spice Red Zone Body Wash from 2009 to 2010(Apaceffie.com 2011).

Old Spice’s Narrative

This section will provide a superficial look into Old Spice´s narrative, by looking at their website to have a broad idea of Old Spice as a brand. Later on, our analysis will further this initial looking by including the TMYMCSL commercial, into the narrative as well. A narrative is something that a business creates for themselves; it is the communications guideline for the internal and external exchange of information. Since internal and external communication differs to a large extent, the way the narrative becomes apparent is, therefore, constraining depending on the recipient of information. In this section, we will try to describe Old Spice’s narrative, from what we can see, their external communication and marketing. We have limited possibilities in knowing how they go about their internal communication. Thus, our focus is what we can learn from their external efforts.

If one looks at Old Spice’s website, it becomes evident how their graphics and linguistic build a framework for their products.

// Oldspice.com 2016

30 Roskilde University Business Administration Wood with condensation or something resembling sweat gives a cozy, warm and sauna-like feel. The dominant color is, of course, red, which is said to encourage action, stimulate enthusiasm while being a color associated with love and the making of love (Smith 2016).

Another banner-commercial features professional NFL player Von Miller of the Denver Broncos. Showing off their ties with NFL, and their heavy use of NFL players as spokespersons.

// Oldspice.com 2016

. A close-up look at their drop-down menu, give a quick look at their language, showcase their youthfulness by using the word “swag” and calling their Frequently Asked Questions´ section “Manly FAQ’s” instead of just FAQ´s.

// Oldspice.com 2016

These examples all contribute to the creation of Old Spice´s narrative, depicting the company as youthful, sporty, manly, cozy, romantic and straightforward. Further on in this project, we will use Old Spice´s narrative as a point of reference, however also expand on the concept, while introducing theory when conducting our analysis.

31 Roskilde University Business Administration Conclusion

In this chapter, we started out by presenting the background of the Old Spice brand, dating all the way back to 1934, created by Schultz. The background describes the story of Old Spice up until today. Afterward, a timeline is presented to show all the important years in the last century, which the reader can look back on, instead of reading the whole background. Next, up, we have presented the data of how the commercial affected Old Spice after, which showed to be a huge success with an increase in sales and awareness over various social media platforms as well as increased traffic to their website. Lastly, we have presented the Old Spice narrative, and how they are depicting the company as being youthful, manly and sophisticated.

Chapter 5 - Analysis

In this chapter, we seek to analyze how Old Spice managed to brand themselves through some different actions and see how these actions can explain concept stemming from marketing and communication. At first, we analyze their TMYMCSL commercial and how the two most important tools, humor, and sex, contribute by increasing the attention towards Old Spice´s brand and products. Here, we draw on scholars who have tried to understand what kind of response sex and humor creates for the recipients of commercials involving these features. The next part explains Old Spice´s use of co-creation in a detailed analysis of their efforts in the ´response campaign,' therefore analyzing how the concept works in practice. Then, we introduce the use of a narrative about Old Spice and aims to explain how a well-constructed narrative can aid a marketing campaign. Here we try to understand the creation of a narrative from a humanistic point of view while relating it to Old Spice and their story. The narrative should be present both in external and internal communication, and while our focus obviously is on external communication, we seek to investigate how storytelling can be incorporating into marketing efforts resulting in positive developments for a company. As an extension of the narrative, we will strive to uncover how Old Spice´s customers can be understood, however not by a traditional customer segmentation known from business, but from a more sociological standpoint, aiming to understand what and how a brand can give value to the individual. We do

32 Roskilde University Business Administration so by looking at what Old Spice, and other companies, can do to make people reflect themselves in Old Spice´s values as a company. Subsequently, we analyze Old Spice´s use of celebrity endorsers, and how that helped create attention, increase reflection, and in the end, improve the brand value of Old Spice and the individual value for the customers.

Analysis of the TV commercial” The man your man could smell like.”

What is the product or service being sold? (can it easily be seen?)

About a third into the commercial at 0:10 precisely we have presented the product (Old Spice 2010). The Old Spice body wash “after hours” held up in soap by the actor and former NFL wide-receiver Isaiah Mustafa. However, the name of the product is not said, only the category, body wash. The primary intent of the product is not to spell the particular product “After hours” it is to persuade women to buy their men, men’s grooming products instead of women’s products.

Rhetoric in the commercial

The commercial starts with the phrase “Hello ladies” (Old Spice 2010). Whether this is shouted in disgust from teenage boys after girls, said in a bar by a handsome man it often catches the attention of most women. The commercial utilizes pathos as a fundamental concept. Isaiah asks the audience, targeted at women, to look at him and then at their man and back again. Since he is handsome and good looking, and the men whom the women are supposed to look at are not, they want their men to be like him. Hence the pathos is used to touch the women’s emotions, and by using the product in the commercial, their men can get to smell like a man, in particular, the handsome and vigorous man portrayed in the commercial. Throughout the commercial, the manly man portrayed by Isaiah Mustafa is shirtless flaunting the sex appeal, though it is changed to more than just sex appeal because in the second scene Isaiah Mustafa can give women what they wish. He appears as a lady’s man by the way he is holding an oyster, which opens up and in it are two tickets to “the thing you love” (Old Spice 2010). The tickets change into diamonds,

33 Roskilde University Business Administration commonly referred to as a girl’s best friend. The women watching this commercial will want their men to be like the man in the ad, because he will then be successful, manly and attractive, in other words, the perfect man. The men watching the commercial will want to be like the man as well because he is manly and can give his woman what she desires. Pathos is furthermore used by the humorous exaggeration throughout the commercial, in the last part of the commercial Isaiah Mustafa is sitting on a white horse, where the audience quickly thinks of prince charming (Old Spice 2010). The commercial puts the idea in the head of the public that if the women get their man to use the body wash, they will get a man as manly and the man in the commercial. Moreover, men come to think that if they use the product, they can be like Isaiah. The commercial furthermore try to change the presumptions people had about Old Spice being only for old men and instead get the consumers to associate Old Spice with being manly and positive.

‘The picture’ - what is in the commercial?

The first scene takes place in a bathroom, with a steaming hot shower in the background (Old Spice 2010). The tiles on the panels are white colored with a line of blue. The biggest contrast in the first picture of the commercial is the black man against the light colors. The man is wearing nothing but a towel around his waist to show his toned upper body. The second scene/picture takes place on a boat (Old Spice 2010). Specifically, in the stern of the vessel. In this scene, the product changes. First, it changes to an oyster, with “tickets to the thing you love,” and then changes to diamonds (Old Spice 2010). As in the first scene, the camera is set so the focus is on the man’s upper body. In the conclusion of the commercial, the product appears from the diamonds. The camera then zooms out, and the man is on a white horse on a beach with palms. At last, the name of the campaign appears “Smell like a man, man” (Old Spice 2010).

The music and sound

The sound in the commercial is realistic, first, in the shower scene, the sound one can hear is of the running showerhead in the background (Old Spice 2010). In the next scene on the boat, one can hear a ship horn, the waves in the background and a seagull’s coo. In the last scene, the sound of the waves in the background is still apparent, and the commercial finishes with Old

34 Roskilde University Business Administration Spice’s little melody and the neigh of the horse (Old Spice 2010). The way they use realistic sounds and no music in the commercial ensures focus do not deviate from what the manly man is saying. What he is saying is the main factor, and his soothingly manly voice is used to captivate the women, so they listen to what he is saying and persuade them to want to buy the product for their men.

The main character, what kind of guy, is he?

The main character in the commercial is also the only character in the commercial. The character is portrayed by Isaiah Mustafa and is a handsome and manly man. He speaks with a deep soothing manly voice, and he keeps eye contact with the viewers. In the commercial ethos is applied as to portray the manly man because he is also a former NFL wide-receiver, which makes him more trustworthy to the audience because he is a public face. As mentioned earlier, the character is a guy every girl wants to have as their boyfriend/husband as well as having the body almost every guy desires. Furthermore, the man in the commercial seems successful and can give everything to his woman.

