Live issue: Is ‘sexual attraction’ the best bet for deos?

With entry of new brands, advertising becomes even more important in the crowded, high-growth Rs 1,500-crore plus (multiple estimates) deodorants market. Yet, defying logic, differentiation, at least on the proposition front, is absent. Spykar deos took the premise of ‘sexual attraction’ one level higher for its launch. The difference being that the racy scenes are pixelated - leading to the brand’s message of ‘Live Censored’.

Sanjay Vakharia, director - marketing, Spykar Lifestyles, reasons, “The deodorant category is driven by the trade, so such campaigns are more appealing to the trade and not the end consumer. It’s more about the push and not the pull. Such ads create sensationalism and create buzz in the market.”

P&G roped in Milind Soman for its campaign for Old Spice range of deodorants. In the film, Soman plays the role of Isaiah Mustafa (who appears in the brand’s global campaign). For Old Spice, the positioning is simple: Buy Old Spice, be ‘mantastic’ (and of course, have the women on your lap).

Nikhil Ramesh, country marketing manager, Old Spice India, explains, “Everyone has it in them to be ‘mantastic’ and Old Spice will help men in India navigate the seas of manhood, smelling like a ‘mantastic’ man. We wanted to create a campaign which will reinvent the Old Spice brand and make it more relevant to a whole new generation of men, while retaining the authentic raw masculinity that Old Spice has always been known for.”

While Spykar and Old Spice stuck to the time-tested attraction route, Cinthol and Nivea looked at ‘Intensity’ and ‘Freshness’ respectively, with the help of brand ambassadors.

In line with Cinthol’s ‘Alive is Awesome’ repositioning, the brand roped in Virat Kohli as brand ambassador for its range of deodorants. On the rationale behind Kohli’s association and the ‘intensity’ campaign, Sunil Kataria, chief operating officer, sales, marketing and SAARC, Godrej Consumer Products, said, “The film had to have the Cinthol brand proposition ‘Alive is Awesome’. Our aim was to target people with an explorer mindset and experiences. We came up with the idea ‘What Makes Virat Excited’ and that’s how the advertising happened.”

Nivea meanwhile roped in Arjun Rampal and rolled out its communication. The ‘freshness’ thought came through a campaign in which Rampal promises freshness and nothing else. He urges consumers to achieve the rest (attracting women, fame, overnight success) on their own, taking a dig at the core category proposition.

Robby Mathew, national creative director, Interface Communications (the creative agency that executed the campaign), says, “What we were trying to do was taking a shot at other advertising, where people are promising fame, women etc. The global position for Nivea Men range is that it starts with you and that’s what we’ve looked to communicate.”

Kiran Khalap, founder, chlorophyll brand & communications consultancy, says that brands need to be different in their advertising. He surmises, “Sexual attraction is not the only proposition brands should be looking at. Brands that are not being different are taking the biggest risk of all. Spykar may have pushed the envelope but that is only an executional difference.”

  

Marketer

Sanjay Vakharia, director - marketing, Spykar Lifestyles

“What’s different between the deodorant category and clothing category are the touch points available. When I reach out to advertise deodorants, the touch points are more and hence we’ll be looking for more ATL efforts for advertising in the category. For clothing, BTL efforts are good enough to drive sales.”

  

Marketer

Sunil Kataria, COO, sales, marketing and SAARC, Godrej Consumer Products

“We stood out differently because the brand is different. Our TG looks for intense fragrances. We needed to create a brand thought with the product proposition and that’s what we did in the end.”

  

Creative

Robby Mathew, national creative director, Interface Communications

“The premise we were looking at for Nivea was different. We’ve gone anti-category with our advertising for Nivea. Axe says stuff like, ‘You’re a nerd, but you spray yourself and get the girl’. This is the opposite, Nivea only gives freshness. I know from the client that it has done well; will take time some to establish in terms of numbers.”

  

Marketer

Nikhil Ramesh, country marketing manager, Old Spice India

“We had to create a campaign which had to reinvent the Old Spice brand and make it more relevant to a whole new generation of men, while retaining the authentic raw masculinity that Old Spice has always been known for.”

  

Brand expert

Kiran Khalap, founder, chlorophyll brand & communications consultancy

“Internationally, too, sexual attraction seems to be the easiest solution; though there have been several about stress and its relationship to sweating. I personally feel the sense of smell is the shortest path to the brain and is a storehouse of many memories. There are many insights available within that scientific fact. Fa went with ‘Confident enough to hug’. Nivea is anchored in ‘Self-confident enough not to follow others’. Old Spice won market share through the ‘Smell like a man’ idea.”

The article appeared in the issue of Campaign India dated 18 October, 2013