Axe Takes Swing At Ladies With Anarchy Body Spray
This article was originally published in The Rose Sheet
Executive Summary
Unilever’s successful Axe brand sets its sights on the female market, targeting young women who are “friends or girlfriends of our Axe guy” with its new Anarchy For Her body spray.
Expanding on its mission to be “about sparking attraction between guys and girls,” Unilever PLC’s Axe brand debuts a limited-edition fragrance for women.
Axe Anarchy For Him and For Her
Anarchy For Her – a companion body spray to the new Anarchy For Him – is designed to appeal to young women who are already fans of Axe and guys who use it.
“We know guys love the smell of Axe and the confidence it gives them, and our success is, in part, due to the way girls have also embraced the brand,” Axe Senior Brand Manager Barret Roberts says in a Jan. 9 press release.
In a Jan. 12 email to “The Rose Sheet,” the exec offered further perspective on its new female customer.
“In general, the Axe girl is 18 to 24 years old and is a friend or girlfriend of our Axe guy, and is just as comfortable with her guy friends and she is with her girls,” he said. “She’s confident and shares many of the same interests with our guy, including music, gaming and comedy.”
Axe’s target female also follows the brand on Facebook. According to Roberts, about 25% of the brand’s more than 2.3 million Facebook fans are female.
“Many of our fans have been telling us about girls using Axe product or have asked for a female offering,” he said.
Before rolling out, the brand tested the Anarchy concept with females, who had a favorable reaction to the idea, according to the exec.
“We expect our female fans to be excited for an offering they’ve been asking for” since Axe came to market in 2002, Roberts said.
He added that the firm wasn’t concerned about diluting the male-centric Axe brand with a female component.
“Our products and campaigns, including the larger Anarchy For Him line, still target our guy,” he explained. “We know what resonates with him, and the release of a paired female fragrance is just a way to celebrate the attraction between guys and girls.”
Chemistry Between The Sexes
The body sprays are aerosol fragrances “that guys and girls can apply to feel fresh and great,” Roberts said, noting that For Him also features all-day deodorant protection.
Both Anarchy scents open with fruity top notes. Anarchy For Her “evolves into a soft floral with a light finish, while For Him evokes a rich oriental heart,” the firm says.
The female version is housed in a pink and white package, while the male counterpart is in a black container accented with brown and blue.
As for the “Anarchy” name, the brand believes it represents a change from the ordinary and “will alter the way guys and girls come together once unleashed.”
The 4 oz. Anarchy For Her retails for $4.99 as part of a bonus pack that includes a free 1 oz. Anarchy For Him.
The more extensive Anarchy range for males comprises Anarchy For Him ($4.99 with a free 1 oz. Anarchy For Her), deodorant body spray, deodorant stick and an antiperspirant invisible solid for $4.99 apiece, shower gel ($3.99) and 2-in-1 shampoo + conditioner ($5.29).
Axe is the No. 1 men’s grooming brand in the U.S., according to Unilever.
“Inspired By The Chaos”
Axe is launching Anarchy with a “360-degree” marketing campaign including advertising, in-store marketing, social media engagement and content, PR and interactive TV, Roberts said.
TV advertising will run during shows that have co-viewing audiences of both males and females.
Building on the brand’s theme of attraction, one advertisement for Anarchy shows a man robbing a store and a female cop who sees him try to get away.
She chases him through a city, and while running, both characters begin to take off some clothing and ditch what they are carrying. The two meet in a passionate embrace.
The commercial is “inspired by the chaos that results from a guy and girl becoming so distracted by their attraction for one another that they’ll ignore anything around them just to get close,” Roberts said.
Unilever has been taken to task before by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which accused the firm of "hypocrisy," claiming its sexist ads for Axe body spray undermine the integrity of Dove’s “Real Beauty” campaign designed to challenge the unrealistic body-image standards set by the beauty industry (Also see "Unilever Called Out For “Hypocrisy” Of Conflicting Dove, Axe Ad Campaigns" - HBW Insight, 22 Oct, 2007.).
Anarchy will also be marketed heavily online. Anarchy: The Graphic Novel, designed by comic company Aspen Comics, will play out on Facebook and YouTube and will be updated every few days “based on real-time user-submitted ideas and poll votes.”
The graphic novel “will take readers across the nation, providing a sophisticated blend of action, adventure and real life events which reflect the passions of our Axe fans,” Unilever says.