So excited about this! My group as a collective have all decided on the re branding of BRUT aftershave... I think it will be an interesting challenge, and I'm so going to enjoy this! I've had a look today at the BRUT website, and discovered they launched a new campaign for the aftershave last year (their 1st in 3 years) and their 1st multi-tier national campaign in more than a decade (I'm not quite sure what multi-tier means!). So the company is actively campaigning and advertising... but no change to the product packaging, or technically, who the product is aimed at. Of course it's for men, but it's aimed at the 'mans man'. A quote from their press release:
'The BRUT brand has stood for a classic, American definition of masculinity for over 40 years. With past famous spokesmen such as Joe Namath, Muhammad Ali, and Jimmy Connors, BRUT has positioned itself to live up to their tagline “The Essence of Man.” '.
This statement, to me says they are still somewhat living in the past... even the term 'aftershave' is giving it a more functional purpose for the 'rugged' man's minimal routine, that's reminiscent of the brands heyday (60's/70's) rather than it being a 'fragrance', which fits in more with today's market. In this day and age, the male grooming range is huge; anything from skin care, anti-aging products, fragrances to make up! I really can't see the current image that BRUT represents can make a strong standing today, unless it's image is brought up to date.
I've been reading an interesting article that I found on a newspaper website www.independent.co.uk about the aftershaves new campaign, and how that will (or not) fit in in today's market. One part I found interesting, was how the brand was a success in the first place:
'...it was Brut's arrival, first as a top-end fragrance in 1966, then in its better known, weaker mass-market version seven years later, that broke that mould.
"It was revolutionary," says Roja Dove, a fragrance expert and the man behind the development of bestsellers for the likes of Guerlain, Hugo Boss and Lacoste - who also notes the remarkable similarity between Brut and more recent designer bestsellers. "It was really the first men's fragrance that was marketed, that came with tempting packaging, but that was also much less expensive than what had come before. Its muskiness was new, making it all about sex. It is a classic, the first fragrance every man wanted, and every man could have, doing for men's fragrances what Charlie had done for women's. Today men want their fragrances to be fast, upmarket, successful lifestyle products, so it may be hard to see how Brut will fit into that. But in its time it was very important." .'
The article also gave the visual of how our tastes have changed over the years, and an idea as to why BRUT doesn't necessarily work today:
SPLASH IT ON ALL OVER: THE SCENTS OF THE DECADES
The 1970s
The smell: Hai Karate, Brut, Jade East, Denim, and Old Spice
The role model: "The man who doesn't try too hard". Kevin Keegan, Tom Selleck, Henry Cooper and a host of other muscle-bound machos
The image: Woodsy, musky - and always rugged. "Aftershave" accentuated Seventies man's masculinity and hinted he'd been out back chopping wood or indeed anything to disguise that he'd been attending to some personal grooming of all things.
The 1980s The smell: Obsession for Men, Drakaar, Polo
The role model: Gordon Gecko, the slicked-haired stockbroker of Wall Street, Tom Cruise in Top Gun and Simon Le Bon
The image: Overpowering jasmine and amber toned scents - the perfect complement to Eighties excess - a man had to carry a whiff of pomade, red braces and severe black leather furniture. More was more - and the only fragrance worth talking about was the fragrance of money.
The 1990s
The smell: CK1 and CK Be
The role model: Pretty boys Damon Albarn, Brad Pitt, Johnny Depp and emaciated pre-teens in their underwear
The image: The era of heroin chic and Brit-pop saw a vogue for androgynous minimalism, and unisex fragrances. Every bloke on the tube smelt "fresh and modern", with hints of lemony freshness and baby shampoo - just like the Kate Moss wannabes sitting next to him.
The 2000s
The smell: Gucci Envy for Men, Comme des Garçons, Issey Miyake, Marc Jacobs
The role model: Real men with nicely buffed nails; Jude Law, Justin Timberlake
The image: Endless fragrance options are available for the millennium man. He can choose to smell of anything, from freshly cut grass to petrol fumes. Most important is that his scent be individual. Today's man is loved for his mind and his body.
(I personally like the 'rugged' muscle man with all the stubble and musky smell, Justin Timberlake and Jude Law do not do it for me! But each to their own I guess.)
As times do change, companies can either embrace it, or fall behind sticking to their old ways. Going back to BRUT's new campaign, they have tried to get with every latest trend possible in a way of making their image more 'cool' and have a wider target audience. Their current campaign, 'BRUTSLAP', I personally didn't understand at all! They had a link on their website to a game, where you choose to slap a parody of a 'pop-culture personality' (they have someone called 'The Incident', a play on Jersey Shore's The Situation.).
They also have something called the 'BRUTSLAP BEAT BOX', which enables you to choose a 'slap beat' of your choice against some music, making your very own cool tune!
I was really struggling to understand this concept, I just kept thinking, what has this got to do with the product?? Are they slapping the face of the metrosexual man and saying 'come back to the real man's brand!'?... is casual violence the new way forward for today's man? I didn't get it all, and to be honest, found it hugely cringey, with this whole 'down with the kids' style. I found an explanation to their campaign after much searching on their website:
Now I kindof get it, but it doesn't appeal to me much more now I'm more aware of the reason why... I'm in no way an expert on how things should be marketed, I just looked at this from a buyers perspective (even harder when you're a woman!).
I have an idea of how I can take this forward, I need to look at some current fragrance campaigns for men, and also look at during BRUT's decline in popularity, what was the 'must-have' fragrance and why.
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