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Company Analysis
AXE Deodorants

Group A 5
Ankur Jaiswal- B18011
Harshit Malhotra-B18023
Pathikreet Banerjee-B18035
Shonakraj Deshpande-B18047
Vedika Murdia- B18059
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Hindustan Unilever 2

OPTION 01

India’s Largest “To grow our business, while decoupling our environmental
footprint from our growth and increasing our positive social impact.”
FMCG

OPTION 01

40 Brands

OPTION 01

20 Categories

Rank 4th in Indian

OPTION 01

Deodorant Market

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VRIO

Sustained • Robust Distribution Network

Competitive • Brand Equity
Advantage • Dense Advertising

Temporary
Competitive • Large Range of Fragrances
Advantage

Competitive • Packaging
Parity • Competitive Pricing
• R & D of AXE

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SWOT Analysis

Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats

LOREM
Subtittle
 A robust
 Skewed Target  Expanding the  The ‘AXE Effect’
• Lorem Ipsum has two
distribution network
main statistical Market current Target  Competition from
of HUL
• Methodologies are  Controversial Market FOGG
 High Brand Equity
used in data analysis
which summarizes
Advertisements  Leveraging the  Women Deodorants
 Line Extension
data  Less Popularity Robust R&D of HUL
 Advertising and high
• Lorem Ipsum has two among Rural Youth  Premium Product
main statistical brand recall
Market
 Packaging

 Pricing

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Competitors

Fogg Engage Nivea Wild

Stone

23.2% 10.5% 7.9% 6.5%

• Penetrative Pricing • CAGR- 5.2% • Used famous faces to put • Target- Urban middle
Policy • First range of pocket its message up front class segment 22-28 age
• ₹25 crore revenue perfumes in 2017 • Sells deo+antiperspirant • Wants to move into
• USP- 800+ Sprays • 5,00,000 Outlets 2-in-1 packs men’s grooming sector
• No gas , liquid sprays • Eye catching • Recently launch Nivea
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BCG MATRIX

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Brand Brief

AXE 7

Current Domestic Strategy ANSOFF MATRIX

Axe was launched in France in 1983. With success in the European
Market it spread to other parts of the World. It entered India in 1999. Market Development Diversification

In the Initial years the Brand was very successful due to the following Market Penetration Product Development
reasons
Over the years Axe has laid a lot of emphasis on Market
• Wide Accessibility
Development but the Product Development and Penetration
• Adverts targeting Young Males
part were lagging.
• Affordability
Even when it was the Market Leader it led a highly
• Variety of Scents
fragmented market and did not have much of an edge.

Axe continued this strategy in the Indian Market but problems started brewing in the 2010s as the Market Share started dropping due to
the following reasons:
• Aggressive Competitor with superior product and effective marketing
• Saturation of Target Group
• Litigations related to Product Quality
• Controversy over Ad Campaigns

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Recent Tactics

Imitation
Packaging Axe also markets
Promotion Packaging was not its products on
Demography
changed the basis of No. of
Product Controversial Ads drastically and the shots now.
A deodorant for
were stopped
Pocket women was bodies were not
after regulations
deodorants were launched after made transparent
and litigations
launched after Engage and Nivea
Engage ON mini 5
deodorants 4
3
2
1

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Global Challenges

Going Natural- Increasingly consumers

are becoming environmentally conscious
and are preferring plant based
deodorants over aerosol based ones.
The acquisition of Schmidt’s Natural
can help boost HUL’s Sales.

Premiumising the business- The

strategy is in a nascent stage for
deodorants where the company is
2 making premium products both through
1 organic growth and inorganic ways

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Global Markets

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Foray Into Premium Fragrances

Fragrance Deodorant
Market CAGR
Deodorant Distribution 50%
Market 26. 73.
Stronger Fragrance Market
0%
1.1 Distribution 7 3 Maturing Deodorant
Market
Premium Mass Fragrance Market shows trends of
much more robust growth than
98. deodorant market presently does
Fragrance
Mass Premium
9 Fails to Capture Market

Overlap of customer segments CAGR

causing meagre sales in the
Axe Signature Gold premium deodorant division.
50%
Axe White Label Faulty customer segment 0%
identification
Previous Attempts

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Foray Into Premium Fragrances (Contd.)

Competencies
HUL is well positioned to foray into the market due to
the following reasons:

Dense Distribution ₹22-₹75/ml 196.46 Owned Calvin Klein

Network Huge Price
HHI of Market till 2005
Differential

44% of the Indian Fragrance market is Brand Shares - Fragrance

unorganised Market
50.0
40.0
HUL owned and operated a premium fragrance 30.0
brand, Calvin Klein Cosmetics until 2005 20.0
10.0
0.0

Old…

The…
Bvlga…
Nina…

Burbe…
Chris…

Salva…
Gille…
VI…
Clari…
The…
Given…
Azzaro

Senses
Axe has already repositioned itself over the years
from its reputation of toxic masculinity
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Natural Fragrances and Packaging

Robust Growth in Mature Markets

12% Where normal deodorants showed a growth of only 2% in
US, Natural and Organic Deodorants demonstrated a strong
CAGR 12% growth

R&D Strength in the Domain

Unilever has been a pioneer in developing eco friendly
packaging by reducing metal usage dramatically
!
Underdeveloped Supply Chain for natural
ingredients in India with more powerful
players like Patanjali in this domain

Marketing strategy and positioning of Axe is

Recent Relevant Acquisition
Unilever has recently acquired the firm Schmidt’s Naturals
which specializes in developing deodorants and personal care
products using natural ingredients
very different from the image required to
succeed in this domain
Axe has also recently attempted and failed to
introduce natural fragranced under the Axe
brand in the middle east

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Women Centric Positioning

Increasing Target Group

Axe has been a male dominant deodorant which restricted
50% the target population to roughly half the population. This
population move changed it from

Tried and Tested Market

ITC has got into this space successfully with their ITC Engage
!
For Women product line-up. Market share has gone up to 9% Original Brand proposition of Axe was of male
buoyed by the women section of products. chauvinism, many a times at the cost of
integrity of women

The women centric target group didn’t buy

Anarchy for Women
Axe started a line up named Anarchy for Women briefly in
western countries. The image was about showing
independent women trying to get men, and causing anarchy
in the background didn’t bode well for the public.
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this strategy by Axe, due to inherent bias
against a brand denigrating women for
product promotion
As a backlash to this, the male centric
deodorants also saw a steep decline in
market share as introduction of a women
centric product seriously diluted the strong
male personality of Axe
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Low Price Units (LPU’s)

Purpose:
• Increased experimentation for middle class
• Greater rural reach (3.4 billion rural customers)

How Rural Customers are different:

(as per study by IIM A in 2016)
• Rural segment is function of ethnicity and village norms
• Reasons for adoption and usage is very different from
urban consumers
• Rural markets are not homogeneous

Strategic Adaptation:
• Category based segmentation rather than geographic
based segmentation

Unilever Advantage:
• Strong distribution network
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Way Ahead for AXE…

Marketing Marketing

• Premium Magazines • Impulse Purchase

• Premium sponsors for events • Mass market advertisements – TV, Billboard, radio
• Celebrity Fragrance Lineups • Portability & VFM
• Limited but prominent & recognizable • Personal Hygiene
fragrances (3-4) • Experimentation in Fragrances

Distribution Distribution

• Distribution Network of Calvin Klein • Urban

• Existing setup – improve synergies • Billing counters in Supermarket & Hypermarkets

• Rural
• Cheap Personal Hygiene
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