Gillette is a premium brand company and was founded in the year 1901 by King C Gillette. In 2005 Procter & Gamble, the new owners of the company, merged with Gillette and retained the brand name. Procter & Gamble is a multi-national company dealing with a variety of brands and products like Household Care, Health Brands and Beauty Products. The company slogan of Gillette is ‘The Best a Man Can Get’ and it has become the trademark for all its products. Gillette deals with personal care and grooming products for men. It faces stiff competition from its competitors and some of its main competitors are
- Topaz
- Panama
- Palmolive
- Old spice
- Godrej
- Fa
- Park Avenue
Product in the marketing mix of Gillette
Gillette deals exclusively in grooming product and a wide range of toiletries product that are technologically advanced and hence premium. The company has always taken pride in its products and sells a deep product line which includes body wash to razors. In 2006 it revolutionized the market with the introduction of ‘Fusion 5 bladed razor’and still continues to be the top selling product till date. Each product belongs to different categories or groups.
Under its Razor group, the main products are
- Gillette Fusion Pro Glide Shaving Razor
- Gillette Mach 3 Sensitive Shaving Razor: This newly designed razor reduces the pressure of the blade and gives a smooth and fresh look.
- Gillette Mach 3 Turbo Sensitive Shaving Razor
- Gillette Fusion Power Razor
- Fusion Gamer Razor
- Gillette Fusion Manual Razor
Under its Shave Gel and Foam Categories the products are
- Fusion Hydra Gel
- Series Foam
- Series Gel
- Foamy
The skin care regime consists of Deodorants, Shampoo, Face Wash, Gillette Hair & care and Body Wash for men.
Price in the marketing mix of Gillette
The pricing strategy of Gillette is clearly premium pricing. However, the quality of its products is accordingly very high as well. Products like Gillette mach 3 and now Gillette mach 5 have taken the world by storm. The price level of Gillette shaving foam and gel is much more than its competitors but still Gillette has been able to maintain its customer’s loyalty by its worth as well as marketing policies. Consumers are not afraid to pay the extra money in order to associate themselves with such an irreplaceable brand.
Nowadays it is not easy to sway a customer’s loyalty by genuine price hike. The company is asking its consumers to place more value on emotions than on the cost price. The policy of Gillette is to encourage the customer to try its product at least once. The company is confident that after using this high quality product it will be difficult for the consumer to switch to other substandard product. Once the buyer is happy with the product, its high price does not matter.
Place in the marketing mix of Gillette
An estimated six hundred million people have placed their trust in Gillette products that are easily available in almost all the continents across the globe. Central America, South America, North America, Asia, Western Europe, Africa, Eastern Europe and Oceania all have dealers and distributors of this world famous brand.Gillette has extended its network to nearly 140 countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bangladesh. It has opened its own manufacturing plants in almost all the major countries like India, China, UK and USA.Its distribution network is highly organized and robust with operations running successfully everywhere. A franchise distributor in every city who has his personal employees manages this system. Direct Supply to the retailers is encouraged without any wholesalers.
In India, the first manufacturing plant was set up in Rajasthan at Bhiwadi. At present, the company headquarters are located in Mumbai.It has at least one – lakh retail outlets in 3,600 towns. Gillette has recruited DHL Courier as the company’s service provider so that an efficient dispatch system is maintained.
Promotions in the marketing mix of Gillette
Gillette spends billions of dollars on its advertising policies. In order to market their products they have used an emotional marketing strategy. The advertisements are smooth and cool giving an unstoppable feeling. A brand identity has been created with marketing and sales in mind. The company has used unique and diverse tactics to maintain their customer base as well as to rope in new consumers.
By looking at the ads, one can see the confidence and the unbeatable feeling on the model’s face and this transforms the mindset of the buyer. The marketing focus is on the emotion rather than the product itself. The customers want to cash in this passion by buying Gillette products. The ads have turned a basic act of shaving into a grooming ritual evoking a strong response amongst the viewers.
