Gillette tries to capture a whiff of teen market

Gillette Co. wants teenagers to believe that its new Tag body spray will make them babe magnets. What Gillette does not want them to know is that it makes the hip scent.

The company's name does not appear anywhere on the cans, which warn users that the body spray is ''uniquely designed to attract the ladies." Gillette's name is also missing from the television and magazine advertisements showing gaggles of women tackling Tag-wearing teens.

The decision came after a lot of corporate soul-searching. When Gillette's first attempt at a teen spray failed, executives huddled at the company's Prudential building headquarters and committed to big changes. They would launch a separate brand that, on the face of it, had no association with Gillette. They would tap outsiders to help them understand teens, the youngest market the Boston shaving giant has ever targeted. And they would do it in about a year -- the quickest turnaround for a Gillette product.

''We knew we needed to do something different," said Todd Brisky, business director of new business for Gillette personal care.

Conquering the teen market is not easy, especially for well-established companies. Young consumers are fickle and many cannot fathom buying the same products as their parents. But it is a highly coveted market because the group often sets trends. And these days, young consumers have more disposable income -- teen spending has grown nearly 40 percent over the past eight years to $169 billion in 2004.

They also have greater influence over their parents' purchases, said Rob Callender, trends director for Teenage Research Unlimited.

''It's smart for Gillette to create a new brand for this category," Callender said. ''Gillette is old and established and it doesn't speak to the young and rebellious very well. Tag is a bit more edgy and pushes the envelope."

Like Gillette, Toyota struggled for years to get young consumers interested in their cars. Toyota finally figured it out in 2003 when it launched a new line called Scion aimed at first-time buyers. Like Tag, Toyota set up a separate division, a separate logo, and separate showrooms to sell Scion.

Now, 18- to 24-year-olds make up a greater proportion of all Scion buyers than they do of any other brand, according to Power Information Network, a division of research firm J.D. Power and Associates.

Avon, founded in 1886, also felt its age. Two years ago, the beauty product company launched a new brand, Mark, to attract women between 16 and 24 to buy and sell their products. Mark has its own catalog and sells items that appeal to the younger set, including lacy thongs and a makeup line that is compact enough to slip into jean pockets.

''We wanted a Mark representative to be able to go out and not be selling the same products as her mother," said Avon spokeswoman Debbie Coffey.

Since Gillette's Tag was introduced in February, its sales have soared and within six weeks, it displaced Procter & Gamble Co.'s Old Spice Red Zone as the second best-selling men's body spray.

Tag -- named after the schoolyard game -- has held the number two position since March and its sales have grown to about $7.4 million through July 10, according to the latest data from Information Resources Inc., a Chicago market research firm. And last week, Gillette said Tag body spray helped drive the company's 17 percent increase in second-quarter profits.

Though Tag sales this year are less than a third of Unilever's No. 1 Axe body spray, which came on the market three years ago, analysts say Tag has what it takes to catch up to Axe.

''Tag has grown rapidly out of the gate, and could eventually challenge Axe for the leading position within men's body spray," said Patrick Schumann, an analyst with Edward Jones.

Over the past few years, companies have increasingly focused on male grooming lines as a way to boost sales with everything from exfoliators to lotions.

Body spray has become a staple in teenagers' lockers, desks, and medicine cabinets. It is lighter than cologne, less expensive (about $4.99), and doubles as a deodorant.

Taylor Quinn, 13, of Holbrook, said Tag made it into his daily grooming routine a few weeks ago after he heard about it from a friend. ''I like the smell, and now I use it every day," Quinn said. ''It's cool."

Quinn and other teens interviewed said they had no clue Tag was made by Gillette -- a brand they associated with shaving and dads. And that lack of recognition is exactly what Gillette executives wanted.

The company initially made a go at the male body spray market with a Right Guard line in late 2002, but sales flopped. The company, which refused to provide sales figures, said it only sold a fraction of what it expected and pulled the product after only several months. Gillette realized its well-known brands may actually be working against it and that the Right Guard body spray was too closely linked to traditional deodorant to attract young teens.

In the spring of 2003, after the Right Guard spray failure, Brisky, the Gillette executive, called a small team of employees into his office at company headquarters. They decided the body spray market was too good to pass up. But one thing became clear: They needed advisers who were hip, who could get into the minds of 13- and 14-year-olds.

Here's why: Gillette had mastered the male grooming habits of the 18-and-older shaving crowd. But to court those without stubble, or at least not as much stubble, Gillette says it was outside its comfort zone.

''We needed a basic understanding of teens," Brisky said. ''You can kind of screw up once and go after it a second time. But it's very, very tough a third time."

So Gillette, which keeps new products secret from many of its employees, marshaled outsiders. It tapped Boston advertising firm Arnold Worldwide and smaller marketing firms, including Fusion 5 and AMP Insights, to fan out across the country, to cities like Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago, and track down teenagers at beaches, movie theaters, and skate parks.

They asked lots of questions, including: Do you like it when girls take the initiative? What do you think of guys who wear body spray?

They learned that, yes, guys like it when girls take the initiative, so they designed ads showing teenage boys being attacked by scantily clad female wrestlers, attractive drug store shoppers, and even their girlfriends' mothers.

''These are teen fantasies," said Ron Lawner, Arnold's chairman and chief creative officer.

Most teens also think smelling good is extremely important to helping them attract girls, the marketers found, and that it boosted their confidence when approaching the opposite sex.

That is why Gillette designed the charcoal-gray body spray cans with silhouettes of curvy women striking poses and named the scents after dating milestones: Lucky Day, First Move, Midnight, After Hours.

''You can push the limits," Brisky said, ''when you're not looking at how it might bump into other things you're doing in the company."

Jenn Abelson can be reached at abelson@globe.com.