Axe
WHAT WE DID
Industrial Design, Manufacturing Liaison
DESIGN TEAM
Stuart Harvey Lee, Jochen Schaepers, Lindsay Mannix, Katrin Lins de Albuquerque, Becka Citron
OVERVIEW
Prime Studio's first Axe project, the Axe Detailer shower tool, was born from collaboration with Unilever's Consumer Insights team. We addressed bar-soap users' needs, creating a product to facilitate their switch to Axe bodywash.
The result was an instant hit which became the number one best-selling Axe SKU within six months of launch and has gone on to sell over 40 million units worldwide.
It’s in the details
Through in-depth consumer research and interviews we learnt that current bar soap users enjoyed the scent and experience of bodywash but weren’t convinced by it’s cleaning credentials - one even went so far as to call it “afterwash”! We explored a wide range of concepts to help increase the efficacy perception issue and also produced multiple rounds of prototypes which were shipped to consumers for in-home use trials.
Gradually the Detailer concept rose to the top and we then assisted the Unilever supply team with both vetting of and communicating with vendors for commercialization. The Axe Detailer shook up a stagnant shower accessories category and has been the subject of numerous Business school classes and papers.