For international market, famous personalities have been roped in as the brand ambassadors. ‘Roger Federer’- an iconic tennis player, ‘Tiger Woods’ – the master champion of Golf, ‘David Beckham’ – the world famous footballer and Thierry Henry have acted in Gillette ads. Some of the other persons to act in Gillette ads are ‘Shoaib Malik’ – the Pakistani cricketer,‘Michael Clarke’ – the Australian cricketer, Derek Jeter and Park Ji- Sung. In India Rahul Dravid, the famous cricketer and Irfan Khan,the famous actor, have acted in ads for Gillette products.
In the department of packaging, the performance of Gillette is far superior to its adversaries. Its logo is depicted in black to symbolize a sophisticated male;the blue base cover is associated with men as well as a cool and fresh look. The color white signifies purity whereas the red color is used to highlight the variants. Ingredients are displayed on the cover and the instructions for using the product are written in the local dialect. This avoids confusion and helps the consumers to read and know the product.The Eco – friendly packaging has also been a hit with the urban population.
In order to increase its sales Gillette has single handedly implemented revolutionary ideas with military precision and patience. It has sponsored famous sports personalities as well as games like football to upgrade its image. Gillette has targeted its promotional policies on the current ambassador of the company. Gillette products are advertised in the print media like newspaper and magazines and in the visual media like internet and television. All the detailed information about each product is available with a single click of the mouse on the internet. This has helped to attract buyers on a large scale.
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Hi Hitesh,
The article is an interesting read. I am a student of MBA. Can you please let me know where I can find the details of the market share of of P&G products in India?
Do check Statista.com or Economic times. Both of them should have it.
And now Gillette have shot themselves in the foot with their hateful misandrist feminist sexist and racist advert. The advert has done more to harm to their sales worldwide than any of their rivals could hope to do. Appealing to millennials is not a great marketing strategy especially in the age of readily available factual data. Gillette pushed a false narrative and ended up deleting around 15 million negative comments on their advert as well as deleting dislikes to likes ratio. Their claim of opening a conversation and Gillette starting out from a sexist racist position and were surprised at the negative reaction their advert got P&G trot out a women spokesperson who essentially doubles down with this stupidity and ended up with an even greater backlash. finally P&G cynically put out another advert which again has a man being subservient to a women with more covert sexism and racism and was pulled apart by the general public (stakeholders) Ironically Gillette stupidly stated they wanted to start a conversation… Yet disabled the comment section and like to dislike ration…. Seems more a case of lets have a one-sided conversation. Then the CFO comes out and says sales were up… Only neglected to state that those sales figures were pre-advert. It is the first & second quarter figures which will show the truth of P&G utter stupidity. The fact is businesses should keep out of societal issues and just concentrate on making their product the best it can be. Because Millennials are not the ones with actual buying power, in-fact it is Gen X who have the most buying power and most of us will not be buying any P&G products the next group who will have buying power potential are Gen Z who are generally more conservative than Gen X and who generally loath and detest Gen Y (Millennials) So honestly Gillette advert was totally wrong for the demographic that the actually cater too. And most companies should understand promote your products but stay out of everything else. After all it cost less than 50p for Gillette to manufacture its Razorblade which they sell at a 5000% mark-up. Perhaps dropping the price for men’s razors by 80% would have been a more effective marketing strategy and would have absolutely boosted sales, instead of this complete disaster. Especially pushing the false accusers group #metoo who leaders ironically have all been accused of sexual assault with one of the women accused of sexually molesting a child…. Nice to see Gillette standing with double standards and standing with people who are essentially accused paedophiles … yet another reason to ditch the Gillette brand…. Perhaps Gillette wanting to be equal will produce an advert which show the BAD in women rightly or wrongly… I hold my breath on that one. As a Marketing, Gillette is about to go the way of the DODO bird… It might take a few years but long term Gillette are done.