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Context
Despite being an iconic brand, over the years X-Men - a men's grooming brand in Vietnam, had been losing resonance among Vietnamese youth and growth was plateauing. There was a need to re-position X-Men in a way that would resonate with contemporary manifestations of masculinity in Vietnam. This meant coming up with a new brand key, and redefining the brand and communication strategy.
Challenge
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Atypical challenge - developing a brand key from scratch for an existing, long-known, and reputed brand
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Typical challenge - limited time, quick turnaround
Approach
Mixed methods, phased approach
We began with an exploratory understanding of contemporary Vietnamese youth and masculinity perceptions through immersions, self-ethnographies, and covert observations in youth hangouts. This was topped up with an insight mining exercise leveraging existing category and brand data to cumulatively paint a picture of key barriers to growth and communication.
Subsequently, running collaborative ideation sessions with the X-Men team (brand, marketing, insights, creatives) to arrive at a revamped brand key and a creative brief that brought it alive
Outputs
Insights were then translated into a universally comprehensible format using Jungian archetypes, highlighting:
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Archetypes that best represent masculinity values in contemporary Vietnam
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Archetypes that are desirable, aspirational to Vietnamese youth today
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Archetypes occupied by competitors and opportunities to differentiate
Based on our understanding of Vietnamese youth, their perceptions of masculinity, we identified 4 personas through Jungian Archetypes as a starting point, and mapped these back to Vietnamese context to determine what's aspirational vs. relatable but not aspirational
To find the sweet spot and write up a refreshed brand key and positioning, we workshopped the insights together with the X-Men team and creative partners which culminated into a robust creative brief.
Impact
✔️ Fast forward to a few months later, a new campaign launched, re-positioning X-Men as a relatable man trying to find his identity, facing challenges but not shying away from risks - a big departure from X-Men's otherwise James Bond-esque portrayal of the man as a 'rescuer'
✔️ Significant improvement in brand imagery across almost all key attributes (modern, young, energetic, dynamic, masculine)
✔️ Increase in brand meaningfulness scores
✔️ Brand growth, bridging gap with competition
✔️ Increase in brand worth scores, 'brand worth paying more for'
"The campaign was really special... the re-positioning got noticed, the brand grew, and more importantly, gave us a platform to build the brand on"
- Vice President, Marketing, Marico SEA
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