Men can be quite disinterested when it comes to marketing ploys. Like women, they respond to certain things. Over the years, a number of businesses and companies have tried unique adverts to promote their male-focused products.In this guide, we’ll review five of the best examples. We’ll look at products such as Lynx and Old Spice, and how businesses such as the Dr Squatch Soap Company approach their marketing. To begin, let’s take a look at Philips and how they approached male grooming — something many men feel self-conscious about.
1. Philips
Giving our nose or ear hair a trim isn’t the most desirable of
things to do in your free time, but it’s a necessary one, and many men feel self-conscious when it comes to these kinds of things. As a result, questions don’t get asked and people suffer in silence. That stigma and attitude are beginning to change now and it’s thanks to adverts from companies like Philips. Their most famous advert, “Shouting Men”, is designed to creatively cut through the shouting and hustle and bustle of masculinity and encourages men to make their own decisions based on what’s good for them. The idea is to tackle the sense of conformity that can dominate men’s lives.
2. Lynx
Lynx has a simple but very effective marketing method — that its deodorants will make you smell appealing to women. Many of its advertisements focus on promoting this very point, and although those adverts do change, that aspect never does. In the past, it has shown adverts of an unremarkable man, down on his luck, giving his armpit a blast of Lynx Africa. All of a sudden, he is struck by a powerful wave of self-confidence and coolness. Before the advert is out, he has a beautiful woman on his arm. Lynx knows its target audience and it knows that some of them are trying to impress the opposite sex. It’s a successful approach and one that Lynx will no doubt stick with for the foreseeable future.
3. Just For Men
Just For Men is a global hair and beard brand that has in recent years launched a few significant marketing campaigns. One of them is “Be the Better Man”. In this ad, they encourage men to take charge of their appearance and to be confident and bold. Male grooming and facial hair have a waning stigma nowadays and that’s a good thing for those embracing the beard. The core message of the ad campaign is that there is no one way to be a man. Everyone is different, and one way to express your uniqueness is through your hair and beard. It’s designed to encourage people to challenge the status quo and what masculinity and traditional images of men really are. In essence, grooming is to be embraced rather than shunned.
4. Dr. Squatch Soap Company
The Dr Squatch Soap Company is well-known for its hilarious and
entertainment-filled ads. It uses this style to promote the benefits of its product — that it’s all-natural and free of any potentially harmful toxins. Dr Squatch is targeted purely at men and its adverts include some male-specific jokes, including sexual innuendos. This approach is designed to capture people’s attention and hopefully, encourage them to make a purchase. Even if some reviewers have reported practical faults with the product, including that it’s a classic bar of soap so is prone to disintegrating and melting, and that the scents aren’t the most appealing, the power of the marketing is enough to drive home sales.
5. Old Spice
Old Spice body wash found great success with its campaign, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”. Even though the product is targeted at men, for this particular campaign, the ads were aimed at women. The ad tells a tale of what it’s like to be a woman’s boyfriend. Unsurprisingly, he uses Old Spice. Combined with this ad, Old Spice also held a Q&A campaign with its social media followers, thereby combining engagement with viral marketing. The aim of the ad is similar to that of Lynx — to make men feel that using Old Spice will make them more appealing to women. While this is a good marketing tool to sell more products, it’s a little disingenuous in that it implies that all a man needs to do to impress women is smell good, while also assuming that all women care about is the scent of a man. -