Whom is it targeting?

The first sentence in the commercial is” hello ladies,” (Old Spice 2010) this indicates that the commercial targets women in particular. It could seem odd that males grooming product company would want to target the women audience, because of women in 2010 contributed to 60% of the sales of men’s grooming products (Apeceffie.com 2011). However, the commercial is also targeting men, because men want to be like the manly man in the commercial, and they can be like that by using the product.

How is it attention-grabbing?

Consumers will pay attention to the commercial because of several things. To start off the intro phrase “hello ladies” ensures that the commercial gets the attention from women. The sex appeal

35 Roskilde University Business Administration the man exhibits due to being shirtless and muscular is also a method to keep the interest of the consumers. The way he keeps eye contact throughout the commercial is also a tool Old Spice use to maintain the attention of the consumers.

Humor as the weapon of choice

Building on the analysis of the commercial above, we will now delve into arguably the two most prominent components in Old Spice's commercial, Humor and Sex. Humor is standard practice in advertising and marketing, and its use is widespread as 1 out of 5 television advertisements contains some humoristic feature (Beard 2005 in Eisend 2008). It can create controversy, grab attention, change focus or all three at the same time, making humor a helpful tool for marketers to utilize. In Old Spice’s 2010 television ad, TMYMCSL, humor was a key component, as the ridiculousness to which the message was delivered clearly shines through and managed to catalyze Old spice’s campaign and brand. In this section, we will look at humor as a marketing weapon, and how the use of humor can advance performances. Moreover, because of marketing dependency on effectiveness and usefulness, humor should be of great interest, as studies confirm just how beneficial humor is as an advertising medium.

Martin Eisend (2008) conducted a meta-analysis, delving into several studies of humor in marketing, here he analyzed the outcome variables and uncovered if humor is effective, however also when humor is effective. The distinction between if and when is important as humor obviously does not function as efficiently in every setting or context. Arranging one's marketing efforts around humor is, of course, a terrible idea if the ad is from a medical doctor or funeral director as opposed to a bakery or a sports franchise. This is therefore in an inquiry into how humor supported Old Spice’s brand-value.

The aforementioned meta-study gathers findings from several analytical inquiries regarding how humor impacts various aspect of the buyer decision (Eisend 2008). Attention, recall, purchase, behavior, and recognition are some of the main factors investigated, factors that vary in importance depending on what type of product and market investigated. When it comes to low

36 Roskilde University Business Administration order, low-consideration purchases, like Old Spice’s products, the impact of humor is twice as large as opposed to high-consideration purchases like cars, housing, etc. (Eisend 2008). This might seem obvious, but is crucial to Old Spice’s marketing choices, as the effect of humor is very much dependent on the interplay between the advertising on the customers it is trying to reach (Eisend 2008). The match between product, humor, and customers is important, as it is this matrix that decides how the above-mentioned factors fluctuate.

In accordance with the broader integrative results, it is apparent that the cognitive understanding of the product is not affected by humor, hence the understanding of old spice’s commodities does not vary with the by the use of humor (Eisend 2008). Information processing regarding the practical benefits of Old Spice’s shampoo, aftershave, etc. Is not increased, signifying that understanding and knowledge of products it not enhanced by the use of humor. The overarching goal, when utilizing humor as a marketing apparatus is, therefore, increasing brand attention and recall.

Humor in Old Spice’s The Man Your Man Could Smell Like Commercial

The commercial starts off like any other, men's grooming commercial would, with an attractive, well-toned, man standing in his bathroom. However, as soon as the actor, Isaiah Mustafa open his mouth, it becomes apparent that his commercial is different. His linguistics and voice timbre is clearly distinct from any other commercial marketing the same type of products. What you will also recognize in the first frame of the commercial, is that the bathroom he is standing in appears ordinary and somewhat boring. It is not the extraordinary, romanticized setting we would see with any other product of the same nature. Furthermore, illustrating a clear humoristic distance, and make the viewer realize that he/she should not take the commercial, the product or the main character too seriously.

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// Oldspice 2010

From the bathroom scene, the rest of the commercial is an epically amazing trip through changing scenery, where the protagonist says: “You are on a boat with the man your man could smell like. What’s in your hand, back at me. I have it; it’s an oyster with two tickets to that thing you love. Look again, the tickets are now diamonds. Anything is possible when your man smells like Old Spice and not a lady. I’m on a horse. • “(OldSpice 2010) Especially the “I'm on a horse” quote went viral, becoming a part of the internet language. The Urban Dictionary explain it as being a “Phrase used when trying to reinforce what a badass you are. “ (Urban Dictionary 2016).

Moreover, gives an example: “Frank: Awesome come from behind win, Phil!

Phil: Yeah, I'm on a horse.”

(Urban Dictionary 2016).

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// Oldspice 2010

This use of apparent humor was not seen in men's grooming commercial before, and therefore helped launch Old Spice's brand once again.

Use of sexual information

Subsequently, Old Spice utilizes sex as another tool to market their product and increase their brand equity. “Sexual information is present in a variety of forms, but it primarily consists of images and words with sexual meaning.” (Reichert 2008) It consists of sex talk and sex behavior. Sex talk is linguistics, while sex behavior is body movements, gesticulation. Thereupon, it is relevant to investigate how sex can evoke a response in the individual exposed to messages containing sexual information. According to a study developed by Don Byrne in 1982 and Fischer in 1986, sexual information can evoke a number of feelings or reaction, one of them being imaginative, hence that you imagine yourself as the main character in a given scenario (Reichert 2008). There is, of course, degrees of sexual information, and while the TMYMCSL commercial is on the lighter side of the spectrum, sex is an apparent component.

Old Spice’s customer is usually male, and so is the main character of the TMYMCSL commercial, again influence the creative element, but also the fact that the marketer's initial

39 Roskilde University Business Administration research showed that a large proportion of men lets their spouse purchase their body wash products for them. Hence, the sex appeal should target both males and females. Moreover, also both appeal to the cognitive and the imaginative, stimulating the women while making the men imagine themselves in Isaiah Mustafa’s shoes.

// Oldspice 2010

Frames like these are for female attention, but also male, as the body and the surrounding setting is something males can imagine for themselves. Still, the difference in how men and women perceive and process sexual information is worthy of further understanding. Several studies show that males and females process advertisement differently, but how to communicate successfully to men and women is still an unsolved puzzle (Meyers-Levy, 1985; Meyers-Levy & Sternthal, 1991; Stern, 1993, 1999, Orth & Holancova 2004). Orht & Holancova (2004) suggest that men and women view sexual information different, and often what males view as favorable, is seen as unfavorable by females. Thus, Old Spice had to walk a delicate line with their TMYMCSL commercial, making sure that it satisfied both genders. As mentioned earlier, that is difficult. However, they managed to provoke different types of recognition processes for men and women. Men become intrigued by their imagination while women by cognition. The success of Old Spice can be attributed to the ability to engage both genders. If Old Spice, tried to evoke cognitive

40 Roskilde University Business Administration emotions for both men and women, they could have experienced that their marketing was less successful.

Lastly, as aforementioned, humor garners attention, and so does sex (Reichart 2008) (Eisend 2008). Sex can pierce through the inattention that is given to advertising, making the potential customer notice the message of the commercial and the name of the brand (Reicher 2008). TV commercials are in an enormous battle for attention during ad-breaks, meaning that they will do whatever it takes to stand out, and not become lethargic. Why doesn't every brand market themselves on sex then? Well, not every product can carry being marketed with sex as an attention grabber. For example, banks, insurance, car dealers or other high-consideration product are unable to use sex, because, from a customer's point of view, they need to appear reliable on serious in order the come out on top. Furthermore, when you have a high-consideration product, the customer will spend more time contemplating their purchase, making them less resistant to easy, fast paces messaging that arent product centered (Revella 2015).

