Old Spice… no matter how hard you try the brand still reads Old… Spice…

I must say that I love P&Gs Old Spice commercials fighting men to “stop using lady-scented body wash!”. They truly stem from an insight: there are men who use the body wash from their wives & girlfriends. Well I guess more likely from their wives… less need to impress.  So Old Spice has a point: wake up, stop smelling like rosewater and put on a decent guy smell!

So far so good but… do we men really want to identify themselves to anything that comes close to “old” or “old spice”?  To me there is a bit of a branding problem here: the brand is funny and playful  (just check out their site and commercials) but the brand name is nothing like it. Who wants to be reminded to “old” and “old spice” every time you take a shower, while washing a body that gets older and less spicy every day? A nice reminder isn’t it? Old… Spice, no thank you!

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2 thoughts on “Old Spice… no matter how hard you try the brand still reads Old… Spice…”

  1. I disagree. I think that the Old Spice brand is built on a foundation of “classic” manly smell, and thus Old Spice is OK. Of course Classic Spice doesnt have the same ring to it, but if you dig one layer deeper on the messaging, you see it.

    Not– new and awesome, but rather “classic.”
    Sailor, cowboy are the visuals given in on spot; in the other, golf, armchair, cigar smoking.

    All class [american] representations of manliness.

    All that said, brand is in the eye of the beholder. But the real measures:

    — let’s see if they move some product
    –let’s see if people really extract from the mktg this idea of ‘classic’

    “In early 2008, the original Old Spice scent was repackaged as “Classic Scent,” both in the after shave and cologne versions. The traditional white glass bottles gave way to plastic, grey stoppers to red. And Old Spice Classic shower gel is sold using the slogan ‘The original. If your grandfather hadn’t worn it, you wouldn’t exist.'”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Spice

  2. I love it! Very interesting. It seems almost scent branding that gives many Americans good memories? The “classic” smell that has been around?

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