Extrême ice-cream, or how to change a brand positioning into a successful and strong one
- Margaux Millet
- Nov 30, 2021
- 3 min read
Extrême has long been seen as an ice-cream which will bring out your sensuality and sexiness until very recently. In 2020, the marketing department of the famous brand completely took a turn in the strategy and changed the brand image into a playful and youthful one. There are good reasons behind it, and it is interesting, as marketers, to understand why and how they considered to drastically change the positioning of the brand.
Since the creation of the brand Extreme in 1989, the ice-creams were always associated with a sensual and sexy image. Indeed, the muse of popular advertisements was shown with short clothes, shots in slow motion and supported by the codes of sexiness. For instance, the commercial campaign in 2014, showcases in an indoor environment, a woman playing and tempting her reflection in the mirror. She does intense and languid looks, crunches the ice-cream slowly and wipes her lips with her fingers. Everything with some slow motion, savage moves and sophisticated music, participate in creating a sexy image to the Extrême ice-creams.
However, there are two good reasons why the marketing department made the decision to get away from this image of sensuality and sexiness.
First, let’s have a look at the positioning map with the main competitors of Extrême : Häagen-Dazs, Ben&Jerry’s and Magnum. The map highlights whether the brand is seen as sexy or youthful, and high premium or low premium.
As demonstrated by the positioning map, Extrême had the worst positioning compared to its competitors. The best place to be being at one of the corners and apart from others. We can see that Extrême was seen almost as much sexy as Magnum and almost as much premium. Moreover, the empty space at the bottom right corner was well brought into light. Extrême by choosing to position itself as youthful without changing the premiumness was the best decision to take according to the positioning strategy of its main competitors.
Second, for a few years, we noticed the emergence of feminist movements that wish to advocate a more egalitarian image of women compared to men. They want to deconstruct the marketing codes where women are used for their physique and completely sexualized. As we have seen earlier, the image of Extrême is not in accordance with this moving mindset over women. By moving away from the sensual and sexy image into a positioning organized around playfulness and youthfulness, Extrême moved forward with its time and the thoughts released.
In 2020, we got familiar with the new image of Extrême through their TV campaign. It showcases a young woman in an imaginary and colorful world. The music and movements are very dynamic. The marketing team completely got rid of all the sensual and sexy codes we were used to. Instead, they installed a new playful and youthful positioning. This new strategy went beyond the TV campaign.
Indeed, in order to emphasize the change of the brand image, Extrême got associated with a new blue. A brighter and more powerful blue that stands out from the crowd.
The difference between the naming of the 2019s innovations and the 2020s ones, also highlights the change of positioning of Extrême into something more playful and not sexy anymore.
We may wonder if the change of positioning was a success. And indeed,it was. The 2020s innovation, “Les Créatives”were ranked 3rd best launched within the agri-food industry.
To conclude, we suggest marketers to pay attention to its competitors positioning by using a perceptual map. Moreover, following the trends of the markets and its desire is crucial in order to meet the client's expectations. A change in positioning is not an easy choice and needs to be carefully considered. It can lead to many changes within the brand from a change in packaging, price, distribution, target and/or promotion which we encourage you to understand. However, even if it leads to many changes, it can at the same time lead to a beautiful success-story!
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