Complete Marketing Strategy Of Gillette | IIDE

Updated on: Sep 22, 2021
Gillette Marketing Strategy| IIDE

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It has been 100 years since Gillette has been manufacturing the best grooming products for men globally. Interesting Gillette’s marketing strategies, in-depth market environment analysis, and innovation have proven to be a way ahead of competitor’s products. The main focus of the brand has been to provide the best health and skincare-related solutions. 

In this particular blog, we will be going through the marketing strategy of Gillette, marketing campaigns will have details on its SWOT analysis and what all made it a successful brand even after decades.

Let’s move on to know about the company in brief.

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About Gillette

Gillette Logo | Marketing Strategy Of Gillette | IIDE

 

Gillette, based in Boston, is owned by Proctor and Gamble. Gillette describes it as  ‘It’s the greatest a man can get,’. Gillette is a multinational firm that makes men’s safety razors and other personal care products. Through his discovery, King C Gillette invented thin and robust disposable blades in 1901, proving other scientists wrong about the impossibility of such a device. Trac II, a dual blade device, was introduced in 1907. It developed the Atra/Contour system, a double blade cartridge for close shaves, in 1977. A lubricating blade was added to this product in 1985. The first spring technology, known as the Gillette Sensor, was created in 1990. The first three-blade razor was introduced in 1998. M3Power, which utilized battery technology for wet shaving, was released in 2004. Gillette Fusion razors were introduced in 2006 in both power and manual modes. Gillette introduced a body razor for guys in 2014. FlexBall, a pivoting razor, was introduced in 2014. Gillette Fusion ProShield was introduced in 2015 to give lubrication both before and after using the blades.

 

Marketing Strategy of Gillette 

Gillette’s marketing machine is a multi-headed monster. From razors to body wash, and everything in between, the product brands on offer are diverse. With such a diverse product portfolio, one might think it would be tough to maintain a marketing emphasis on how to correctly brand a product– but Gillette has done just that, and done it brilliantly. Gillette creates a Pavlovian reaction that is replayed every morning by designing advertising that portrays strong, beautiful, and confident guys. Simple planning is transformed into a feeling of accomplishment. Extraordinary promoting isn’t only about promoting a product; it’s also about capturing a customer’s interest.

Until 2010, Gillette India followed a strategy of pushing lower-cost end-of-the-line razors made in the United States. Low-pay Indian clientele, on the other hand, who couldn’t afford Gillette’s exorbitant cost, resorted to the outmoded, but still widely used, two-edged razor shaving equipment. Gillette was given a great development opportunity by an estimated 400 million customers who were dissatisfied with present corporate sector contributions.

 

Marketing Campaigns 

These are the following inspiring campaigns by Gillette:

 

1. Barbershop Girls: #shaving stereotypes | Gillette 

#Shaving stereotypes, which was awarded a silver lion for music, one of the campaigns launched by Gillette, challenged the prevailing social division of the workforce. The campaign covered the inspiring story of Neha and Jyoti from village Banwari tola in Uttarpradesh and was presented through an eight-year boy in their tape.

Barber shop girl

 

2. Story of Lt Col Manoj Kumar Sinha | #Manenough

Gillette in its second edition of shaving stereotypes titled Man enough highlighted the masculinity stereotype associated with men through an inspiring story of Lt Col Manoj Kumar Sinha and of his father in which father says ‘it’s okay to show up what you feel, men can also cry, soldiers can also cry’. With the launch, Company targeted to reach more than two million young men across the country.

#Manenough | Gillette

 

3. Gillette Barber Suraksha Program | #GroomTheirFuture

The campaign of Gillette launched to support, educate, and provide barbers with effective resources during the covid time was one of the stirring campaigns of the company. With its hashtag #GroomTheirFuture supported by famous cricketer Sachin Tendulkar, it highlighted the plea of Barbers whose all shutters were down due to this pandemic

With every campaign, Gillette comes up with a focused key marketing strategy of connecting to the people emotionally and trying to increase the product value in the market. 

Gillette Barber Suraksha Program

 

Digital Marketing Key Strategies of Gillette

When every other company was losing its market share due to the absence of key digital marketing strategies during this pandemic in the virtual world, Gillette has an excellent influencing technique through famous and interesting personalities which include athletes, celebrities from pre covid period and got a boost up in the covid times.

Let’s see how interesting Gillette’s social media marketing techniques are

  • Gillette came up to tie up with famous Instagram celebrities to increase its product reach.
  • The major objective was to target adult and above groups through their influencing personalities.
  • To target men, collaborated with female influencers, showing to gift their products to husbands, boyfriends, or family members. 

 

Gillette Promotion | markeitng strategy of Gillette | IIDE

 

Marketing Strategy of Gillette Female influencers

  • Summer Shores, John Henry, Christine Nelli, Will Taylor, and many more promoted Gillette’s products
  • As compared to other brands Gillette has a perfect audience base in the social media sphere with 66.6K followers on Twitter, wider reach among the audience on Facebook, 24.3K followers on Instagram which all are increasing, leading to an increase in their sales. 
  • Gillette’s official website on google also plays a key role in the profile building of the brand with its interesting webpage. 
  • Go ask dad campaign to tackle their performance on SEO, which focused on answering every ‘How to’ question on google.