Co-creation analysis of old spice

While the response campaign developed by old spice, is not the co-creation of a product, it is still an example of co-creation between consumers and the product. In the response campaign, old spice encouraged customers to post comments on several social media platforms, i.e. Facebook, Twitter and Reddit and proclaimed that some comments would receive attention in the form of a personalized greeting by the man your man could smell like, also known as, Isaiah Mustafa. Utilizing a new strategy that is classifiable as guerilla marketing. In the duration of 48 hours, the team managed to create 186 customized videos, developed on the background of co-creation (Apiceffie 2011).

Often co-creation is concerned with the development of products suitable for consumer’s needs, but as this was a campaign for body wash, it can be difficult to co-create the product (Prahalad & Ramaswamy 2004). Old spice still managed to apply the idea of interactions between the brand and the consumers. One of the major explanations of the huge success of the response campaign

41 Roskilde University Business Administration can be argued from the perspective of co-creation, and the idea of how marketing should be generating value for both parties. The focus should not be on marketing to consumers; it should rather be with consumers (Lusch & Vargo 2006. That is exactly the case with the response campaign, compared to the original TMYMCSL commercial that is marketing to consumers, as opposed to the response campaign that is creating awareness on the background of consumer’s comments, hence, co-creation (Nielly 2014). It would appear as Old Spice has recognized the change in consumers, consumers are informed and aware of what qualities they perceive as valuable in a brand. Old Spice through this response campaign generates the opportunity for themselves to see what values are important for consumers, and propose said values as part of their brand Nielly (2014). In regards to one of the important aspect, customers deem valuable on the matter of co-creation are the transparency of the company (Prahalad & Ramaswamy 2004). In the commercials since Old Spice are reliant on humor, this creates a fog around the brand and product. It requires consumers to understand the values as being over-emphasized, if one literally believes in becoming handsome and fit simply by the purchase of the product, they have not been able to uncover what is behind the smokescreen humor. Old Spice could have been straight forward in their means of advertising but in the process, lose substantial amounts of the efforts that made the campaign go viral as it did (Nielly 2014). Co-creation is furthermore, concerned with the individuality of consumers, and as the commercial was designed to target individual customers (Prahalad & Ramaswamy 2004). With the response campaign, Old Spice was able to offer a temporary platform for humorous interactions between consumers and Old Spice. Old Spice made a vital decision, the decision of not creating the response campaign before the actual was initiated by TMYMCSL. One of the essential prerequisites for co-creation, are actively engaging customers (Prahalad & Ramaswamy 2004). Arguably, if Old spice had encouraged people to post comments before the original commercial, they would have lacked an engaging customer community.

Since there is not much value creation in the sense of product development, because of the fact, that scented body wash is hard to redevelop. Old Spice still managed through clever means of interaction with the customer, to create value for both customers and the brand. Through a

42 Roskilde University Business Administration temporary platform, Old Spice was able to entertain while creating marketing videos targeting individual customers, hence marketing with, and not to customers.

The Use of Narratives in marketing

A story can be a powerful tool if told Correctly. The concept ‘storytelling’ is a two-edged sword, consisting of the ‘story’ and ‘telling.' The story can be strong, efficient and catching, however, without the ability to tell it, it is worthless. In the project, we have, so far, analyzed how Old Spice told their story via a series of commercials and responses, hence in this section, we will delve into the story, and how it was created and managed. This section will take a more humanistic, micro-sociological perspective to uncover the communicative tools used to create a strong narrative.

Kjærbeck (2004), talks of storytelling as a conversation between the narrator and the recipient, or in this case Old Spice and its possible customers. The important note is that when you look at the relationship between Old Spice and its customers as a conversation, you imply two-way conversation, and give the possible customers the chance to influence Old Spice as well. The story becomes shared, while both the storyteller and recipient has an opportunity to be the protagonist of the story. This interplay develops with Old Spices response campaign, where the people who saw the initial TMYMCSL could post questions to Old Spice, who would then film a short response. This aspect of their campaign was extremely successful as it garnered huge attention and resulted in millions of views (Kjærbeck 2004). But their accomplishment was not given, as Kjærbeck (2004) argues that the success of a narrative can depend on a number of factors, that when present increases the possibility of realization. These factors are mainly employable for actual physical conversations. However, some can also benefit the process of marketing communication, for example, that the subject of the story should be connected to something different of interest for the recipient (Kjærbeck 2004). With Old Spice, this is true as the subject, their products, were often tied, so other subjects of relevance to their assumed target groups (Kjærbeck 2004). With the TMYMCSL commercial Old Spice connected their product to NFL (National Football League) football and the process of acquiring female companionship.

43 Roskilde University Business Administration Two subjects, that Old Spice’s marketing team had deemed of interest to their target group. In this sense, Old Spice made their own product interesting by connecting it to other relevant topics of conversation. Another factor is the aforementioned co-creation, the process of engaging the recipient to an extent, where they themselves take part in the story-telling. The process of co- creating can happen naturally, but the storyteller (Old Spice) can also encourage the recipients to participate in the story-telling.

In Chapter 4, we uncovered the overarching narrative of their rebranding campaign, which revolved around being a manly-man who can do anything he wants. Højbjerg & Rosholm (2004) argues that a narrative most encompasses conflict, chronology, and a concluding point. These characteristics are vital as they can all drive forth a story. Without incorporating conflict, an organization, or brand, will appear or mundane and uninteresting (Højbjerg & Rosholm 2004). Conflict can come in many shapes in sizes, and with Old Spice, the conflict could be defined as them taking a stand towards the users of lady-scented body wash, or the men who are not man enough to use Old Spice. It might seem ill-advised to marginalize these two groups. However, the fact that Old Spice is taking a stand makes them seem edgy and creates attention and relevance. Although not the most polarizing, conflict creating a message, Old Spice still managed to awaken attention, and show the outside world their values and differentiate themselves from their competitors (Højbjerg & Rosholm 2004).

The next step is building a chronology within the narrative. Here Old Spice had a rather simple chronology, starting with a male who used to use lady-scented body wash, switched to Old Spice, and become a male after Old Spices standard. The goal of chronology is to create identification and engagement by exposing a captivating transformation of the main character (Højbjerg & Rosholm 2004). The chronology is the build-up that leads to the concluding point. The closing point is meant to give the recipient the feeling of understanding the story; the “ahh I get it” feeling. Hence, the actions taken by the main characters has now led to him becoming more attractive to the opposite gender. Creating a link between their product and the concluding point is the strategic goal of Old Spice. It is important to note, that Old Spice’s narrative not only was created by their TMYMCSL commercial and the following response campaign but their

44 Roskilde University Business Administration entire actions as a company. Their website, the design of their product, their names, etc. as play a part in completing the narrative.

Højbjerg & Rosholm (2004) differentiate between the ambitions of the marketing department and communication department. The marketing department should focus on influencing possible customers with the narrative. The communication department should concentrate on influencing stakeholders. The narrative should remain more or less the same, but the technique is, of course, different, as the marketing department often seek to entertain in an often-humoristic way, as an opposed to the communication department who needs to express a more serious side of the company. With this distinction in place and the understanding of how narratives functioned with Old Spice’s B2C communication, we can delve into some of the specific causal instruments that can aid external branding.

It is advised, that a company build a strong story, and then stick to it (Højbjerg & Rosholm 2004). Of course, this is easier said than done. Coca-Cola has had the same core story for decades because it works for them, but getting to that point is extremely hard (ibid). If wat easy Old Spice would never have had to rebrand themselves, and the project would be superfluous. Often, narrative and strategy become interchangeable. However, a strategy cannot be a narrative without the aforementioned conflict, chronology, and concluding point. Kjærbeck (2004), argues that to create a strong narrative for the company, the firm can look at the competitors, and try to analyze what work for them and what does not, in an attempt to locate a whole to fill out in the market.

