SECTION -C

THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXCERPT OF AN ARTICLE PUBLISHED IN https://www.vox.com(RETRIEVED ON 20 JULY 2021). READ THE PASSAGE CAREFULLY AND ANSWER THE QUESTION(s) THAT FOLLOW:

Questions to be answered

Qa. Based on your understanding of the category and brand analysis explain how the concepts apply to the situation described in the article below .

Qb. Comment on how the image of AXEas a brand has evolved and the role marketing communication had in shaping the same (6 marks).

Case;-

The pungent legacy of Axe Body Spray By Mac Schwerin Updated Feb 19, 2020 The same insecurity that powered the Axe Effect ultimately ate it from the inside. An existential threat was brewing not within the FCC or bronchially besieged gym teachers, but something far more vital: sales. By 2013, the rate of global growth "had declined a little bit," said Fernando Desouches, who was then Axes global brand development director. Unilever was forced to confront the possibility that the Axe Effect no longer resonated with adolescent dudes. That year, the company conducted a study of more than 3,500 hundred men in 10 countries, poking at conceptions of masculinity and self-esteem. "When we talked to people, we realized that men were in a different place," Desouches said. He had worked on Doves groundbreaking "Real Beauty" campaign and saw parallels in the socialscape. In describing them to me, he deployed a familiar word. If the Axe Effect was saying "that youre not good enough not attractive enough until you wear a product that will make you attractive, this is not empowering." Other tectonic forces were at work, aptly summarized on Unilevers website: "We know that the rules of attraction are changing and that it is about connection, not conquest." Management had come around to the idea that women were not prizes to be won. Teens had, too, in their way. Plus, Axe had so relentlessly polished its image as a tool for the needy that it had started to become associated with them. "To most high school and college-aged males, Axe had essentially become the brand for pathetic losers," writes Martin Lindstrom in his book Brandwashed.