For the past several years, the summer months have been brutally hot and humid. Multiple U.S. cities have chalked up record-setting temperatures. Such trends raise critical questions for climate change scientists and policy makers. But they also suggest some notable opportunities for consumer goods manufacturers and marketers, as evidenced in accounts of the wave of new products being introduced to combat sweating.

The new product introductions appear particularly targeted toward U.S. consumers, perhaps reflecting the United States’ long-standing cultural discomfort with body odor—an attitude that also likely stems from marketing tactics from the past. In the early twentieth century, seeking to push their hygiene products, many marketers created advertising campaigns that linked smell (or the lack thereof) with success. Since that time, U.S. cultural anxieties about odor have only heightened, leading to so much consumption of related products that U.S. consumers spend more on deodorant than any other country in the world, surpassing $6 billion dollars annually. 

Beauty product companies continued to leveraged these cultural sensitivities, such as by creating targeted marketing campaigns for deodorant brands that aim to appeal to different genders and generations. However, a similar element across all these marketing efforts was their focus on products designed to combat sweat specifically in the armpits. In contrast, new, full-body deodorant products claim to combat the threat of odors that might arise from a variety of areas, such as a Dove social media campaign, featuring various influencers, who attempt to spread awareness of the different places that body odor can originate, including the feet and groin. Its full-body deodorants can address all those points of concern, of course. Other popular allover deodorant brands, like Lume and Native, have cultivated their own loyal fanbases by focusing primarily on full-body products. In response to such efforts, recent data indicate a surge in deodorant sales in 2024, reaching market spending of $27.41 billion.

Such evidence of a near obsession with body odor raises concerns among health care experts. The overuse of deodorant on sensitive body areas can increase the risk of skin irritation. Moreover, no scientific evidence from the medical community exists to suggest the use of full-body deodorant improves long-term health. Rather, using unnecessary products can disrupt the delicate microbiome of individual bodies, leading to potentially serious complications down the line. Furthermore, cultural anxiety about bodily smells creates unnecessary stress; it can be psychologically damaging to vulnerable consumer populations, such as young people, leading to unnecessary and excessive fear or self-esteem issues.

Despite such concerns, marketers in the personal care sector seem determined to continue introducing the new products, riding new marketing trends while doing so. Thus odor-control products, especially new versions that promise to remove any and all bodily odors, seem likely to remain vastly popular, at least in the United States, without a widespread cultural shift in the way we think about body odor.

Discussion Questions 

1. How would you explain the growing use of full-body deodorant products? What do you think is the most influential driver of these purchases?
2. What should personal care brands focus on, to ensure long-term success? Should they shift their marketing efforts to new customer segments, continue to market to their historic customer bases, or do something else?

Sources: Devika Rao, “Whole-Body Deodorant Is the New Hygiene Trend,” The Week, June 14, 2024; Jeff Nilsson, “No Offense: How Americans Became Intolerant of Body Odor,” The Saturday Evening Post, July 6, 2023; Taylor Barnes, “What Is Whole-Body Deodorant? Is It Necessary?” Baylor College of Medicine Blog Network, August 8, 2024; OpenAI ChatGPT, “Assistance with Research on Consumer Behavior and Body Odor Market Trends,” ChatGPT, August 8, 2024.