Often, the external branding efforts revolve around a fictitious narrative, while the internal communication has to encompass some truth and relevance to the company and its stakeholder. With Old Spice, their external branding efforts are somewhat fictitious. Agnostically, one could say that their main character Isaiah Mustafa did not become this manly man by using Old Spice’s product, but everybody can see that this is an obvious lie and a false message. However, it is agnosticism that makes their commercial work. “What if it worked?” Could many people ask themselves. The obvious fiction also creates a comedic distance to the product, while branding Old Spice as fun, outgoing, doesn't take themselves too serious type of brand.

45 Roskilde University Business Administration

Earlier we mentioned how some companies position their branding in relation to their competitors. Their relationship between Coca-Cola and Pepsi has been an infamous struggle of brand positioning where they constantly respond to each other's marketing efforts. When building a narrative, it is important to know the product type and the normative precedence that exist in that industry. Højbjerg & Rosholm (2004) argues that some companies can experience that their product is tied to a normative didactic, entailing that they have to say and act in a specific way. For example, a banking commercial without the words ‘reliable’, ‘trustworthy’ etc. Would be almost unheard. The marketer has to be aware of the norms of their industry; they need to differentiate themselves, however not break with the normative understanding of their product. When it comes to Old Spice, they do uphold the norms of the industry to a large extent. The bathroom setting, cleanliness, nudity, and sex are arguably the foundation of every commercial in the industry. If one examine the commercial TMYMCSML, it appears that the first nine seconds it set in setting familiar to the industry, but from the 11th second, the commercial takes on and becomes something entirely new to the industry, exemplifying what Højbjerg & Rosholm (2004) argues.

Customers Segmentation

One aspect of marketing is the communication; another is the social reality that the communication is supposed to effect. Our epistemological standpoint, social constructionism, suggest that “knowledge is situated’ and that “any individual constructs his/her truth, though social situation.” These points signify how we view the social realm and how to create the social. Moreover, it means that the social appears through communication and interaction. Thus, to understand the groups in society that were and is affected by Old Spice’s commercial, we need to uncover how these individuals communicate and what their needs, desires, and interests are.

In the business discipline, a customer segment is created by “dividing the customer base into smaller groups, like gender, age, and spending habits, etc.” in an effort “to send out personalized promotions, which intentionally would make the right customers more willing to purchase the

46 Roskilde University Business Administration products the business is selling.” (SearchSalesForce 2016). The idea of personalized promotion is a rather superficial categorization without much insight into the actual social forces at work influences the decision making of the individual customers. For deeper insight, we will delve into a sociological consideration of what creates value for potential clients. We will do so by looking at how a brand can create personal value for the product itself. From the notion that value is not only created in the production process, but now also in the marketing process (Shamim, Ghazali, & Albinsson 2016)

Creating real brand value links to brand positioning, the process of figuring out what signals the brands are going to send, and to whom it is sending them. Brand positioning is also related to a company identity, which according to Kapferer (2012) and Nielly (2014) “it is the history and survivability, the perseverance, the attitude, the dedication to consumers and community, what it sells, what it looks like, the people that represent it, the people in charge of it, and decisions these people make are all things that, combined, make up the corporate identity of a brand. The history and survivability, the perseverance, the attitude, the dedication to consumers and community, what it sells, what it looks like, the people that represent it, the people in charge of it, and decisions these people make are all things that, combined together, make up the corporate identity of a brand.” (Nielly 2014) This identity is a part of the package when a customer decides to purchase a product from Old Spice. Kapferer (2012) further argues that Bands are reminiscent of ideologies in that the can both drive a convey certain culture in society. When you can control or influence cultures in society, you have a unique opportunity to market your product, increase your sales and manifest yourself as the leader of the industry. Kapferer (2012) further argues that individuals often gather around idea, ideals, and courses representing their values, and when and brand successfully manifests themselves as representing these ideals and values; customers can pick and choose whatever they feel represents them to the largest extent. Earlier in this project, we described the main values and ideals Old Spice seek to represent, Kapferer (2012) notions there align well, with that idea that the success of Old Spice’s marketing efforts, predominantly lie in their ability to constitute a culture in society. In a developed society at the top of Maslow´s (1943) Pyramid of Human needs, self-actualization and esteem rule supreme, and the traditional political ideologies become neglected. Furthermore, creating a gap that a brand can take advantage of, as they can create meaningfulness that identifies deeper than standard

47 Roskilde University Business Administration demographics uncovered by focus groups and random questionnaires (Kapferer 2012). This meaningfulness, and the opportunity for self-actualization and increased esteem should through sociology be understood, not rational economic or psychology, are they are a product of the situated social arena that human engaged. Of course, the output will be financial prosperity, however how to reach said output, should be explained by the equilibrium between communication and sociology.

Nike is an excellent example of how a company can show sociological insight. Their “just do it” slogan aligns with their personal willpower identity, and convey the perception that sometimes people feel like they can only count on themselves (Kapferer 2012). This branch of marketing is all about knowing your customers, and engaging them actively in marketing efforts and knowing how to connect with and understand each other customers while transferring an experience to a client who has not lived it directly, but has the desire to do so (Revella. 2015). Thus, a brand is a reflection of consumers (Kapferer 2012). In this table, we have tried to define Old Spice’s consumer thinking and how it relates to its core brand values. Kapferer (2012) distinguishes between ‘target and ‘reflection,' as target describes the normative demographic understand of potential consumers and reflecting encompasses how a consumer will experience and perceive themselves as a result of using a specific product. Target is, therefore, a more quantitative, while reflection being qualitative. It is about embodying a dream, and with Old Spice, the dream is evident, whether it is the toned body of Isaiah Mustafa, the endless amount of women he is perceived to engage with, or perhaps playing in the NFL like he did. Purchasing an Old Spice product is, therefore, a clear example of identity building for the customer (Kapferer 2012). This identity building should be seen as both external and internal, in the sense that an individual has a relationship with him - or herself and with the outside world, hence both an internal - and external mirror (Kapferer 2012).

Talcott Parson (1971) states that “to communicate symbolically individuals must have a culturally organized common codes, such as those of language, which also integrates into systems of their social interaction.” (Parsons 1971 in Nehring 2013 pp 233). The importance of language it not to be understated, because when language is perceived to be necessary for

48 Roskilde University Business Administration interrelated communication in a social group, it will also be vital for marketers when they attempt to correspond with a group within society. The words that Old Spice uses should, therefore, seek to resonate with the group in society that is the aim of marketing. We took a look at some of their frequently used words and sentences, to show their languages and try to detect if we could tell something about their customers from it.

Old Spice Characteristics Clean Desperado

Hardest Working Light Legend

Fresh Outdoors Sport

Wild Smooth Man

High Endurance Sophisticated Confidence

Classic Swagger Boss

These words are all easily comprehended while representing something a man can desire, or aspire towards being. In the section on Narratives in this chapter, we learned that the communicator should try and aim for a customer's inner desires and wishes, representing their dream scenario. These words much represented a dream scenario of what a man should be like, at least to the social group that is Old Spice’s customers. These are also words resonating heavily in pop culture, “swagger” became in, around the same time TMYMCSL did, and ‘Legend’ has also been a popular phrase since the character ‘Barney Stinson’ said it over and over again in the hit show ‘How I Met Your Mother.' So, there is a mix between words that a man always has and always will aspire towards such as ‘sophisticated, classic, clean, boss, man and confidence, and popular words like Desperado, swagger, and legend.

