Procter&Gamble acquired Old Spice in 1990. Since then, a brand once associated with a has-been, highly fragrant aftershave whose ivory bottle still gathers dust on medicine-cabinet shelves has transformed from a small stagnating brand into a men's personal-care powerhouse. The brand is undergoing a transformation and rapidly becoming a hip brand for men, thanks in no small part to P&G's 'Smell like a man, man' advertising campaign for Old Spice shower gel, starring the actor Isaiah Mustafa.
The initial 30-second ad began with the dashing actor standing in a bathroom donning merely a towel and challenging female viewers to compare the looks of their man to him. P&G did a research which suggested women purchase as much as 70% of the shower gel for the men in their households. At the same time, marketers are aware that using traditionally female body care products, such as body wash, strikes many men as unmanly.
A brand as a person metaphor is applied within the Old Spice commercial where the product is literally a person (Isaiah Mustafa). He is ‘the man your man could smell like’ and provides a meaning for the viewer since he is a desired man and is potentially what the female audiences man could smell like or even become. The Old Spice commercial shows that although the former ‘old man’ brand is attempting to persuade a younger audience, viewers are more prone to giving them that chance, thanks to the new wave of advertising and the use of promotion and a spokesperson that men want to be. Yet, this is a type of product that can easily be switched to and abandoned if necessary. If the product is successful in the eyes of the consumers it will be on its way to becoming a continuous household item, thereby expanding the relationship between consumer and brand and building brand equity.
A value proposition is what defines the relationship between consumer and brand. Old Spice’s value proposition is the advantage that