Unilever was able to successfully sell their body wash products by addressing and countering several widespread beliefs about showering, for instance, that shower gels are more suitable for women, and that shower gels wash the body worse than a combination of bar soap and a washcloth. To counter the first belief, they launched a campaign that led consumers to believe that shower gel could help them get more women, whereas the second belief was dealt with by introducing the Axe Detailer Shower Tool. The “Clean your Balls” campaign addressed both these issues.
It is important that Unilever did not attempt to directly change the customers’ beliefs by e.g. stating that “shower gels are good for men, too,” instead of adding the distinctively masculine component to the image of their products. This allowed the customer to adopt the new products by employing their views of the social influence of the products (Hoyer, MacInnis, and Pieters 424).
To remain competitive, it should be useful for Unilever to keep launching campaigns persuading the customers that these products are purely masculine and that they clean the body well. As it is expected that the market will be flooded with new products, it is important to maintain the opinion that the customers currently have about the product. It should also be effective to introduce new production allowing to better clean one’s body.
The predictive model that accounts for the sales increase the Axe shower gel has experiences consists of the following:
- Interpersonal factors: the campaign led consumers to believe that the use of their products would better the consumers’ relationships with females, by enhancing the customers’ physical attractiveness.
- Intrapersonal factors: the belief that using the Axe shower gel, especially in combination with the Detailer Shower Tool, allows for effective cleaning of the body. An important notion here is the customers’ self-concept (Kardes, Cronley, and Cline 153-154); Unilever led them to believe that using their products would make them cleaner, more attractive, and more masculine.
- Cultural factors: the beliefs about masculinity and male sexuality, the perceptions that men should be able to attract many women. Unilever was able to persuade consumers that their products are associated with success in these issues. Using these beliefs can be described as appealing to the target audience’s values.
- Situational factors: the “Dirty Night Determinator” was aimed at a particular situation the buyers might have found themselves in, where they could see “how dirty their night was.”
- Marketing controllable factors: the products and advertising were aimed at a specific audience; the prices were affordable and attractive.
- Uncontrollable factors: no significant uncontrollable factors (such as environmental factors) are mentioned in the case.
A cultural factor that might be used to promote Axe shower gels is related to the view that people should shower every day. It is possible to further encourage the buyers to use the Axe body wash products every day by telling them that they are suitable for everyday use and that they make the clients healthy while further promoting the opinion that the products allow them to be attractive to women. By doing this, the company will appeal to the clients’ system of values, according to which it is better to be healthy and clean (de Mooij 27-28). In the advertisement, it should be stressed that, while other body wash products might not be suitable for everyday use, Axe shower gels, on the contrary, allow the clients to preserve healthy skin while still improving their masculinity.
Works Cited
De Mooij, Marieke. Consumer Behavior and Culture: Consequences for Global Marketing and Advertising. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2011. Print.
Hoyer, Wayne D., Deborah J. MacInnis, and Rik Pieters. Consumer Behavior. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2013. Print.
Kardes, Frank, Maria Cronley, and Thomas Cline. Consumer Behavior. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.