Old Spice Marketing

Old Spice is an exceptional brand founded on a rich history. It has succeeded in transforming itself from a brand that was more focused towards my generation’s grandparents to a new millennium sensation for younger crowds to utilize by using the market penetration product strategy. Proctor and Gamble currently owns the Old Spice brand and takes up a considerable amount of the men’s grooming market segment. Old Spice is still managing to maintain a competitive advantage and is growing toward its peak in its product life cycle with little product attributes that differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Proctor and Gamble is currently expanding Old Spice’s product mix and maintains competitive pricing. Old Spice’s brand is promoted a highly rated advertising strategy and distributes its products intensively to retailers and wholesalers. The creator of Old Spice is George Schultz. He was introduced to the grooming market when he was 19 years old by working as a salesman for his father, William Schultz. William’s company, Schulton Company, in the Bronx, New York in the mid 1930s. Schulton Company, originally named the Lightfoot Schultz Company, was formed in the 1920s and sold soap and toiletries.

William Schultz came to the conclusion that he would never become wealthy selling a private label product during the Depression and decided to search for a product that he could trademark and capture the public eye. He met with Enid Edson, an artist, and searched for label designs through intensive research. It was only soon after when William Schultz developed the first Old Spice product. It was a female fragrance that was developed “from a memory of a rose jar his mother kept in the house, a combination of roses, cloves, herbs, and other spices, and called his new line of toiletries Early American Old Spice for Women. While this was happening, George Schultz pursued his chemical engineering degree while continuing to make money from being a salesman for Schulton. He became the plant manager shortly after and moved Schulton to its current site in Clifton in 1946. William Schultz passed away in 1950 and George Schultz was selected as president of Schulton and continued to build the company. Proctor and Gamble then bought Old Spice in 1990. Old Spice market segmentation is now targeted towards the younger generation, typically ages fifteen and up, who are intending the look their best and smell genuinely masculine.

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Also, the brand is reaching out to females who want their partners to have masculine-scented grooming products. There are currently three lines of the Old Spice brand: High Endurance, Classic, and Red Zone. High Endurance is the basic line, Classic contains the original scent of Old Spice, and Red Zone is the higher-end of the brand line. This allows for market segmentation to be split even more towards the older crowd who enjoy the original scent of Old Spice, and also to those who enjoy the newer variety of scents. In 2011, Proctor and Gamble held 43% of the men’s grooming industry’s sales and currently selling at $66. 47 per share.

Throughout the previous years Proctor and Gamble has been consistent with the market trend, including the economic downturn. However, Proctor and Gamble has been staying ahead of the market price per share by a large margin. Old Spice’s product brand has evolved little over time. Its label has a consistent nautical theme to it. Its logo started off with a sailing vessel as a trademark. The original ships used on their products were the Grand Turk and the Friendship. In 1992, these tall ships were replaced with a yacht, giving the brand a more modern feel. Today, Old Spice uses the original tall ship theme that it originally used.

Old Spice is involved in a wide brand extension as well. Starting off with aftershave lotion and shaving soap, the brand has extended to deodorant sticks, body wash, body spray, and other male grooming products. As stated before, Old Spice was originally designed for women, but now is predominantly a male brand. It is amazing how successful Old Spice has been even though it has little product attributes that give them a sustainable competitive advantage. One of its product attributes include the distinctive red appearance that the brand has consistently kept since it was first developed.

When you are in a men’s grooming section and you see the red products, you know that it is Old Spice. Also, it has developed a wide variety of different scents in the 2000s. Other than that, Old Spice has relied heavily on their advertising method that I will elaborate on later in this paper. I would argue that the products’ life cycle is currently in between the growth and maturity stage. Old Spice has been able to maintain its competitive brand since the early 1900s and continues to dominate the men’s grooming segment.

