Because their brand isn't better than the competition - it's just different. Old Spice and their competitors all have pretty much the same ingredients (save their scents), and work pretty much the same - and if one is slightly better, it's so little that you wouldn't lead an ad with that even if you could find a number.
Since they can't sell a concrete product as better than another one, they're selling the associated image - and betting that you will buy one of many indistinguishable products (theirs) because you like that image.
It's like Coke vs, Pepsi (or Sprite vs. 7-Up) - in a blind test, they taste pretty much the same. One isn't empirically better than the other. So instead they sell the images the drinks associate and the brands, and compete in that sphere.
> It's like Coke vs, Pepsi (or Sprite vs. 7-Up) - in a blind test, they taste pretty much the same.
Except they don't, those tests only confirm that many people have a crappy sense of taste or are only sipping and not taking a big enough drink to tell the difference. No blind test would stop me from spitting out Pepsi because it's way too sweet.
You should have somebody give you a blind test the appropriate way: By giving you 3 cups, 2 with drink A, 1 with drink B.
There is a scientific way to measure the delta of 2 flavors and Coke and Pepsi are quite similar. So similar that in a proper test like I'd laid out above, only a fraction of participants can tell the oddball from the group.
> only a fraction of participants can tell the oddball from the group.
I don't doubt that, but I'd be one of those; they are significantly different to me, but I quit drinking soda a while ago, that shit's just bad for you.
Since they can't sell a concrete product as better than another one, they're selling the associated image - and betting that you will buy one of many indistinguishable products (theirs) because you like that image.
It's like Coke vs, Pepsi (or Sprite vs. 7-Up) - in a blind test, they taste pretty much the same. One isn't empirically better than the other. So instead they sell the images the drinks associate and the brands, and compete in that sphere.