Gillette Marketing

Gillette Razor corporation was founded in 1901 by King Camp Gillette as the American Safety Razor Company. In 1895, while working as a salesman for Gillette envisioned an inexpensive, double-edge blade that could be clamped over a handle and simply disposed of when the blade dulled. Gillette spent many years searching for an inventor or engineer that could help him in making the dream a reality. Many people told him it couldn’t be done but in 1901 William Nickerson, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology educated machinist, took on the task aided with the designs provided by Gillette.

Production of the razor started in early 1903 and in October of the same year, the newly renamed, Gillette Safety Razor Company began advertising and selling their razor sets for $5 each. Additional blades sold for $1 for twenty As we mentioned earlier King Gillette vision was to make the shaving experience simpler, safer, inexpensive and time saving. The Gillette Company is globally focused on consumer products marketer that seeks competitive advantage in quality, personal care and personal use products.

On their very beginnings Gillette Company was mainly focus on men’s grooming products; in 1902 they introduced the first safety razor using a disposable blade and they started advertising their product with the first ad appearing in a magazine. By 1908, Gillette Company started operating not only in U. S. but also in Canada, England, France and Germany. Around this time they introduce their second best advertising campaign which was the face of King’s Gillette on each of their razors pack.

This advertising campaign was very successful on countries outside of U. S. because people recognized the face of King’s Gillette and they referred to them as “the king with the man’s face. ” During the following twenty years the company kept introducing new products with new technology. By 1939, the company developed a sports advertising campaign and they purchased the radio broadcast right to the World Series. Later on, in 1942 the company sponsored a group of sport advertising which they called “Gillette Cavalcade of Sports. This included the orange bowl, the sugar bowl, and the Kentucky Derby; which according to the company history website this “sports advertising programs, remained an important vehicle for Gillette advertising. Later on, around 1970’s the company developed a new advertising campaign to advertise their product line of Right Guard and soft & dry deodorants and Adorn and white Rain hair sprays. The company continues introducing innovation in shaving technology, and at the same time developing new ad campaigns to emphasize the more profitable shaving systems over disposable shavers.

Around 1990, the company decided to change a little bit their target market so they introduce the Gillette Venus Vibrance, which is the female version of the M3 power Venus blades for man. The introduction of female razors was very positive for the company, but this was not the only new program development that Gillette Company will have. Around the same year Gillette’s company acquired four successful U. S. divisions, and those were the personal care division (Oral-B product care),the Toiletries Division (right guard deodorant and antiperspirant), the paper Mate Division and The Safety Razor Division.

These divisions did help the company’s revenues but most of the company’s revenue was generated by the razors division. The company found sport advertising campaigns to be very successful so around the year of 2005, the company introduce a new advertising campaign featuring sports champions; such as Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Thierry Henry to announce the new Gillette’s new product line. “Fusion Gamer Saver” and the line of this campaign was “prepare to be your best today. ” this advertising campaign was very successful not only in U. S. but also in many different countries. In addition, to this campaign the company also introduced multimedia advertising, store promotions, direct marketing, sponsorships and celebrity television commercials; for instance Jennifer Lopez, she is the celebrity that advertises the Venus Razor. Another important advertising that Gillette Company introduces is their web page. In this page the company introduces their line as “Being a G man means taking pride in grooming to help you look, feel and be your best.

So here people can find their products, Gillette science (innovations of the product, from then to now), and product coach, for man and women. Product coach is a very interesting feature, because guys can play with this picture and see how they might look with certain type of beard color or hair color; and it is also available for women, so they can also choose how they want to look. One of the most recent successful advertising campaigns that Gillette introduced was the Young Guns, with Ray Rice, Kyle Busch, Evan Longoria, Carlos Gonzales, Matt Ryan and Denny Hamlin.

This current promotions are focusing on Young man, so this shows that Gillette is not only focus on targeting older man, they are focus on personal care and personal use product for man and women of different ages. Gillette has an incredible amount of the market share of disposable razors. Gillette holds 72% of the market, while their closest competitor, Schick has a mere 18 % and the number 3 company, Bic has 6%. When compared all other brands in the world, through 2010, Gillette is ranked 13th according to Interbrand. com. They currently have a brand value of 23,298,000,000.