Building Customer Connection with Old Spice Essay

Building Customer Connection with Old Spice - Essay Example The brand attempts to illustrate that it can alter the lifestyle dynamics of the consumer, transforming their environment from one of mundane and commonplace living to one of excitement and thrill. â€Å"Old Spice† focuses on the tangible benefits of the product, unlike other product brands that position on pricing or premium quality, to illustrate the relationship between product and consumer needs fulfillment. The brand does an excellent job of blending lifestyle marketing, relationship marketing, and elements of logic to appeal successfully to its target market. The advertisement (Appendix A) illustrates a typical, overweight male librarian in a split figure format, illustrating a transformative process from an ordinary, rather unattractive consumer to a stimulated and electrifying rock superstar. Under the VALS 2 model of psychographics, one of the main consumer segments is referred to as the Striver, one with generally low financial resources, but one who maintains a desi re to attain wealth and achieve higher status in society (Boone & Kurtz 213). The Striver profile is one that is very trends-focused and action-oriented, meaning they seek fun and excitement in their lifestyle (Boone & Kurtz 213). Strivers believe that money is a significant justifier for better social status, often seeking to purchase products that are considered premium in an effort to emulate those in society with more financial resources.... The tagline, â€Å"Somewhere in there, there’s a man in there† both chastises and applauds a consumer that reaches for â€Å"Old Spice†, using pathos as a rhetorical appeal to gain consumer attention and interest. Essentially, the â€Å"Old Spice† brand attempts to act as a social critic of the mundane consumer lifestyle and also an advocate for transformation from a boy to a man through the utilization of the brand. In society, the stereotype of the typical librarian is one of stuffiness, unsightliness, and generally unappealing. Because the Striver is greatly concerned about the sentiment and opinion of peers and others in society, â€Å"Old Spice† uses this psychological characteristic to its advantage to effectively promote the product. â€Å"Old Spice† cleverly uses this subconscious ploy to create an emotional response of self-rebuke or self-punishment for the consumer that lives a similar routine and unexciting lifestyle where the cons equences of potential social rejection becomes a factor in prompting purchase intention in favor of this brand. The library environment chosen for this advertisement is laid out much like an oppressive and old-fashioned library of a conservative statesman, further showing the danger of social conformity that can occur by not seeking adventure and thrill. The brand statement in the advertisement, â€Å"Smell better than yourself†, clearly links product benefits to expected outcomes to the consumer by choosing â€Å"Old Spice† over competition. The main goal of this advertisement is to illustrate that a prim and uneventful lifestyle can be changed if the target buyer selects this particular