The Old Spice brand is presently attempting to expand its product mix. This directly represents their product strategy. They are focusing on market penetration and diversification. Market penetration is defined as “finding new customers for existing products. ” Diversification in terms of marketing is defined as “developing new products and cultivating new markets. Old Spice is diversifying their products and potentially reaching out to new customers by doing so. From the Old Spice website, you can buy products that are not directly related to the male grooming market segment.

One product that caught my attention was the deodorant protector. I am not quite sure why someone would need a deodorant protector, but maybe it is a way to show that the Old Spice product is valuable and a prized possession. The next product that caught my attention was a shirt with the famous “I’m on a horse” quote spoken by Isaiah Mustafa in an Old Spice commercial. This product mix shows that Old Spice is taking risks in expanding their product selection and is willing to reach into other product lines. Product development of Old Spice dates back from 1937 to today.

In 1937, Old Spice’s first product, a female fragrance, was introduced and the first male products, a shaving soap and aftershave lotion was developed one year later in 1938. The product appearance is consistent with the nautical theme as seen with the buoy-shaped bottle and clipper ship logo on the front. Also, the brand kept its cursive Old Spice logo that signifies its historical lasting. After Old Spice was bought by Proctor and Gamble in 1990, the tall ship logo that Old Spice kept prevalent throughout the 20th century was modified to a yacht logo in February of 1992.

Throughout the early 2000s, Old Spice has introduced various new scents, such as: After Hours, Komodo, Matterhorn, Aqua Reef, Swagger, Fiji, Cyprus, and many more. In 2008, the Old Spice brand decided to reintroduce its original scent to reach back to the brand’s origin. This is shown by a a quote on the back of some Old Spice products that read, “The original. If you’re grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist. They also replaced the glass buoy-shaped bottles to plastic for durability and replaced the gray stoppers with red ones to be consistent with the red theme that Old Spice is known for.

Proctor and Gamble has continued to keep Old Spice competitive in the male grooming market segment. The price of Old Spice products is either equal to or just slightly above its main competitors. Some of its closest important include Degree, Axe, Right Guard, Dial, Dove, Olay, and Nivea. In Wal-Mart, Old Spice deodorant typically sales for around $3. 97. This price gives them an advantage by providing the psychological factor to their consumers that Old Spice is a top brand product since it costs more than its primary competitors. Degree deodorant sales for $3. 87, Axe for $3. 47, and Right Guard for $3. 2. Right Guard and Degree brands are geared more toward the athlete hygienic market while Old Spice reaches out to not only that, but also toward men who just want to smell good. The Gillette brand is a competitive product with Old Spice but is owned by Proctor and Gamble and contributes to Proctor and Gamble’s total market share. Old Spice distributes its products through an intensive distribution process. This process requires “the manufacturer to gain exposure through as many wholesalers and retailers as possible. ” Some retailers that Old Spice distributes to are Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, and ShopRite.

Wholesaler distribution includes convenience stores like CVS Pharmacy, Walgreens, Rite Aid, and small “mom and pop stores. ” Old Spice is considered to be a product that many men need and is pushed through the market. Since Old Spice are a part of Proctor and Gamble, their products can be shipped out with other Proctor and Gamble products. This results in a very cost-effective distribution method for Proctor and Gamble. However, Old Spice may be involved with some difficulty when their business partners become resistant and slows down the distribution process, creating a thin line between partners and competitors.

They become resistant because they may expect more of a profit from Proctor and Gamble since the company is so successful. Old Spice should consider distributing products on their own to reduce these conflicts and clear congestion in the distribution process. Old Spice packaging is in both gift sets and per unit that dates back to 1938. The original gift set packaging were cardboard boxes protected with lithograph thin wood veneer made by the Hull Pottery Company. The packaging had printed on it the ship Grand Turk, Mount Vernon, Brig Experiment, Friendship, and Recovery.

