Alex Pooley's Blog

Why don't you subscribe to my blog while you're here? I'm a freelance web developer and I blog about Ruby, Rails, and business online.

Go ahead and subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Dear Reader:

But there was a difference. One of the men was manager of a small department of that company. The other was its president.

That is the start of the direct mail letter for The Wall Street Journal. The letter ran for almost 30 years and is estimated to have returned about $1 billion, or about $1.28 million per word. The author of the letter, Martin Conroy, recently passed away. He was paid $600 for his efforts which was apparently a good rate at the time.

The amazing thing to me, is that the letter never states that the student who went on to become the president of the company read The Wall Street Journal. It’s only implied!

You can read the entire letter, and about the very first direct mail on Denny Hatch’s Business Common Sense.

Unilever got back to me within a couple of days which is a good effort considering their web page says to give them three weeks. As it happens, I recently purchased a book that dedicates a few pages to the advertising of Lynx. Apparently when Unilever advertised Lynx they promoted the feature that it makes you smell good. The ads ran pretty well. They ended up getting BHH to come up with a fresh campaign. BBH saw the product from the eyes of the target market and started selling on the benefit that Lynx will make women find you attractive.

I’m curious to know their position on targeting mothers. While the current strategy seems obvious, it’s also pretty clear that male teens are not the ones buying the product. There’s no email address for BHH on their web site but I managed to track down an email that I’ll give a shot.

Here’s the uneventful reply for Unilever.

Dear Mr Pooley

Bradley Cursley
Lynx Advisor

Advertising can often come across as very blunt to the point where it’s almost comical. This Christmas I received my usual deodorant and shaving cream from mum and cracked up at this on the back of my Lynx deodorant can…

It seems that if you use Lynx shower gel and then pose while spraying on deodorant - you turn in to a girl. And where did you get that bikini from? No really, who takes these ads seriously? I’ve seen a lot of blunt ads from Lynx. They are dominating their male teen “personal care” sector, but are their ads translating in to sales they would not have otherwise obtained? It’s obviously hard to measure, but I did a little digging anyway.

These quotes are from the Unilever Lynx page.

“nearly half of all Lynx purchases are made by women!” C’mon Unilever, when was the last time you saw a male teen at the grocery store who was not working behind the checkout?

“Lynx’s popularity is also due to its cutting edge, award-winning advertisements which so far have nabbed 10 Cannes Lions.” But have those ads translated in to sales?

“[Originally, Lynx] was available in a choice of three fragrances: “Amber”, “Musk” and “Spice” and was packaged in distinctive black with silver lettering, giving it strong associations with maleness and sexual potency” *rolls eyes*

Anyway, I’ve sent off an email to Unilever to try to understand their strategy a bit better:

I’m a post adolescent male who’s mum still buys him Lynx “personal care” products. I find it really interesting that the message in Lynx ads are delivered so bluntly that it’s almost comical. Clearly the ads are well produced, but I, and my blog readers, are curious to know if the ad campaigns are taken seriously by teen males.

Alex and Alex’s Blog readers.

I’ll post their reply when/if I get one.