IMC Project:

AXE: The Bom Chicka Wah Wah Effect

Ilias Alaoui Belrhiti

Hilda El Alaoui

Doctor Ibahrine

COM 3310

29 March 2009
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“BOM CHICKA WAH WAH”

The advertising campaign includes a series of TV commercials which show women in

different parts of the world like Europe, the United States or Africa, going through their daily

routines when they suddenly smell a man wearing the improved Axe body sprays. Once they

smell the fragrance, they can’t control themselves and feel compelled to blurt out “Bom

Chicka Wah Wah.” Print ads say, “We’ve improved all the fragrances. Now with added ‘Bom

Chicka Wah Wah’”.

Figure 1

It is highly creative and original because when the consumers see the product on the shelves

of a supermarket they automatically imagine the sound coming out of the deodorant. In that

way, we can say that the logo is creative, original, and convey a feeling of appropriateness.

As long as the Axe logo is concerned, we can say that it is sober, black, uses a font

sans serif which makes it modern and unique. The fact that it uses three letters makes it easier

to remember ; and the sound “axe” connotes masculinity and virility, certainly because of the

“X” . Indeed, the name is short and incisive.

Figure 2: The Axe logo..

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REACHING THE INTENDED MARKET

Targeting
The very first fundamental decision to make within the marcom program is to choose

the target audience – or target market – which can be done after an exhaustive and precise

process that starts with a market segmentation that usually relies on demographics,

psychographic, behaviographics, and psycho-demographics. The targeted market in the case

of Axe and its “Bom Chicka Wah Wah” campaign, that is a group of consumers that share

common needs, characteristics, and buying preferences (Kotler and Armstrong, 48), would be

males between 15 and 30 years old. However, we might consider that the real target embrace

boys from 12 years old, since it is the age boys enter puberty, start to use these types of

products, and will be the ones who will most favorably respond to the originality of Axe

television spots. This targeted audience is concerned by their physical appearance, interested

in women, usually single, and always ready to meet new people. According to Maslow’s

hierarchy of needs, the relevant target needs are go from hygiene, social belonging, love, to

enhancing self-esteem. Therefore Axe, and its claimed effect, responds to those very diverse

needs. As a result, the product and its attributes are relevant and in accordance with the

intended market’ needs and expectations.

Figure 1: Representations of the Target Audience in the TV Spots

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Message Strategy

Creating the message

One of the most important decisions at the implementation level of the marcom

program is the creation of the message that is going to be transmitted via the chosen

marketing and communication media. There is also a specific strategy to define behind the

message so that it will be the most efficient and powerful possible. The message that has been

designed for this particular campaign mainly consisted in replacing the traditional one “The

Axe Effect” by the very innovative “Bom Chicka Wah Wah”. This universal and extremely

clever message is not only funny, original, and quirky, but is also universal since the slogan is

a collection of onomatopoeias that put together gain a meaning understandable by each and

everyone who watches the television spots. The unexpected reaction of women to the scent of

“AXE”, the element of surprise, is what enhances the customer’s curiosity and makes the ad

special.

Adding to that, along with triggering the curiosity and sense of humor of the spectator,

this slogan also appeals to the unconscious of the consumer by putting on the screen a fantasy

that many young men might have: being able to appear irresistible to women who become

captivated by their attractiveness. The prospect of the consumer was therefore clearly and

undoubtedly taken into consideration by the designers of the message.

Conveying the message

In order to properly convey its message and be sure that is has been imprinted in the

consumers’ minds several methods are to be used, which was the case of Axe in this

campaign: use the appropriate media, achieve synergy, and establish momentum. Knowing

that the targeted audience are part of the so-called Generation Y, that is a generation that born

between 1977 and 1994, age today between 15 and 32 years old, and that they “represent a

attractive target for marketers, [yet a] message saturated segment [that] requires creative
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marketing approaches” (Kotler and Armstrong, 71); the chosen approaches – both the media

support and the message – are appropriate. Indeed, the campaign extensively used television

spots, posters in magazines, viral advertising, in-game advertising (in the Axe official

website) and billboards as major supports, and consistently used the same very creative

message: “Bom Chicka Wah Wah”. Choosing this media simultaneously are the proof that the

advertisers and marketers in charge of this campaign understood the importance of synergy,

that is “multiple methods in combination with one another [that] yield more positive

communication results that do the tools used individually” (Shimp, 7) and therefore applied

it. Finally, momentum was accomplished first thanks to the originality of the slogan that

permitted the consumers to remember it even after the campaign ended, and by being present

in the different media that has been chosen during more than six months.
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TAKING A PLACE ON THE MARKET

Positioning
Another decision that is part of the four fundamental ones is positioning that consists

according to Shimp’s in “represent[ing] the key feature, benefit, or image that stands for in

the target’s audience collective mind” (120), which means, in other words to differentiate

one’s product or service from the others that already exist in the market, and for this, the

marketer, or advertiser must know how to play with the product’s or service’s attributes and

benefits so the ones that match the consumers wants will be the ones that are emphasized in

the integrated marketing communication strategy. Kotler and Armstrong give in fact a more

tangible and explicit definition to what positioning implies, that is “arranging for a product to

occupy a clear, distinctive, and desirable place relative to competing products in the minds of

target consumers” (50). Simply put, when you position your product or service properly, you

expect consumers to choose your brand instead of the others that are competing with you in

that same market.

