If you are not of those, who switch channels, during advertisement break, then you would have definitely observed the increase in frequency of deodorant ads as well as increase in number of deodorant brands. We can roughly say, of all the advertisements, about 4% are that of deodorant's, which means there are more brands in the market and every brand is making an effort to establish itself in the minds of it’s target customers.
Among the many, which are advertised these days, I remember few brands like FUEL, DENVER and the new one, ADDICTION for which NNM is the brand ambassador. I have not mentioned about AXE, reason is that, AXE easily forms the part of the evoked set. It is only the new Men’s deodorants, I am writing about. I remember these few brands because of my explicit efforts in remembering the names, once I decided that I am writing about Deodorant ads.
All these ads are attempting to POSITION their brand on one theme, “Sex Appeal”. See a Men’s Deodorant ad; you will get to see one of the two types. Type A , will have a male model flaunting his six packs with a gal or bunch of skimpily clad gals pouncing upon him (of course after using that particular deodorant). Type B, ad is one in which the gal starts to strip because of the fragrance of the deodorant. So, say about 7-8 different brands, and only two types of ads, it is obvious that I will be able to recall only a few among them.
There was one more brand, which highlighted the fantasies of married women. This ad seemed to be a little different from the rest, though based on sex appeal. However I am not able to recall the name. I messaged some friends of mine, asking them if they remember the name of that brand. However none of them were able to recall the name. I thought, well its good that they don’t remember, I have some sort of evidence to what I am writing.
On the whole, when I see deodorant ads, I feel, the ad is for one single brand and only the models change every time. What I mean is, all the brands in this category are using the same positioning concept i.e. Sex Appeal. Not only is the positioning theme is same, even the manner in which they are trying to position is the same. So, a person will feel, the ad mite be of one brand and thus will not be able to recall all the brands.
The entire purpose of advertisement and the concept of distinctive positioning itself are not being served. And thus the brand will fail in its attempt of establishing itself in the minds of its target customers. So the upcoming brands should realize, following the leader’s Positioning Strategy will not help, and it should make some serious attempts to position itself in a unique manner if it has to form the part of evoked set. Also, not even a single brand is making an attempt to position itself on the purpose for which a deodorant is used. Also, the deodorant ads are such that, in a way they seem to convey that middle-aged men are too old to use a deodorant. So its time to come out the “Sex Appeal” thing and do something that will really provoke the target customers. Everybody knows what purpose a deodorant serves.
Basically, a brand tries to follow a trend of advertisement that exists. Take for example; IDEA came with the concept of social benefit (Save Trees) in its advertisement. To go with the trend, AIRCEL came up with Save Tiger campaign. Some times in an attempt to go with the trend, brands fail in its attempt to distinguish itself from other brands. Thus entire expenditure will go for a toss.
Not just deodorant, take any particular product category. If all the players in a product category base their ads on a similar concept and also use the same method to convey a message, then it will just seem that all the players together are promoting the “entire product category” rather than their respective brand in particular. However, if a brand uses a medium or media vehicle, which other brands do not use, then there are possibilities that, people exposed to this particular media vehicle may recall the brand. But again, the success will solely depend on the effectiveness of media vehicle and may turn out to be a gamble on the part of brand.
So it is important for a brand to make its advertisement different from other brands of same product category in order to increase it chances of getting into consideration set.