49 Roskilde University Business Administration Cultural meaning and celebrity endorsement

Celebrity endorsement in advertising is an important aspect, which we will look into in this research project. Thus, we have chosen to work with Grant McCracken's (1989) theory of the meaning of celebrity endorsement in advertising. McCracken (1989) argues that the effectiveness of the celebrity endorser build upon the cultural meanings the person brings with him. There is an array of different meanings the celebrity can bring with them, these can include but, is not excluded, to status, class, gender, age, personality and lifestyle amongst others. In the case of Old Spice whom we are researching, they have used several NFL or former NFL players, namely Isaiah Mustafa, Ray Lewis, Terry Crews and Von Miller, were the only currently active is Von Miller. All these elements are available for the marketers who is making the advertisements. However, this does not mean that every celebrity chosen for an advertisement covers all the items listed above. Some of the cultural meaning Old Spice can draw from the NFL stars who are endorsing them is their status and manliness. Particularly the commercial we are looking at (TMYMCSL) is advocating the manliness. NFL is often associated with tough men because it is a physical sport and the athletes need to be in a strong physical condition to compete in the NFL. This status of being one of the best athletes in football in the world, the marketers can utilize from the NFL celebrities who are endorsing their product. The difference between Terry Crews commercials and for example Isaiah Mustafa’s commercials is that Crews shows a strong side, whereas Mustafa appears as being sophisticated, some of their commercials have combined these two, which works with demonstrating that you can be both by using the products. McCracken (1989) explains how the celebrity’s world is richer and more complicated than just representing one meaning. McCracken (1989) argues that it be the meanings associated with the celebrity that is the key, in the endorsement process. He further explains that an endorsement is successful when the marketers manage to connect the relation between the celebrity’s meaning and the product he or she is endorsing. We argue that this connection appears in the commercial TMYMCSL from Old Spice. Isaiah Mustafa successes in transferring his meaning from his persona to the product. Mustafa is showing manliness, humor and sophistication amongst others, and this is transferred to the product and thus the consumers. McCracken (1989) states, in many cases this transfer does not happen, this could be one of the reasons there are many commercials

50 Roskilde University Business Administration with celebrities and is now forgotten, whereas the TMYMCSL is still talked about now, six years after it aired.

Meaning Transfer: The general process Celebrity endorsement McCracken (1989) argues to be a part of a bigger process of meanings transfer. McCracken has developed a model that shows the process of meaning transfer, from a celebrity to in the last step the consumer. The process of the meaning transfer begins with the advertiser, who has to choose what meaning should connect to the product being advertised. In the case of Old Spice, they wanted to change the discourse of the brand from being mainly for elderly people to be something the younger generations wanted to wear as well. McCracken (1989) shortens it to that the advertiser has to figure out what the product want to say. When the decision is made on what the product has to say, the advertiser have to find object persons and the like to endorse the meaning. In the Old Spice case, the choice fell upon Isaiah Mustafa; he was a part-time actor and a former NFL wide receiver. Wieden+Kennedy, the advertising agency deemed he had the significant meanings to endorse and transfer it to the consumers for Old Spice. According to McCracken (1989), the final transferring of meanings is done by the consumer of the product. “The consumer suddenly “sees” that the cultural meanings contained in the people, objects, and the contexts of the advertisement are also contained in the product” (McCracken 1989: 314). Thus, the consumer can transfer the meaning to themselves when they use the product, and in the case of Old Spice, it means that the consumer sees manliness stemming from the product, and they can get some of that manliness (or their man can) when they use the product. However, McCracken (1989) emphasizes, that there is no relationship between a meaning and certain products. Implying that in the example of Old Spice, the body wash endorsed by Isaiah Mustafa, could have been given another meaning, any meaning, in fact, it relies on the celebrity endorser who presents the product.

Meaning Transfer: The Celebrity Endorser’s Contribution

In this part, we will describe, the model created by Grant McCracken (1989) for the celebrity endorser and the cultural foundations, and discuss it in the context of Old Spice. As it can be seen below in the model, the meaning starts in the role that the celebrity has to play, thus

51 Roskilde University Business Administration transferring it to the celebrity. In stage two, as seen on the model some of the meaning is transferred to the product advertised for by the celebrity. In the third stage, the meaning is then transferred from the product and to the consumer. McCracken (1989) highlights that the celebrity plays a crucial role in all three stages.

// McCracken 1989

It is important to know that the difference between a celebrity and a normal model or actor is huge (McCracken 1989). McCracken (1989) however, explains that meaning can be used by normal actors and models for a lower price than celebrities. However, why are celebrities used then? In the case of Old Spice, they had to re-think themselves, they were losing ground in the men’s grooming product industry, and that could seem to be the end for the brand. To be sure that people would pay attention to their new form of advertising, we believe it was the right choice for Old Spice to utilize a celebrity. Turning out to be a massive success, it can maybe lead others to utilize celebrities in certain situations where the meaning transferred is just too important to leave with some unknown model or actor. What celebrities can bring to the table, that normal actors and models cannot, is the personality and lifestyle people associate with them because they know of them from the media (McCracken 1989). McCracken (1989) goes on to explain how the celebrities’ draws these important meanings from the roles they play in movies, military, athletics and so forth. This again strengthens the choice upon Isaiah Mustafa to play the

52 Roskilde University Business Administration role of the manly man, remember he was an NFL player, and American football is a manly sport because of its rough nature with the collision tackles and all the injuries and fights. Thus, it should be easy for Mustafa to pose as a manly man when people unconsciously already associated him with a manly sport. McCracken (1989) find it interesting, though that it seems that the celebrities are mostly unaware of their high importance in the meaning transfer process. This is clearly illustrated in the way that many actors do not like to be typecasted, which is being cast only in the same kinds of roles. This is where they are more worth for the markets because they feel more comfortable in the role, and start expressing it when they have had it many times before. However, some celebrities are so well performing that they can cleanse themselves after each new role and can play many different roles and hence their value for endorsement is low (McCracken 1989). In McCracken’s description of the second stage, he goes into detail with how the celebrities become chosen because of their meanings suited for the sophisticated marketing plan. The marketers have to figure out what meanings the consumers are looking for, and then find a celebrity who could identify with these meanings. However, in 1989 when McCracken wrote, no roster of celebrities was available. Authors still have not been able to find a roster of celebrities as such, though it is easier to get into contact with them and get to know their meanings because of the social media where they can post their views on politics, movies or other matters in society. After the selection of a celebrity, McCracken (1989) emphasizes how important it is that the marketers get all the meanings out of the celebrity that they deem necessary to advertise the product fully. However, all celebrities also have some meanings which the marketers do not want to come forward and for customers to associate with their product. It is, therefore, crucial that these unwanted meanings hidden in the advertisement. This step we find interesting in the case of Old Spice, because they have chosen to work with NFL players. The NFL is a league where many of the players have a criminal record. Hence it can backfire when using a person to advocate a product. One of the examples is Ray Lewis, whom Old Spice has utilized for some of their commercials, he was once charged with double murder because he was in a fight where two people were stabbed to death (Schrotenboer 2013). Today people are still debating whether or not he was innocent, and this could pose to have an impact when brands use him or other NFL stars with a criminal record to endorse their products. McCracken (1989) describes how the

53 Roskilde University Business Administration unwanted meanings are avoidable by filling the commercial with persons or objects who intensifies the meanings whom the marketers want to advocate. Finally, in the second stage, the commercial has to be designed so the similarity between the celebrity and the product comes to present and the consumer can take the last step in the meaning transfer process (McCracken 1989). If everything went as planned, the properties of Isaiah Mustafa would be the properties of Old Spice. In the third stage of the process is a complicated step, because the consumer has the take the meaning from the product and it is not enough for the consumer just to own it (McCracken 1989). The celebrity’s self in the advertisement has to act as an inspirational figure for the consumer. In the case of Old Spice, they succeeded in this stage, Isaiah Mustafa’s self in the commercial is a strong, sophisticated manly man, and the consumers who bought the product wanted to project his, self onto themselves. To put it shortly McCracken (1989) explains that the consumers who have bought the product want to repeat what the celebrity did in stage one, and the meanings associated with the celebrities in stage one have now taken a materialistic form in stage three. The consumers are therefore grateful that by using the product they can then transfer the meaning to themselves, their life and personality. However, the question this process raises are why is it necessary to create meanings from celebrities? Studies have shown that people who are undergoing changes in their life are dependent on meanings from their possessions (Solomon 1983, cited in McCracken 1989), and this is why celebrities are key in this meaning transfer process from the brand to the consumer (McCracken 1989).