Axe’s positioning strategy can be summarized by two words that when put together

have a lot of meaning in the consumers’ minds and that is extensively used, explicitly or

implicitly, in all Axe’s communication efforts; the “Axe Effect”. Several slogans are used to

refer to this effect, and all convey the same understanding of it: when males use Axe, they

beneficiate from an immediate, powerful, and long-lasting attention from women, who,

become irreparably attracted and captivated by them. We therefore easily understand Axe’s

targeted audience: young males, (from 15 to 30 years old) that are interested in attracting

women, and who even if they know that Axe is not a magic product that really works the way

it is presented in their commercials, may think deep down, that it may have some tiny effect

on them; indeed, which woman wouldn’t at least glance at some attractive young man that

smells good?
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As a result, one may say that Axe’s positioning statement reflect the brand’s

competitive advantage, that is what differentiates it from the competitive products and gives

it a very unique image; but also motivate consumers to action, since it is the most sold

deodorant in several European and Latin-American countries. Consequently, if we consider

the matrix provided by Shimp that measures the outcomes of brands’ proposed positioning,

Axe can definitely be defined as a “winner” (123).

Promote Competitors Winner

Yes

Loser Swimming up the River

No

No Yes
Figure 2: Outcomes of Proposed Proposition

Attributes and Benefits

There is, usually, a certain difficulty in stating and clearly differentiating a brand’s

attributes from its benefits. To cut a long story short, a brand attribute’s are “the product

related and non product related [features]” (Shimp, 127); and its benefits “consist of the ways

by which a brand satisfies consumers’ needs and wants and can be classified as functional,

symbolic, or experiential” (Shimp, 125). Axe’s attributes and derived benefits can be

summarized as follow, and are further developed in this analysis:

Attributes
good and long-lasting scent
twisting cap
young and fashionable image
“Axe Effect” (the biggest attribute)
Benefits
hygiene and cleanness
easy, practical and quick to use
group belonging and confidence
being irresistible, attract women

Figure 3: Attributes vs. Benefits

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But according to which type of benefits is Axe positioned? I can be argued, and this is the

position that is taken here, that Axe had the cleverness and the audacity to position in a way

that would respond to the three types of benefits, even if not necessarily to the same extent,

sought by customers as shown below.

Functional Benefits
Among a brand’s benefits, that are the “need-satisfying features provided by brands”

and that respond to different types of consumers’ needs, are the functional benefits that

“attempt to provide solutions to consumers’ current consumption related problems or

potential problems” (Shimp, 125). The benefits that are categorized this way are usually the

most basic ones, as they respond to very tangible and daily problems. In fact, Axe’s

functional benefits, are the responses to the consumer’s physiological needs, as organized in

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Under this scope, we can determine that the Axe deodorants

respond to the needs of hygiene and cleanness, as they prevent bad smell and perspiration by

providing the consumer with a long-lasting effect.

Symbolic Benefits
When a brand positions according to its symbolic benefits, it essentially attempts at

responding to consumer’s need of belonging to a social group, which corresponds to the third

level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. These needs are usually the more complex, but also the

most common ones, since they concern a large proportion of consumers. Indeed, the majority

of the consumers’ nowadays have their physiological and safety needs are fulfilled, and

therefore try to be part of a group, to belong. Axe responds to this specific need of social

belonging by emphasizing some very specific symbolic benefits, benefits that assess and

fulfill consumers needs for “self-enhancement, group membership, affiliation, altruism, and

other abstract need states that involve aspects of consumption not solved by practical product

benefits” (Shimp, 125). In fact, in their “Bom Chicka Wah Wah” commercials, along with all

their other campaigns, Axe implies that when the consumers decides to use the product, he
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will attract women, and therefore experience a relationship by being desired by someone else.

Moreover, if the consumer uses Axe, he will automatically be part of those men that attract

women, and that are fashionable enough to use their product; in other words he will be

instantaneously part of the “cool guys”.

Experiential Benefits
Finally, the highest stage of needs-fulfillment brands can decide to achieve

corresponds to experiential needs. When focusing to consumers needs by bringing to light its

experiential benefits, a brand is attempting at responding to needs for “sensory pleasure,

variety, and […] cognitive stimulation”. In this category fall the benefits that are the most

stressed by the brand: Axe provides, in fact, the possibility to the user to not only smell

wonderfully, but also to gain an incredible power of attracting all the women that are around.

