How Old Spice Overcame the Stigma: "It's my grandfather's Brand"

Old Spice, a brand of male grooming products owned by Procter & Gamble, faced negative perceptions for several decades. The brand was seen as outdated, old-fashioned, and associated with older men. With our knowledge of stigma today, we would have characterized Old Spice as facing 3 different types of stigma:

1. Perceived Stigma (the fear that I will be the butt of jokes from my friends for using an old-fashioned, outdated brand)
2. Stigma By Association (If I used Old Spice, I will not be perceived as cool, and girls won't date me)
3. Label Avoidance (I won't buy the brand because it's my grandfather's product, it's not for me)

As stated in previous blog posts, brands have to diagnose the problem they are solving, given stigma is a layered issue. Which one do you prioritize? In fact, when P&G did consumer research in 1998 in London, younger consumers described Old Spice as Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square. Very iconic but with pigeon sh*t all over Lord Nelson. The team questioned whether there was any opportunity to turn this brand around at all. So the team addressed the challenge of how P&G always does.

The Old Spice team translated this feedback and evaluated multiple options to overcome these challenges with the brand:

1. Relevance: The brand needed to become relevant to a younger demographic to increase sales. The question was how to overcome this perceived stigma of being outdated and old-fashioned.
2. Rebranding: Old Spice needed to rebrand itself to appeal to younger consumers and distance itself from its outdated image. The team had to consider if the brand's assets were distinctive or did the brand needed to make radical changes, including tweaking the name (Old Spice to New Spice?), the logo, the font, and red color.
3. Marketing: The brand needed a marketing strategy that would effectively communicate the rebranding to the target audience. How would the brand be able to convince younger men that Old Spice was the brand for them and it was cool? The team recognized that the cool factor mattered a lot given how Axe had reframed and set expectations with younger men with their campaigns on Axe's scent attracting women.
4. Innovation: Old Spice needed to innovate its product line outside of its iconic after-shave splash. Deodorants, followed by bar soaps and body washes were all possibilities, but the question was how could the brand launch into new product categories if the core business was declining.
5. Competition: In Europe, Axe deodorants had built a robust brand, and it was a threat to P&G if Axe entered the US market. Their positioning and campaigns were popular and younger men were attracted to the brand, as mentioned previously.

Old Spice implemented a comprehensive strategy to rebrand itself and appeal to younger consumers:

• Rebranding: Old Spice updated its branding by revamping its packaging, logo, and product offerings. The team decided to keep the name, Old Spice, given it was distinctive and known, even if the perception was negative.

• Marketing: One of the campaigns focused on their deodorant line and spoke to the product superiority of the High Endurance product. A very rational, side-by-side comparison to appeal to consumers. At a minimum, this campaign moved consumer sentiment from negative to neutral when it came to being old-fashioned or outdated. In 2010, Old Spice launched a series of humorous and irreverent advertising campaigns that targeted women to buy Old Spice for their guy. These ads featured celebrities, such as Isaiah Mustafa, who became the face of the brand's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" campaign. The ads used humor, emotion, and satire to make the brand relevant and relatable to both men and women (who were primarily the buyers) and tapped into the cool factor. This campaign moved consumers from a neutral to positive sentiment toward the brand.

• Social Media: Old Spice leveraged social media to engage with younger consumers. The brand created a YouTube channel where it posted videos that parodied traditional men's grooming commercials. The brand also engaged with consumers on Twitter, responding to tweets and creating a dialogue with consumers.
• Innovation: The brand leaned into deodorants by launching sticks and antiperspirant creams. In 2001, the brand initially launched a bar soap followed by body washes in 2002. This helped the brand accelerate its growth, where it over-delivered against expectations in its first year of launch.

Old Spice's rebranding efforts paid off. The company saw a significant increase in sales and a shift in its consumer base. By 2010, Old Spice had become one of the leading male grooming brands in the United States. The brand's advertising campaigns became viral sensations, and the brand's social media engagement helped create a loyal following.

Old Spice's rebranding efforts demonstrate how a brand can overcome stigma and appeal to younger guys. The emotional connection that was created with the 2010 campaign, helped drive the brand to a leadership position. At the time, the team wasn't thinking of stigma, as the issue. By leveraging the insight around the role of women purchasing deodorants and body washes for their significant others, the brand found a new way in to create an emotionally appealing campaign to win the hearts and minds of its target audience. The brand overcame Label Avoidance and Stigma By Association because she is literally giving her guy permission to use the brand.

In retrospect, had the Old Spice team assessed their plans with stigma in mind, could the brand have accelerated its growth by tapping into the emotional angle earlier vs. the rational angle or targeted women earlier to buy the brand for their guy?

Stay tuned for future blog posts where this newsletter will share learnings on the role of rational vs. emotional communication to overcome stigma.

If you feel that your brand could benefit from an assessment, give Y2S Consulting a call.