Conclusion

During this voyage, it became apparent what tools aid when trying to increase brand equity and customer awareness. Through an analysis of the TMYMCSL commercial and its main tools of attraction, humor, and sex, we saw what kind of attention and for whom it appealed. Old Spice´s commercial is effectively marketing itself to both men and women because of their assumption that it is often women who purchase body-wash product for their spouses. Furthermore, Old Spice’s marketing efforts had to both encompass male and female points of attraction. The male

54 Roskilde University Business Administration attraction came of their form of the imaginative, as the men could imagine themselves being the protagonist of the commercial. When on the other hand, were stimulated by cognitive aspects, as the sexual information made them remember old spice´s product. Both sex and humor functioned as attention grabbers increased the overall recognition of Old Spice´s product. Subsequent to their TMYMCSL commercial, Old Spice launched a response campaign utilizing the theory of co-creation, drawing on customers input creating a shared value together with massive attention, as some of their response videos went viral on the internet. Co-creation is concerned with the customer on an individual level, which aligns well with the assumption that individuals engage in their own situated, constructed reality, thus reaching these individuals in their language was, therefore, a stroke of genius for Old Spice.

From co-creation, we turned to a more humanistic review of how Old Spice created a narrative for themselves, and how that, in turn, helped their story telling. Concepts such as conflict and chronology were factors, which shaped the story of Old Spice, and as the theory says, ´story ‘and ´telling ‘are the two components that make up good marketing. Marketing that should be conducted externally, however with an eye for the internal communication as well, as it is this combination that makes up the narrative for any business. This section was obviously more theoretical, giving insight on a broader level however also putting attention to the bigger picture of a company's marketing strategy. The customer segmentation focused, not on quantitative measurements, but on qualitative, and demonstrated just what Old Spice did to enhance their brand equity and create value for their customers through reflection and the ability to fill a void of self-actualization at the individual level. We saw that language is vital when communicating to groups in society, therefore underlining that knowing whom you are communicating with and on what premise is a crucial first step, before building a common language with expected customer. Lastly, our section on celebrity endorsement showed what their widespread use of famous faces, can do for brand equity. Thus, underlining how a celebrity can transfer his/her equity to a product or company while showing how businesses can utilize celebrity´s networks.

55 Roskilde University Business Administration Chapter 5 - Discussion

In this chapter, we discuss our use of theory in relation to the findings in chapter 4. Furthermore, we discuss certain aspects of our findings that entice broader and different consideration than what relates to this project and its research question.

Vision, Culture and Image Model

Since we are not able to go into depth with the VCI model, both due to limited time and limited access to the data needed, because we are not a part of the management in Old Spice or in any way associated with Old Spice. We have chosen to work with some of the points in the VCI model. The sections of the model we can discuss are the stakeholder parts of it. Hence, we have tried to identify the stakeholders we deem are the most important ones.

Stakeholder identification The rate of a business success’ is not only measured by the output it generates. The success is also dependent on how well a business can corporate with a broad range of both individuals and other entities. The individuals and entities may not be directly linked to the company. However, they can still be of importance to the business and are known as stakeholders. According to Snyder (2013), a company’s stakeholders consist of individuals and organizations which are involved in the firm, and in some way affected by it. How many stakeholders a business have various from business to business. The stakeholders are both internal and external and range from employees, contractors, banks and customers. They all together form the business’s network of stakeholders (Gray & Larson 2014). The following list is the stakeholders we have identified who are involved in Old Spice: ● The employees working for Old Spice ● The management working for Old Spice ● The mother company Procter & Gamble ● The advertising agency, Wieden+Kennedy ● Customers ● Indirect and direct competitors ● Investors

56 Roskilde University Business Administration ● Shareholders ● Employee union ● TV stations The primary stakeholders for Old Spice are the ones who have most to gain and most to lose when the sales of the brand either declines or increases. The most prominent to mention are the employees, the management, the advertising agency, investors, and shareholders as well as the indirect and direct competitors. We have chosen to focus on few of the stakeholders, in order for us to talk about the VCI model. The main stakeholders we will look at are the customers, competitors and the mother company, Procter & Gamble. One of the direct and most prominent competitors of Old Spice is Axe. Axe and Old Spice, are both big brands in the Men’s Grooming Product industry, and when Old Spice had a decline in sales, Axe had an increase. When Old Spice gained popularity in the US, the popularity of Axe decreased. The first gap which makes sense for us to look at from the VCI model is the Image-Culture gap. This element focuses on the misalignments between the organization's culture and image, hence what do the stakeholders associate with the brand. Usually, this happens if the organization does not practice what it preaches. However, the angle we are going to look at here is more in the lines of what the stakeholders think of when they look at the brand. Moreover, this is where the problems came up with the brand of Old Spice. The general discourse surrounding Old Spice was that it was a brand used by grandfathers or in general elderly people. Today in the contemporary world, word of mouth spread like a bushfire, hence if people talk about Old Spice as being a brand for old people, why would youngsters want to buy it or wear it, because who would like to smell like old men?

The first question in this gap is what image do stakeholders associate with your company? (Hatch & Schultz 2001)

Instead of looking at Old Spice as a company we are looking at it as a brand. If we focus on the stakeholders, we have identified above in the stakeholder identification, some of the stakeholders could be interesting to talk about in this context. According to Hatch & Schultz (2001), if you want to understand an image gap, you need to know what the external world think of you. Hence

57 Roskilde University Business Administration in this context, the stakeholders we can look at is the customers, competitors and to some degree also the mother company P&G. If we take a leap back to before the commercial TMYMCSL aired, Old Spice was a brand in trouble. Their main competitor Axe was gaining ground while Old Spice was losing ground in the industry, as can also be seen on the timeline we made for Old Spice. Hypnotically, because we have no access to the data, the mother company P&G could have another view on Old Spice and the employees. It had for a long time been the discourse surrounding old spice that it was for the older generation. However, that left out a big market of customers where the competitors could have an advantage, which Axe had since it has been appealing to the younger generations with its commercials about girls flocking to you if you wear their products.

The employees on of Old Spice on the other hand probably did not think there was anything wrong about appealing the older generation because that is how it had been viewed for many years. However, for the consumers, P&G and the competitors it is a deal breaker because a business needs to gain revenue and if they have no power to compete with the competitors it can be the end for a brand. Some consumers, arguably the loyal are however not happy with the brand change Old Spice has made. In an article, we have used to describe the background of Old Spice, the comment section is filled with people who remember the good old smell of Old Spice, and also how their fathers or grandfathers used to wear it (Biebel 2012). Some of them are not fond of the way the brand has made a change to be able to appeal to the younger generations because they argue that the signature smell of Old Spice has been lost in the process.

Another gap from the Corporate Brand toolkit that is worth for us to look at is the image-vision gap.

This is along the lines of the question above, however in this gap, one of the questions is what do your stakeholders want from your company? (Hatch & Schultz 2001).

Again, due to lack of data and time we can only hypothetically answer this question. The stakeholders who could be interesting to look at here could be the investors, shareholders, and P&G. What all these shareholders have in common is that they have money tied up into Old

58 Roskilde University Business Administration Spice. This means that what they want to see is a steady increase in revenue because they all benefit from it. This is clearly a motivation to turn the ship around and try to explore new parts of the market which had not been good, hence making the commercial with Isaiah Mustafa and appealing to the younger generation.