Indeed, the “Bom Chicka Wah Wah” effect is clearly an experiential one: the consumers will,

according to the ad, have the opportunity to live what is advertised, attract women and be

irresistible. However, it can be argued that the experiential benefits presented by Axe are

totally abstract and impossible to achieve. From a logical and down to earth point of view,

one cannot really refute this argument; on the other hand, the experiential benefits provided

by Axe seem to be in the continuity of its symbolic benefits, and need a little bit of humor and

imagination from the consumer’s, which makes the campaign lively, fun and intelligent.

It has been stated at the beginning of this part that Axe responds to the three

categories of needs and presents itself as a brand which products have functional, symbolic,

and experiential benefits. Some would argue that presenting these three types of benefits is

dangerous for the brand, and the result of a very bad though strategy. Yet, Axe clearly has the

three categories of benefits and still does very well in an extremely competitive market. The

question that therefore immediately comes to mind is: how does Axe manage to achieve such

results with such a controversial positioning strategy? The response would be that everything

lies in the quantities with which the different ingredients were mixed, the ingredients being
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the three different kinds of benefits. In fact, if Axe has functional benefits, emphasize is

mostly put on its symbolic and experiential ones. Moreover, the fact that the experiential

benefits of the brand seem to be the direct result of an advertisers’ dream, as well as their

very unique slogan, its uniqueness makes the brand extremely fun, cool and fashionable,

rather than a weird multi-personality positioned brand.

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BUILDING THE BRAND’S PERSONALITY

Brand equity
From a business perspective, the brand equity is the value that the brand has on the

market, value that will generate benefits for the company. According to Shimp, the main

goals of a company are to: “achieve a higher market share, increase brand loyalty, being able

to charge premium prices, and earning a revenue premium” (33). Axe is not a luxurious

product; however it is a product that is used on an everyday basis. Due to its daily use, the

brand can aim for a great sale in volume in order to generate high revenues. Usually, the

more value a brand has the more revenues a company makes. Indeed, “it has been

demonstrated that grocery brands possessing equity generate higher revenue premiums”

(Shimp, 33). The key idea that encapsulates what a brand is intended to stand for in its target

market’s mind is that when you put Axe, it has a direct effect on women and makes its user

incredibly attractive to them. This idea is conveyed in all the ads made by the company.

When you compare Axe to other deodorant, it is the only brand claiming that its product has a

direct effect on women. This idea confers to Axe its uniqueness which in turn increases its

brand equity.

To better understand the very powerful place of Axe in the market, it can be useful to

consider it under the scope of the Boston Consulting Group Approach Matrix, a matrix that

analyses a company’s product in accordance with their market growth, the product’s

attractiveness in the market, and its market share, the measure of the company’s strength in

the market. (Kotler and Armstrong 40). Since Axe deodorants are products with very high

attractiveness in the market and that need less investment to sustain themselves, they are

referred to as cash-cows, or produce that bring a lot of cash to a company and which position

is very well established on the market, provided some punctual innovations.

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Figure 4: The BCG Matrix

Brand Image
From the customer’s perspective, brand equity consists of the brand image association

and the awareness that the consumer has of the brand. “Brand awareness is an issue of

whether a brand name comes to mind when consumers think about a particular product

category and the ease with which the name is evoked”(34). The brand awareness pyramid is a

pyramid that is divided in four categories, each category identifying a level which measures

the ease that the consumer have in recalling the name of the brand. Axe comes into the first

category that is called top of mind. “The pinnacle of brand-name awareness exists when a

company’s brand is the first brand that consumers recall when thinking about brands in a

particular product category”(35).

The brand image is the associations that come to mind when thinking about Axe,

associations that the advertisers wanted the consumers to have. In this case, the image is

associated with a very 70’s atmosphere, with a motto named “Bom Chicka Wah Wah”, a

motto that sound as if it was played by an electric guitar. Moreover, the visual identity of the

logo with is colors, font, and shape is also very 70’s. However, there is another type of

associations that are the ones that consumers have independently of what marketers and

advertisers wanted them to have. These associations, especially from a men’s perspective, are
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linked to a product that is fresh, cool, young, for sporty people, easy to use (twist the “cap”).

Finally, it might be meaningful to stress that the way the product is used in the ad is aimed at

making Axe look like an aphrodisiac, a metaphor to say that the effect of axe really permits to

attract women.
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REFERENCES

Kotler, Philip, and Gary Armstrong. Principles of Marketing, Twelfth Edition. New Jersey:

Pearson Education, 2008

Shimp, Terence A. Integrated Marketing Communications in Advertising and Promotion,

Seventh Edition. South Western. China: Cengage Learning, 2007.