 

Marketing Mix of Gillette 

Before going through the key aspects, let’s tell you what Marketing Mix is. Decisions related to the 4Ps which include Product, Price, Place, and Promotion, every firm focuses on these Ps to increase their returns.

 

1. Product Strategy of Gillette

Gillette Products | marketing strategy of Gillette | IIDE

 

Gillette is one of the most well-known men’s grooming brands in the world. In the men’s care market, Gillette offers a diverse selection of goods. These are further divided into subcategories based on the requirements and characteristics. All of these Gillette products are part of the company’s marketing mix strategy. The following are the numerous Gillette products:

  •  Razors, trimmers, and blades: This category includes Gillette Fusion, Gillette Mach 3, and Gillette Flexball, among other brands.
  • Gillette’s Venus is a female-specific variant of Mach3.
  • Gillette offers a wide choice of deodorants, antiperspirants, and body washes.
  • Shaving creams, gels, foams, skincare, and aftershaves are all available from Gillette.

 

2. Price Strategy of Gillette 

The pricing strategy of Gillette, unlike others, has given a priority to what we say ‘Quality over Quantity’. The company has been working overbuilding brand-loyal customers using a premium pricing policy technique, which means setting high prices for their products. In return what gave customers stick to the product is the brand image that Gillette has of its own. 

Unlike European countries, in India when the graph of its sales flattened it came up with a pocket-friendly pricing policy, launching its razor at rupees 15 in the year 2010. They believe their product has customer satisfying power, hence once they use it, they will get addicted and will repeat demanding for it.

 

3. Place Strategy of Gillette 

What comes up next is decisions related to the logistics of the company. The brand has customers from all over the world spread across various continents. Gillette is accessible to over 140 countries around the globe including developed and developing nations, has manufacturing units in India, China, United Kingdom, and the USA. It encourages two-level distribution channels eliminating the role of wholesalers. In India, it is spread across various cities and towns easily accessible to its customers. Launching its first Indian-based razor in 2010, Gillette focused on local manufacturing policy, making it available to local shops called Kirana to penetrate the Indian markets. 

 

4. Promotion Strategy of Gillette 

Gillette’s advertising policies cost billions of dollars. They have employed an emotive marketing technique to advertise their products. The ads are fluid and cool, giving off an unstoppable vibe. With marketing and sales in mind, a brand identity was designed. The organization has employed a variety of strategies to keep their existing customers as well as attract new ones. The confidence and unbeatable sensation on the model’s face can be seen in the advertising, which changes the buyer’s thinking. Instead of emphasizing the goods, marketing focuses on the feeling.

 

SWOT Analysis of Gillette

As we have come up so far, it plays a vital role in understanding the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats concerning the company, which will help us in understanding the market environment and its competitive nature.

 

1. Strengths of Gillette

  • Solutions to the arising problems, with the time changing, Gillette has. been addressing the changing needs of the generation and setting it a trend as razors are not just to remove the unwanted hair but to groom men. 
  • Innovation, the core or fundamental aspect on which the brand focuses is on evolving with the technology and catering to the needs of its customers in a revolutionized way. 
  • Merging with Procter and Gamble is also one of the major strengths of the company as it got a good brand image of itself and a hand in experience-based research techniques. 

 

2. Weakness of Gillette

  • Assembling cost, most of its innovative razors have a lot of spare parts which costs high and needs advanced technology, which as a result poses a major challenge to the company. 
  • Premium pricing, As discussed in the earlier part of the blog the major challenge to the company when it launched its product in India was its high prices which most of them were reluctant to pay in India and can be a major drawback to the company.  

 

3. Opportunities for Gillette

  • Propensity to consume, as the income is rising so as the purchasing power of individuals, can be a major opportunity for the company to increase its sales.
  • Changing trends, as with the passage of every single day people have been more conscious towards their beauty and appearance, which will be again an opportunity for the brand to grow and expand. 

 

4.  Threats for Gillette

  • Competition, as the company is growing, more stiff competition is being seen in the market. The major rivalries include Unilever, Dollar Shave Club, etc.  
  • The shift from the shaving trend can be a major threat to the company as the world is moving towards non-shaving techniques with the advancement in technology, its affordability, and its accessibility.

 

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Conclusion

 

No doubt Gillette’s marketing strategies, marketing campaigns, digital marketing techniques, all have contributed to the success of its brand name globally. Not just like a brand for health care solutions, toiletry products, oral care solutions it is just limited to, but the aim to catch the attention of its targeted audience through focusing on their psychological environment did make it connect to the people personally.

In this blog, we got detailed insights on the Marketing Strategies of Gillette and the SWOT analysis of the company. 

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Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Leads the Learning & Development segment at IIDE. He is a Content Marketing Expert and has trained 6000+ students and working professionals on various topics of Digital Marketing. He has been a guest speaker at prominent colleges in India including IIMs......[Read full bio]

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