Axe has 7% share of the men’s body wash category and it is the market leader. Old Spice is in second place with 6%. This category is ripe from leadership.
As an ad-rat and someone who admires Bartle Bogle Hegarty the Axe agency, I’ve watched with interest the Axe advertising phenomenon. But here’s the deal — 7% market share? Puh-lease.
Body wash isn’t even a new category anymore. An opportunity has been lost here.Unilever has to decide if it wants to own body gel or OWN body gel. If it’s the latter, it needs to step up and spend some dough. BBH has been doing a good job of getting Axe on the map, but they’ve been diddling around with fun, yet small targeted programs.
Lot’s of little stuff doesn’t compare with a big idea and a big spend.
Old Spice and Nivea should not even be in the picture. This category is ready to for a leader to emerge, but it needs some investment spending.
Unilever has to start throwing some serious body punches. All it’s been doing to date is tickling. Men don’t like to be ticked. Peace! Axe, unilever, bartle bogle hegarty, old spice, nivea, BBH, whatstheidea., whats the idea…
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Steve Poppe is the Managing Partner of “What’s the Idea?” a marketing consulting firm. Check out Steve’s blog at https://spoppe.livejournal.com or reach him via Twitter @spoppe.
