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Lynx Peace. Bit of a stretch man?

By Wavelength Marketing17th March 2014November 9th, 2016blog

To date Lynx has been driven by a simple goal. To help men become more successful with woman. Brutal? Yes. True? Yes. Effective? Hmmn, we’ll leave that one for now.

The advertising is grounded in complex sociology, psychology, anthropology and possibly other ‘ologies’ which can be neatly summarised in the following mathematical equation:

Liberal Lynx Use=Sexual Success with Women.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S-uVc13oDBI]

 

Lynx recently launched its “Peace” sub-brand. The brand essence of Lynx Peace is encapsulated in the “make love not war” tagline and represents something of a stretch for the Lynx master brand.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLAuoba_uPY&w=640&h=360]

Lynx Peace  oozes love, care, sensitivity, humanity and maturity in the context of politically driven violence. Clearly contemporary and relevant themes in today’s turbulent times but a far cry from other Lynx brands.

We wonder if Lynx has lost its focus. Why?

Stretching brand essence: Lynx’s brand essence majors on male sexual success and leveraging libido. Like it or not this has enabled Lynx to launch a plethora of sub brands with aplomb; Lynx Excite, Lynx Rise, Lynx Attract, Lynx Apollo. Very scalable. Very profitable. Good times. It’s debatable if a move into the caring and sensitive space aligns with the Lynx master brand essence. It’s a bit like Mick Jagger becoming a Catholic missionary. Not sure it works.
Diluting brand associations: It takes time, repetition and consistency to build brand association in our brains (i.e. connecting neural pathways / nodes). Coca Cola has been chipping away at Happiness for decades.  Does stretching the master brand into this less macho space represent a wise strategic move? We feel it may dilute their hard-earned brand associations.
Cannibalisation: Lynx Peace is in a caring, sensitive and humane space. Isn’t that how Dove Men (which is also owned by Unilever) is positioned, albeit with slightly more natural / pure undertones? This begs the question, why cannibalise another brand? The distinction is there but is slight.
Alienate core market: Lynx’s core market is all about making men more attractive to woman in a rather unashamed way. Yes, being sensitive may appeal to certain woman but the Lynx brand doesn’t stand for this. Lynx is testosterone in a tin. It’s debatable whether Lynx can act as mechanism for transferring these less macho personality-related associations given its current positioning. We wonder if the core Lynx market will identify with Lynx Peace.

We can see why Unilever would want to launch a brand which aligns with the sensitivities of the modern metrosexual male. There’s no doubt that’s a growing market as male grooming market growth shows.

We just wonder if a move into this market is a stretch too far for Lynx. Only time will tell if the target market will turn their nose up at Lynx Peace but we wanted to share our views above.

As ever, we’d welcome your views. Do you think Lynx has got it right?

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