The first major change in the gift set packaging was in 1955, replacing the wood-colored box with a solid red and giving the tall ship a more contemporary look by whitening the sails and blackening the hull. Shortly after, in 1963 a gold compass was imprinted on the red gift set box and remained this way until 1970. Ten years later the gift set cover consisted of a series of copies of large traditional clipper ships that include the Hamilton, Wesley, Salem, and Birmingham. In 1977, four different gift set cover designs were introduced that included a collection of watercolor prints.

These prints were of scenic harbors, such as the New Orleans Harbor, San Francisco Harbor, Savannah Harbor, and Mystic Harbor. Then, in the 1980s, the gift set packaging top was covered with a modern print of the products inside the package. Today, the Old Spice gift set maintains the print of products inside the package or contains a see through cover so the consumers can view the products themselves. The package remains red, the words remain cursive, but the red is a darker shade than the well-known bright red. Individual packaging per Old Spice product were for the original after-shave and cologne in the early 1940s.

The box was wrapped in dark red paper and the glass bottles were white and buoy-shaped to display the nautical image that Old Spice portrays. The Old Spice logo consisted of cursive letters with the words “Early American” above “Old Spice” and had had scrollwork surrounding the lettering. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the scrollwork was removed and the Old Spice letters were made larger. Today, the Old Spice individual packaging varies but has a consistent nautical theme that aims toward various consumers. Old Spice boosted its popularity and sales by a large margin when they launched the “Smell like a man, man” campaign in July of 2010.

It was a commercial starring Isaiah Mustafa that immediately reached out to women by starting the video with “Hello, ladies. ” He then continued convincing women that their man can smell like he is good looking by saying, “Look at your man. Now back at me. Now back at your man. Now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me, but if he stopped using ladies’ scented body wash and switched to Old Spice, he could smell like he’s me. ” The commercial ended with Mustafa obviously stating, “I’m on a horse” while sitting backwards on one. This video gained mass amounts of attention and had more than 6. million views on YouTube in just one day! This campaign was also promoted by creating a bathroom set with Mustafa, also known as the “Spice Man,” standing with just a towel on. Fans could then send the Spice Man questions on from Facebook and Twitter and four writers rapidly crafted responses to those questions that the Spice Man then answered with. There were 65 of these response videos uploaded and drew up to over 5. 2 million views on YouTube. In conclusion, Old Spice is a widely successful brand that was founded on a rich history during the Great Depression.

Since then, the brand managed to reach millions of consumers to become one of the most popular male grooming products on the market today. They did so with little modifications to product packaging and appearance. Proctor and Gamble was a huge factor in Old Spice’s success and continues to lead Old Spice through it’s growth stage in its product life. Their intensive distribution strategy and competitive pricing puts them on top and helps Old Spice maintain about 43% of the men’s grooming market. Old Spice’s nautical theme is strong, confident, and masculine.

Like the product says, “If your grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist. ” Works Cited Berner, Robert. "Old Spice's Extreme Makeover. " Businessweek. com. Bloomberg Businessweek, 01 Nov. 2004. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://www. businessweek. com/magazine/content/04_44/b3906116. htm>. Cover, John C. Proctor and Gamble: A Marketing Technique. 1967. Print. Newman, Andrew A. "Old Spice Argues That Real Men Smell Good. " Nytimes. com. New York Times. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://www. nytimes. com/2010/07/16/business/media/16adco. html>. "Old Spice. " Old Spice.

Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://www. oldspice. com/>. "Old Spice Collectibles. " Old Spice Collectibles. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://www. cr8on. com/>. "PG: Summary for Procter ; Gamble Company (The) - Yahoo! Finance. " Yahoo! Finance. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://finance. yahoo. com/q? s=PG>. "Procter ; Gamble. " PG. com Home: Sustainability, Company, Brands. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://www. pg. com/en_US/index. shtml>. "Proctor and Gamble. " United States American History. Web. 12 Mar. 2012. <http://www. u-s-history. com/pages/h1811. html>.

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