Customer-based brand equity

This section will explore how Old Spice’s success in rebranding efforts, can be understood from the steps presented in CBBE.

The first step is concerned with brand identity. The brand salience, for Old Spice, has for long been appealing to older generations, and younger generations have not been able to identify themselves with this identity (Nielly 2014). Younger people have not been including Old Spice into their consideration set when purchasing items within this category. With the rebranding, this has now changed, and young people can identify with Old Spices brand salience and are therefore considering them as a valid option within the men’s hygiene category (Nielly 2014; Inforscout.co.uk 2016). The CBBE furthermore states under this step in the process that salience is of the utmost importance when customers have low involvement within the product category (Keller 2001). This is arguably true since research from Wieden+Kennedy pinpointed the fact that 60% of all purchases within this category was women purchasing products for their significant others. Hence, men do not give a damn about what brand they use (Apiceffie.com 2011). That is why Old Spice targeted both men and women, to generate conversations about men’s shower products. So, in this first step of the process, Old Spice was through rebranding, able to generate brand identity among the younger customer segment as intended. Additionally, Old Spice recognized who was in charge of purchasing within this category and targeted both users and buyers.

The second step is to establish brand meaning. Arguably, in this category brand performance is not as important as it might be within other industries. All products in this category should all have the same basic effect; getting customers clean during showers. Then there is the second aspect, the smell; this is likely to be a subjective category, but the smells are tending to be

59 Roskilde University Business Administration subjected to focus groups or surveys, identifying whether or not the majority likes it. Then the argument is that all products within this category are equal in performance. That just adds more emphasize to other aspects of the brand, to be preferred by customers. There is the aspect of price, but that could be discarded since there are different price range within the market, and Old Spice’s competitors are within the same price range. Since performance does not hold much importance for Old Spice in this category, the brand imagery becomes more necessary for the establishment of brand meaning. In the context of purchase and usage, the product is available in most conventional supermarkets selling the product in this category across the U.S, so should not be a problem. Usage is a pretty defined category since the matter is body wash; hence, the usage situation is in the shower, which means all males has a situation in which the product could come in handy. Old Spice did in the original campaign mostly rely on sophistication as a brand value, later in the campaign, they utilized the values of roughness and exhilaration. In regards to the competitors, Old Spice has a long and rich heritage and is to some degree proposing that they be aware of what makes men manly. They have been associated with sailors for long, and still use a ship as part of their logo. This is an advantage within this category since one of their main competitors are Axe who does not have a heritage. The brand association of Old Spice is now positive, and the users from on InfoScout (2016) have presented their brand associations in the picture below. Furthermore, the brand, as argued previously, is favorable to the same extent as other products in the category, but it has a rich heritage of making men’s grooming products, and that can make them favorable and unique in the category (Infoscout.co 2016).

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//Infoscout.co 2016

The third step of the sequence is brand responses; here one of the important aspects is brand quality. Arguably, customers will perceive Old Spice to be a, somewhat, quality product since it has endured on the market for around 80 years. The next the part of the brand response is brand feelings. The brand feelings proposed by Old Spice are in the original commercial that the brand is fun, and it is heavily reliant on this proposition. Furthermore, the brand, Old Spice, is suggesting in the commercial that the use of Old Spice will grant consumers social approval, by using the product users will become more like TMYMCSL, who is in the commercial being pictured as successful, especially with the fairer sex. It also imposes self-respect in the consumer, since they believe to become more like the man in the commercials. This is at least what the commercials express as the brand feelings.

The fourth and last step of the sequence is the brand relationship. This part is concerned with brand resonance. Old Spice is located within a market that allows for behavioral loyalty; it is a market where repeated purchases are a necessity, since consumers will run out of body wash, and will need to purchase more to satisfy their shower needs. Old Spice needs to make sure that customers will buy the product the next time they are in the market for a product of that category. Infoscout.co, ask users the question “If the item was out of stock, what would you have

61 Roskilde University Business Administration done?” (Infoscout.co 2016). Customers answer that only 28% would purchase another brand. While 70% of the customers would either, go to another place that sells the product, waited until the next trip to the store or bought a similar old spice product. Furthermore, indicating that users of Old Spice are fairly loyal. In regards to attitudinal attachment, one consumer states that he loves the 3 in 1 shampoo, while another state that he goes out of his way to purchase the Old Spice product (Infoscout.co 2016). Though this is a very limited sample, some users on Amazon states that they love the brand (Amazon 2016). The reviews on Oldspice.com are positive as well, it might be a bit biased, and some negative reviews might have been sorted out. Overall it seems as consumers of the brand are having an attitudinal attachment to the brand. Through the commercial on the social media platforms, Old Spice has been able to establish some sense of community surrounding the brand. Especially their YouTube channel has a strong community, and people share the commercials they put up on the channel. Old Spice was through the response campaign able to actively engage with consumers, and consumers contributed to the making of the videos, they invested their time and energy in writing comments so that the team making the response campaign could use that for making video responses.

Old Spice has to some been able to ground themselves within Keller’s (2001) ideas of how to build brand equity with consumers. Arguably they have managed to position themselves in all categories of the branding ladder, and customers are responding well to the efforts. Most brand seeking to rebrand or reposition, have difficulties in transferring equity. Old Spice has not transferred equity from the previous brand, and have transformed into a new brand only bringing equity in the form of the heritage. It appears as Old Spice did so intentionally with new product lines along with a new brand. All in all, P&G along with the efforts of Wieden+Kennedy have achieved their aim of becoming relevant with younger consumers and is no longer associated with granddads. Old Spice created brand equity and a new customer foundation, but in the process lost prior equity and customer base.

Discussion - Analysis

62 Roskilde University Business Administration This section seeks to elevate some of the discussion points that we felt materialized from the analysis. This part will, therefore, deal with an aspect not directly related to Old Spice or our research question, but seek to discuss some of the broader issues that have become apparent through the creation of this project. Many of these points will by brushed upon quickly, as we do not have any complete answers to the argument. However, we hope to raise the discussion, and perhaps inspire future research regarding these areas.

Sexual information in advertising

In this project, we learned that sexual information either comes in the shape of language or illustrations and that it is used to increase the attention which a viewer or recipient pays to the content including the sexual information. Furthermore, we learned that men and women do not react equally to sexual contents, however, could derive different positive meanings from the same contents. Hence, men saw the TMYMCSL commercial and reacted imaginatively, while women cognitively, both resulting in the positive perception of Old Spice. We already accounted for the fact that high-consideration purchases do not benefit from sexual information, and that it might even hurt the credibility of companies involved in high-consideration industries. NGO´s and computers firms are also less likely to benefit from sexual information. The question is then, why isn't every business retailing low-consideration product utilizing sexual information? Alternatively, maybe they are. We see burger chains like Carl’s Jr. using female underwear models, and also Danish chocolate milk brand Cocio marketing their product with model Eva Mendes as the main character of their commercials (Anon 2016) (YouTube 2016). So maybe everybody with a sizeable marketing budget is using sexual information. The question then becomes where does the line draw? In both Denmark and the US, rules are deciding what can and cannot be shown on TV regarding nudity, however, as society evolves so does these regulations. It can also be argued that with more and more companies utilizing this strategy, the market will simply be overflooded with sexual information making it superfluous for everybody. Sex is still one of the strongest tools out there for marketers to utilize. However, the effect might be diminishing as the marketplace, over time, can become overflooded with sexual content.

The importance of a narrative

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In our section on narratives, we investigated how strong brand often have a strong narrative as well. Coca-Cola and for example has had the same narrative for years with tremendous success. Old Spice could have the same success, but they might be too reliant on pop-culture references to keep updating their narrative. However, writing this section we wondered how brands without narratives markets their products and what happens if the creation of a narrative fails. What if Old Spice had failed, and became an internet joke, instead of sensation? Would that have been the end of the company?

