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Reality: Old Spice sales are down since ad campaign began

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Re: Reality: Old Spice sales are down since ad campaign began

#41
post #30
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone's different. This person is just as likely to get a rash from your favorite deodorant as they are Old Spice. There's nothing inherently wrong with Old Spice.

This is not explicitly true. Old Spice products use aluminum compounds in their deodorants aluminum based compounds especially when as fine as they are in deodorant are generally an irritant and a poison for your body. It's been proven to cause Alzheimers. I use Adidas 24 Hour control which doesn't contain aluminum. It's common to be allergic to aluminum.

The old spice container I have shows no aluminum in the ingredients list... care to revise or elucidate?

Re: Reality: Old Spice sales are down since ad campaign began

#42
Conventional advertising wisdom revolves around brand awareness. Old Spice just got millions of people to say "Old Spice" to their friends a hundred times a day each with a big happy smile on their face. If sales are down, I'd bet its anomalous and/or too soon to tell. Look at the numbers six months to a year from now.

Re: Reality: Old Spice sales are down since ad campaign began

#43
post #11
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last time I "tried" Old Spice I got a rash. They make crappy deodorant. It's okay if you're used to it but if you switch prepare for the worst. For some reason I've found this to be more common with Old Spice rather than any other deodorant brand.

I've gotten a rash from just about every deodorant on the market after half a container or so. The only ones I trust are the simple white cake ones. And they usually say 'dermatologist tested' since they require a gimmick to be sold. I wish we could go back to when nobody wore the stuff.

You might want to try a crystal body deodorant, such as this (or an equivalent brand):

http://www.thecrystal.com/crystal_story.cfm

Costs about $5 or $6. I got mine at my local drug store (if yours doesn't carry it, try a health food kinda store). They're supposed to last at least a year.

I made the switch about 4 months ago and am happy with it.

Re: Reality: Old Spice sales are down since ad campaign began

#44
post #27
post #9

My first instincts are to assume this is a "post hoc ergo propter hoc" statement. Just because sales are falling doesn't mean the commercial is ineffective. After all, how do you know that sales wouldn't be down 14% without the ads?

If that's the case then you can say the commercial is ineffective, because you can say that the commercial didn't raise sales. You can never conclusively say that the commercial raised sales when they're up or lowered sales when they're down, but the commercial surely didn't raise sales when they're down.

For those who are downvoting me, care to explain why I deserve it? Where am I wrong?

Re: Reality: Old Spice sales are down since ad campaign began

#45
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is not explicitly true. Old Spice products use aluminum compounds in their deodorants aluminum based compounds especially when as fine as they are in deodorant are generally an irritant and a poison for your body. It's been proven to cause Alzheimers. I use Adidas 24 Hour control which doesn't contain aluminum. It's common to be allergic to aluminum.

The old spice container I have shows no aluminum in the ingredients list... care to revise or elucidate?

Alumimum is commonly found in most (all?) anti-perspirants. It's definitely not something limited to Old Spice. If you want to avoid aluminum, you'll probably have to stick to using deodorants that are not also anti-perspirants -- it might be the case that Old Spice doesn't sell anything like this.

Re: Reality: Old Spice sales are down since ad campaign began

#46
post #30
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everyone's different. This person is just as likely to get a rash from your favorite deodorant as they are Old Spice. There's nothing inherently wrong with Old Spice.

This is not explicitly true. Old Spice products use aluminum compounds in their deodorants aluminum based compounds especially when as fine as they are in deodorant are generally an irritant and a poison for your body. It's been proven to cause Alzheimers. I use Adidas 24 Hour control which doesn't contain aluminum. It's common to be allergic to aluminum.

Aluminum has not been proven that aluminum causes Alzheimer's...

Many other deodorants use aluminum as well, Old Spice is hardly unique in that regard.

Re: Reality: Old Spice sales are down since ad campaign began

#47
post #44
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's the case then you can say the commercial is ineffective, because you can say that the commercial didn't raise sales. You can never conclusively say that the commercial raised sales when they're up or lowered sales when they're down, but the commercial surely didn't raise sales when they're down.

For those who are downvoting me, care to explain why I deserve it? Where am I wrong?

If sales would have been -14% without the commercial but are only -7% with the commercial, then the commercial did raise sales. You measure vs. the counterfactual baseline, the one where the rest of the world is held constant but you don't take the action that you're measuring.

Re: Reality: Old Spice sales are down since ad campaign began

#48
post #44
post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's the case then you can say the commercial is ineffective, because you can say that the commercial didn't raise sales. You can never conclusively say that the commercial raised sales when they're up or lowered sales when they're down, but the commercial surely didn't raise sales when they're down.

For those who are downvoting me, care to explain why I deserve it? Where am I wrong?

You seem to have missed the point of the question "After all, how do you know that sales wouldn't be down 14% without the ads?".

The commercial is not the only thing affecting sales. If there is some other factor driving sales down strongly the sales may still fall overall even if the commercial is successful (i.e. attracted a large number of sales).

Re: Reality: Old Spice sales are down since ad campaign began

#49
post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those who are downvoting me, care to explain why I deserve it? Where am I wrong?

You seem to have missed the point of the question "After all, how do you know that sales wouldn't be down 14% without the ads?". The commercial is not the only thing affecting sales. If there is some other factor driving sales down strongly the sales may still fall overall even if the commercial is successful (i.e. attracted a large number of sales).

I see. My point was that good advertising should increase sales not slow the decrease of sales. But I guess when you're running a business that's tanking the OP would be correct in calling the ad effective.

Re: Reality: Old Spice sales are down since ad campaign began

#50

Conventional advertising wisdom revolves around brand awareness. Old Spice just got millions of people to say "Old Spice" to their friends a hundred times a day each with a big happy smile on their face. If sales are down, I'd bet its anomalous and/or too soon to tell. Look at the numbers six months to a year from now.

This is the irony of most internet advertising campaigns. Media Buyers (the people who organize ad campaigns) are graded on three things: -Brand Awareness (how many people see it) -CPM/Cost Per Mille (how much the ad costs per 1000 impressions) -CTR/Click Thru Rate (how many people clicked on the ads)

Most ad campaigns have nothing to do with actually trying to drive product and most ad agencies are not tied to incentives surrounding product sales.

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