Axe Essence Essay

Businesses and organizations use advertising as a channel source of marketing in order to communicate a product, service, or idea to a targeted audience. These companies strive to create a particular advertising appeal, which is “the basis or approach used in a advertising message to attract the attention or interest of consumer and/or influence their feeling toward the product, service, or cause”(Belch & Belch, 2012). The company takes into account various social factors before encoding the message in the ad in order to create a positive attitude toward their brand and product in the market.

The two different media channels advertising is used are traditional media, including mass media (television, magazines, newspapers, etc. ), and new media, such as web sites and text messaging. I am prepared to discuss and analyze the advertising objectives and tactics of an Axe Essence body spray advertisement in Rolling Stones magazine. I will discuss the ad’s executional format, targeted audience, and message/persuasion strategy as if I was a brand manager for Axe.

Axe Ad Axe’s executional format of the magazine ad, in Rolling Stone, is a picture of a good-looking couple walking down the sidewalk with two store windows to the right of them. The man’s lower body is stopped and is facing the store window on the right, which has a mannequin dressed in red lingerie in it. The man’s upper body is continuing walking happily with his arm around his girlfriend. In the bottom right corner of the ad is says, “Part Good. Part Bad. That’s Man’s Essence. New Axe Essence” and has a picture of the new Axe Essence body spray can. The Axe Essence body spray ad is creative and catchy.

The use of computer software to edit and manipulate pictures is unbelievable and can help create a stimulating advertisement. This Advertising Objective & Tactics Axe’s advertising objective of this ad is to increase awareness, brand identity, and sales of Axe Essence body spray. We first decided to communicate to our large targeted audience of adult males through a non-personal mass media magazine ad in Rolling Stone using sex and humor appeal. We decided to use the push strategy to persuade and appeal to a specific benefit segmentation of the market.

We positioned ourselves in the market emphasizing the product attributes and benefits. This ad is also used in many different magazines reaching adult males. Axe visually utilizes this sexually themed ad to increase the viewer’s attention of the ad and to the product itself. By increasing the viewer’s attention, it also increased the consumer’s retention of the product. It associates different positive attitudes and satisfactions with the product that will also increase word-of-mouth exposure. Ultimately, when the consumer is in need of smelling good, sex, lingerie, or happiness they will think of Axe Essence body spray.

Message/Persuasion Strategy The ad’s intended message is that if men use Axe Essence body spray, they attract/lust for sexy women in lingerie, as well as, have satisfaction in their current relationship. The advertising text “Part Good” insinuates that men are happy and committed to their ordinary beautiful girlfriends. The text “Part Bad” suggests that men desire sexually appealing women as compared to ordinary, casually dressed women. When stating “That’s Man’s Essence”, after these two descriptions, it reassures that it is natural and normal for men to have a sexual drive and desire sexy women.

It associates the “Part Good” side with love, romance, and happiness and the “Part Bad” side with risk, sex, and desires. This message has emotional and humor appeal to the customer. The persuasion strategy for the advertisement is that by being able to attract such beautiful women using the Axe Essence body spray, men will feel better about their self image, have better relationships, appear to be more successful in life, and therefore be more happy and content. This picture also makes the customer feel that by using this product they can get their current girlfriend to wear sexy lingerie.

The ad is stimulating and comical because the viewer is trying to figure out why the man’s body is in two parts and in different places. The reason both the man and woman are smiling is to show customer satisfaction of using this product. Summary By using a magazine ad with sex appeal in Rolling Stone, a popular magazine read by adult males, it will increase the consumer’s attention and retention of Axe Essence body spray. The overall message and persuasion strategy of this advertisement is to show the satisfactions accompanied with the product and to motivate consumer’s behaviors of purchase Axe Essence.

The sex and humor appeal of this ad will also increase the word-of-mouth advertisement about the product. This ad may be considered risky because of the stereotyping that women are sex objects and men always think about sex, but is effective through the right marketing channel and the fact that “the use of sexual appeals are quite common in the United States as well as many other countries where the societies are more liberal and accepting of them” (Belch & Belch. 2012). The Axe Essence body spray advertisement is effective, stimulating, well thought out, and develops a positive consumer attitude and perception toward the company and product.

The use of computer software and technology to create, edit, and manipulate advertising techniques and tactics in advertising is revolutionary. Any and all ideas are able to come to life, which continues to inspire and evolve the way we communicate and market products and/or services. Axe has a young, energetic, innovative, and outside-of-the-box thinking advertising department that continues to create brilliant ads that appeal to large audiences. They have different advertisements are all the different media channels and their increased sales numbers over the past years reflect their excellent marketing.