It is clear that Old Spice took a risk. They had to do something to make them relevant again; it was an evolve or die situation. With more established companies it arguably seems like marketing becomes a lot easier when a narrative is in place, and it might also secure a smooth internal overleveraging between generations of marketers. However, that is a privilege for the few, not the masses. We thought of the Danish company DSB (Danske Statsbaner), who has had different narratives in their marketing and never actually managed to brand themselves strong from the beginning. Of course, the quality of the product can make it hard. However, that is something a strong narrative can help lessen.

Axe vs. Old Spice - Battle of the Brands

The two largest competitors Axe and Old Spice have been competing in the industry for men's grooming products for many years. Axe has always been targeting the younger customer segment of males, whereas Old Spice has been known to be a brand for the elderly generation. Axe has been branding themselves with that girls will flock to you if you spray yourself with their body spray. However, it is evident that Old Spice won the battle of the two brands in 2010 when they figured out that women stood for 60 % of the purchases of men's grooming products. They started making commercial with sexual content combined with humor, which is arguably the strategy Axe had been using beforehand. However, instead of just appealing to the boys, Old Spice differentiated themselves, by appealing to the women customers. The idea of marketing to both genders and create a discussion between man and woman, husband and wife, was probably the thing that tipped the scale in Old Spices favor. However, who is to say that the scale cannot

64 Roskilde University Business Administration tip back if Axe comes up with something that makes the younger generation flock back to them again, instead of using Old Spice. What they can we, we cannot say. However, we are sure that this battle of the brand is not over yet.

Chapter 6 - Conclusion

Conclusion

The success of Old Spice´s campaigning efforts was never to be denied, however during this project we have presented insight into the processes which enabled this achievement. Old Spice went through a period of rebranding, initiated by their TMYMCSL commercial in 2010, and has since continued to rise, both in sales and in the prospect of various generations in America, but also worldwide. The rebranding process did leave some of their older loyal customers baffled, feeling abandoned and disappointed, however, in the larger perspective, their decision was right as they managed to go from grandfather's cologne to something youthful and prosperous. Their success came to be as a result of hiring a marketing agency Wieden+Kennedy, who via sound research managed to rethink the entire industry. Their assumptions meant that Old Spice, even though they are a product for men, had to reach both males and females with their marketing. In a sense, they started over. This made us turn to the theory of branding, and brand equity, where we learned what, outside of the product, can create value for customers. The CBBE model by Keller (2001) functioned as a guideline for successful brand building and guided our research by introducing concepts such as brand salience being the awareness of one brand. From the inputs of VCI we began looking at Old Spice’s entire strategy, or narrative, however, realized that only the external narrative was of interest. Central to the narrative was, of course, their TMYMCSL commercial that clearly showed Old Spice´s difference compared to their competitors. Its use of humor as a way a grabbing attention, and as a medium for self-ironic comedy took Old Spice´s on an epic journey across the viral internet, giving them hours of free publicity by the enormous numbers of shares and likes that the video reached. Along with’ humor, the use of sexual information was key as it manages to appeal to both men and women, however differently,

65 Roskilde University Business Administration fulfilling Wieden+Kennedy´s assumption. We saw that men were affected imaginatively, while women were affected cognitively. Subsequent to their TMYMCSL commercial, Old Spice launched a response campaign, utilizing co-creation to raise brand salience and improve the cognitive creation of meaning for customers about Old Spice's product. The use of co-creation showed highly effective and should be regarded as one of the main success factors for Old Spice. When including your customers in the creation of content, you increase brand salience as well as the cognitive reception and meaning processing, while co-creating value for both customer and company.

The use of narrative and storytelling also proved influential for Old Spice as many scholars argue the fabrication of a narrative for a brand can increase the coherence to which their brand is marketed, and make them appeal to cultures in society. We used Nike as an example, showing how that through language and purposeful communication has managed to capture situated trends in society and turn them into business prowess. This section allowed us to delve into the more humanistic perspective of marketing’, utilizing concepts from communication and storytelling, while providing insight into the more technical way of constructing narratives, eventually resulting in the understanding that narratives are something business should seek to incorporate. Another important factor proved to be the interplay between a well-constructed narrative and a strongly defined customer segment, again supporting the assumption that individuals can improve their self- esteem and actualization by purchasing brand containing value other than just the value of the product. Furthermore, stressing the importance of the ability of the individual to be able to reflect their values in a certain product, this link back to the narrative, as it is this narrative which is portraying values on behalf of Old Spice. Concluding our analysis, we focused on Old Spice's use of celebrity endorsers, to understand how it benefitted them in increasing brand salience, increasing brand value and the process of transferring value and meaning from the celebrity to the product. This aspect should also be seen as vital to Old Spice´s success. Concluding, it is evident that from the case of Old Spice, we can learn how sex, humor and the overall difference in commercial create attention and hype surrounding the product, while the construction of narrative acts as the glue that bind the story of a product together by increasing brand meaning for the individual buyer. Furthermore, has celebrity endorsement proven to be a rewarder kicker for Old Spice´s as these celebrity’s transfer some of

66 Roskilde University Business Administration their values and meaning to Old Spice’s product when in turn is passed on to the consumer at the time of purchase. All in all, Old Spice created a successful campaign. However, we knew that going in, what we have learned, is the how they created a successful campaign.

Perspectivation

In this section, we seek to offer insight regarding lessons from the Old Spice campaign can be perspectivated to other businesses or industries.

Many companies, organizations, businesses are facing the same problems as Old Spice was before their advertisement TMYMCSL. How do you appeal to the younger generation, if the discourse surrounding your company is negatively loaded towards the elder generation? A Danish company called Elite Gaming faces the same problems; they produce slot machines that are located in various small shops, pubs and the like. The problem they are facing is that the younger generations are not utilizing these machines because there are many substitutes online that gives you some free cash to play for when you sign up. Another point that could explain their decrease in users from the younger generation is that fewer and fewer younger people are using cold cash, and to be able to play on the machines you need coins. Maybe the management in Elite Gaming could learn from the case of Old Spice when you come to think of it, there are no commercials on the TV about playing on physical slot machines, the commercials are only for the online versions. Maybe a commercial along the lines of the one Old Spice launched could benefit Elite Gaming as well. With the rise of the internet, many companies struggle to keep up with apps and the like, and hence they need to rethink themselves to stay relevant before they are overhauled by new businesses that seize the gaps where the consumers need alternatives to older products.

In September 2016, Danish news site, TV2, ran an article saying that the youth of Denmark hate supermarkets and that the younger generation if losing their desire to shop at most Danish supermarkets (nyheder.tv2.dk 2016). The article states that three out of four young people hate going to the supermarket, and with the rise of online shopping, Danish supermarket could see their sales decrease in the future if they do not act now (nyheder.tv2.dk 2016). The supermarkets in Denmark face the challenge of, perhaps not rebranding, but at least altering their product so

67 Roskilde University Business Administration that they become more appealing to all customers. If they should learn from Old Spice, it could be to increase your brand value via marketing, so that customers obtain value beyond just the product. This is easier said than done, done could differentiate some supermarket. Moreover, some of them could pursue trends such as organic, paleo or vegan to increase brand salience.

Reflection

When we have to reflect on our effort in this project, it is evident that we came off with a late start due to various personal situations as well as focus on other exams. This meant that we were not able to go into depth with many of the areas this research project covers and only were able to describe it out from theory and with some hypothetical answers. Hence this project focuses on theory. Initially, we wanted to write a business project. However, the subject we have been researching, and the way we have chosen to research it showed not to be able to do in the business field which we wanted, and hence this project showed to be more in the field of sociology.

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Chapter 7 - Bibliography

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69 Roskilde University Business Administration Kjærbeck, S. (2004). Historiefortælling i praktisk kommunikation. 1st ed. Frederiksberg: Roskilde Universitetsforlag.

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