5 ms·

I'm reminded of the new-old adage: "you can't polish a turd". However 'in touch' Old Spice might be with the online generation (as someone wrote elsewhere in t

by dotBen 16y ago

I'm reminded of the new-old adage: "you can't polish a turd". However 'in touch' Old Spice might be with the online generation (as someone wrote elsewhere in this thread), the product still smells like what someone's grandpa would wear. How does this relate to startups? No matter how great your marketing might be, you gotta always be able to proposition the product right. Old Spice can't pivot and iterate their product because then it would no longer be Old Spice. Let's be thankful we can pivot with internet startups to find continued market fit.

vaksel 16y ago
sure they can iterate...old spice with lemon, old spice Everest myst(green color), old spice gulf oil slick black(black colored) etc or they can come out with a sub brand, youth spice etc etc
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
axod 16y ago
I'd be VERY surprised if they're not selling a ton more old spice now. My wife is planning to buy me some just because she loves the ads.
- mkramlich 16y ago
  > ... because she loves the abs. FTFY
- dotBen 16y ago
  This is why I hate marketing. Wouldn't you prefer it if your wife bought the best product rather than the best marketed product? In this instance perhaps the fragrance she preferred the smell of the best?
  - axod 16y ago
    I can't really smell much difference between any bathroom products. Whichever she wants to buy is fine by me. Using old spice will remind me of some of the awesome lines from the adverts, which will be a good start to the day. As long as it smells "good/clean", that's fine I'd say...
BrandonM 16y ago
I use Aqua Reef Old Spice deodorant (not antiperspirant), and I've had several people ask me what cologne I was wearing -- when I wasn't wearing any.
sliverstorm 16y ago
> However 'in touch' Old Spice might be with the online generation (as someone wrote elsewhere in this thread), the product still smells like what someone's grandpa would wear. Is that automatically a bad thing? People like fedoras, and that's certainly something a grandpa would/did wear.
- spudlyo 16y ago
  I remember maybe 5 years ago when I was re-entering the dating scene, I read in a few places that some women respond well told Old Spice simply because it was the fragrance their fathers wore. The logic to me seemed a bit creepy, but I did it anyway, and found that I liked it.
noodle 16y ago
> How does this relate to startups? its a great example of innovative marketing and making good use of the tools they have at hand.
philwelch 16y ago
"However 'in touch' Old Spice might be with the online generation (as someone wrote elsewhere in this thread), the product still smells like what someone's grandpa would wear." To me, Old Spice smells like something a real man would wear, and Axe (for instance) smells like something a newly pubescent teen would wear. Grandpa won WWII; the Axe generation pretends to win WWII by playing first-person shooter video games.
- dotBen 16y ago
  Yeah, I guess I wouldn't wear either. I find the US market for men's fragrances is pretty dreadful compared to my original native UK. It's basically Axe or Old Spice here, where as in UK the equivalent of Walgreens, Boots, stocks those brands but also slightly more expensive Ted Baker, French Connection, and a number of others. I guess I'm getting off topic, though I'm totally shocked I got down-voted so much for my original comment. Perhaps Old Spice is an American thing.
  - philwelch 16y ago
    "Men's fragrances" means cologne to me, and I'm under the impression we have proper cologne in this country. Old Spice is what you rub under your arm so your sweat doesn't stink, traditionally. I don't categorize that as a fragrance per se, even though it has a dark manly scent to it. I guess they sell "body wash" now too, which is like soap but harder to use.
run4yourlives 16y ago
What Grandpa would wear is something that happens to be what a lot of men and women actually like a man to smell like. Given that I'm now seemingly surrounded by hairless, wimpy, Justin Beiber fairy-men at every corner as the "ideal man", I wouldn't mind if Old Spice made a huge comeback.
- JohnnyBrown 16y ago
  Two contradicting trends in advertising to men (and culture) i've noticed lately: Classic masculinity, of which this Old Spice campaign is an example. See also the Dos Equis guy, the sudden popularity of mustaches, steampunk, etc. Homoeroticism. This cologne ad with David Beckham sums it up: http://tiny.cc/jhi6h http://tiny.cc/jhi6h. Or pop open a GQ or Esquire and see how many things are being sold to men using overtly sexual images of attractive men.
  - run4yourlives 16y ago
    Agreed, although I don't think it's limited to two stereotypes (for instance there is the "Maxim/fratboy man" and the "Homer Simpson" man)
ubernostrum 16y ago
However 'in touch' Old Spice might be with the online generation (as someone wrote elsewhere in this thread), the product still smells like what someone's grandpa would wear. They know that, though, and go with it. Example: a few years ago a relative gave a bunch of bath sets as Christmas gifts to everyone. The one I got was an Old Spice set, which bore the slogan: "If your grandfather hadn't worn it, you wouldn't exist."

