Wallace-Church Gives RGX the Right Air of Confidence

When Dial Corporation decided to take the Right Guard brand into the male body spray territory, they engaged New York City's Wallace Church Inc. to help separate the men from the boys. Dial wanted to make a more sophisticated statement on retail shelves for their new, more sophisticated product.

Brian Houck, director, creative services at Dial, explains that Dial felt that the Right Guard brand could bring maturity to the male body spray category. As opposed to its "dark" competitors in the space, Dial wanted the new RGX body spray to be clean and bright. Diving into the category

Wallace Church was also involved in the recent package designs of Right Guard's two solid male deodorant subbrands, Xtreme and Sport. Dial acquired the Right Guard brand in early 2006, after these products were launched. Sport was aimed at active tweens to adult males while Extreme was more for the in-your-face, adrenaline-fueled, X-Games enthusiast. For the new RGX subbrand, the demographic and psychographic target was tweens, teens, and even possibly higher in age.

Dial's Houck was impressed with how deeply Wallace Church understood the brand. Within a few days of getting the new project, Wallace Church had several ideas of how to "stretch" the brand. Wallace Church was also directly involved in helping Dial perform exploratory category and consumer research. "They had some great questions," recalls Houck. With an aggressive timeline of three months, the package design, category research, and product development occurred simultaneously.

Rob Wallace, managing partner of Wallace Church, believes the end result is understated in a "highly considered" way. The low sheen of the metallic finish is not distressed looking, and the lug-nut facets around the top provide a unique hand feel and grip-ability. "The issue here is to try to get meaningful distinction," says Wallace, adding that the elements of this package design will be very ownable for further Right Guard subbrand expansion.

Both light and powerful

Wallace explains that Wallace Church's design was inspired by the elements that are critical to a young man's active lifestyle-electronics, sports, energy drinks, and impressing the opposite sex. The titanium skin, compelling brand mark, and vibrant-yet-controlled accent colors convey a lighter smelling line differentiated from the heavier scented options.

The RGX monogram and the "X" icon speak to the confident, contemporary male, and the modern structure results in an identity that is sleek, powerful, and refined. The underplayed "Powered by Right Guard" achieves positive parent brand association in a secondary way. The name itself came from Dial internally, because that was their staff's shorthand for the previous Right Guard Xtreme solid deodorant.

When the RGX package designs were tested and consumers mentioned strong associations with apparel, Dial knew they were on the right track. In addition, retailers were eager to have a product to boost the male body spray category segment. "The package even led to the look of the ads," Houck explains. For example, the television ads are sleek and minimalistic, with a young woman dressed in black or white set against a brightly lit white background talking directly into the camera, asking "Are you ready to step up?"