Page 146 - 100 Great Marketing Ideas (100 Great Ideas)

69 KNOW YOUR
CUSTOMER’S
MOTIVATIONS

If we know what makes our customers tick, we can offer them
solutions that will appeal to their innermost motivations. Sometimes
we need to look beyond the obvious—for example, few men buy
aftershave, and few women buy sexy underwear. In the case of
aftershave, most of it is bought by women to give as a gift to their
husbands or boyfriends, and sexy underwear is bought by men to
give to wives and girlfriends. This is part of the fantasy of what we
would like our partners to be—less smelly, and more sexy.

Likewise, most men (left to their own devices) probably would
not buy deodorant. Deodorant is not a gift purchase, though, so
manufacturers need to consider why a man WOULD buy deodorant.
What is the motivation?

The idea

Lynx deodorant is the world’s biggest-selling deodorant spray for
men. In most of the world it is sold as Axe, but in Britain that brand
name was already registered so it had to have a new name. The brand
owners, Unilever, decided that the only reason men buy deodorant
is because they think it will make them more attractive (or at least
less repellent) to women.

The company therefore developed the concept of the “Lynx effect.”
In the advertisements, a geeky-looking guy sprays himself liberally
with Lynx and is immediately mobbed by women. The ads are
tongue-in-cheek, of course: no one really expects that women are

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