by dotBen 16y ago

vaksel 16y ago

sure they can iterate...old spice with lemon, old spice Everest myst(green color), old spice gulf oil slick black(black colored) etc or they can come out with a sub brand, youth spice etc etc

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]

axod 16y ago

I'd be VERY surprised if they're not selling a ton more old spice now. My wife is planning to buy me some just because she loves the ads.

mkramlich 16y ago
> ... because she loves the abs. FTFY
dotBen 16y ago
This is why I hate marketing. Wouldn't you prefer it if your wife bought the best product rather than the best marketed product? In this instance perhaps the fragrance she preferred the smell of the best?
- axod 16y ago
  I can't really smell much difference between any bathroom products. Whichever she wants to buy is fine by me. Using old spice will remind me of some of the awesome lines from the adverts, which will be a good start to the day. As long as it smells "good/clean", that's fine I'd say...

BrandonM 16y ago

I use Aqua Reef Old Spice deodorant (not antiperspirant), and I've had several people ask me what cologne I was wearing -- when I wasn't wearing any.

sliverstorm 16y ago

> However 'in touch' Old Spice might be with the online generation (as someone wrote elsewhere in this thread), the product still smells like what someone's grandpa would wear. Is that automatically a bad thing? People like fedoras, and that's certainly something a grandpa would/did wear.

spudlyo 16y ago
I remember maybe 5 years ago when I was re-entering the dating scene, I read in a few places that some women respond well told Old Spice simply because it was the fragrance their fathers wore. The logic to me seemed a bit creepy, but I did it anyway, and found that I liked it.

noodle 16y ago

> How does this relate to startups? its a great example of innovative marketing and making good use of the tools they have at hand.

philwelch 16y ago

"However 'in touch' Old Spice might be with the online generation (as someone wrote elsewhere in this thread), the product still smells like what someone's grandpa would wear." To me, Old Spice smells like something a real man would wear, and Axe (for instance) smells like something a newly pubescent teen would wear. Grandpa won WWII; the Axe generation pretends to win WWII by playing first-person shooter video games.

dotBen 16y ago
Yeah, I guess I wouldn't wear either. I find the US market for men's fragrances is pretty dreadful compared to my original native UK. It's basically Axe or Old Spice here, where as in UK the equivalent of Walgreens, Boots, stocks those brands but also slightly more expensive Ted Baker, French Connection, and a number of others. I guess I'm getting off topic, though I'm totally shocked I got down-voted so much for my original comment. Perhaps Old Spice is an American thing.
- philwelch 16y ago
  "Men's fragrances" means cologne to me, and I'm under the impression we have proper cologne in this country. Old Spice is what you rub under your arm so your sweat doesn't stink, traditionally. I don't categorize that as a fragrance per se, even though it has a dark manly scent to it. I guess they sell "body wash" now too, which is like soap but harder to use.

run4yourlives 16y ago

What Grandpa would wear is something that happens to be what a lot of men and women actually like a man to smell like. Given that I'm now seemingly surrounded by hairless, wimpy, Justin Beiber fairy-men at every corner as the "ideal man", I wouldn't mind if Old Spice made a huge comeback.

JohnnyBrown 16y ago
Two contradicting trends in advertising to men (and culture) i've noticed lately: Classic masculinity, of which this Old Spice campaign is an example. See also the Dos Equis guy, the sudden popularity of mustaches, steampunk, etc. Homoeroticism. This cologne ad with David Beckham sums it up: http://tiny.cc/jhi6h http://tiny.cc/jhi6h. Or pop open a GQ or Esquire and see how many things are being sold to men using overtly sexual images of attractive men.
- run4yourlives 16y ago
  Agreed, although I don't think it's limited to two stereotypes (for instance there is the "Maxim/fratboy man" and the "Homer Simpson" man)

ubernostrum 16y ago

However 'in touch' Old Spice might be with the online generation (as someone wrote elsewhere in this thread), the product still smells like what someone's grandpa would wear. They know that, though, and go with it. Example: a few years ago a relative gave a bunch of bath sets as Christmas gifts to everyone. The one I got was an Old Spice set, which bore the slogan: "If your grandfather hadn't worn it, you wouldn't exist."