The Marketing mix of Gillette analyses the 4Ps of Gillette, including the Product, Price, Place, and Promotions. Gillette is a premium brand company founded in 1901 by King C Gillette. In 2005, Procter & Gamble, the company’s new owners, merged with Gillette and retained the brand name. Procter & Gamble is a multinational company dealing with various brands and products like Household Care, Health Brands, and Beauty Products. Gillette’s company slogan 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, including some of its main competitors.
- Topaz
- Panama
- Palmolive
- Old spice
- Godrej
- Fa
- Park Avenue
About Gillette
- Type: Public
- Industry: Personal care
- Founded: September 28, 1901
- Founder: King C. Gillette
- Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts, United States
- Area served: Worldwide
- Key people: Jon Moeller (Chairman) and James Quincey (CEO)
- Number of employees: 16,000
Table of Contents
Gillette Product Strategy
Gillette deals exclusively in grooming products and a wide range of toiletries products that are technologically advanced, hence the premium price. The company has always taken pride in its products and sells a comprehensive product line, including body wash and razors. In 2006, it revolutionized the market by introducing the ‘Fusion 5-bladed razor’, which continues to be the top-selling product. Each product belongs to different categories or groups.
The new Product Mix of Gillette in 2023 is as follows (Source).
- Razors, Trimmers, and Blades: Gillette offers a variety of razors, trimmers, and blades, including famous lines such as Gillette Fusion, Gillette Mach 3, and Gillette Flexball. These products are designed to cater to different shaving preferences and needs.
- Female-Specific Variants: Gillette’s Venus line is specifically designed for women, extending its range to a broader audience.
- Deodorants, Antiperspirants, and Body Washes: Beyond shaving products, Gillette also offers a range of deodorants, antiperspirants, and body washes.
- Shaving Creams, Gels, Foams, Skincare, and Aftershaves: The brand provides a comprehensive skincare regime, including shaving creams, gels, foams, and various aftershave products.
- Specialized Collections: Gillette has introduced specialized collections like Gillette Labs, which features innovative products like the Heated Razor Starter Kit, Exfoliating Bar Razor, and special edition razors like the Bugatti Special Edition Heated Razor. The Gillette INTIMATE™ line also focuses on intimate grooming, offering products like the Public Hair Trimmer and Shaving Kit.
Gillette Place Strategy
An estimated six hundred million people have placed their trust in Gillette products readily available on almost all continents. 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 manufacturing plant and network to nearly 140 countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh. It has opened its manufacturing plants in almost all the major countries like India, China, the UK, and the USA. Its distribution network is highly organized and robust with operations running successfully everywhere. A franchise distributor in every city who has his employees manages this system. Direct supply to the retailers without any wholesalers is encouraged.
Gillette’s place strategy involves a comprehensive and global approach to product distribution and availability:
- Global Reach: Gillette’s products are available in almost all continents, including North America, South America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania, highlighting their vast global distribution network?.
- Extensive Retail Presence: The brand has a strong retail presence, with products available in various outlets such as supermarkets, drug stores, and convenience stores, ensuring easy consumer access.
- Online Sales Platforms: Gillette has embraced e-commerce, offering its products on various platforms, including their website, enhancing convenience for consumers who prefer shopping online??.
- Localized Manufacturing: With manufacturing plants in major countries like India, China, the UK, and the USA, Gillette ensures localized production, which aids in meeting regional demands more efficiently.
- Strategic Distribution Network: The brand employs a robust distribution system managed through franchise distributors in different regions, ensuring efficient supply and availability of their products worldwide.
Gillette Pricing Strategy
Gillette’s pricing strategy is premium pricing. However, the quality of its products is accordingly very high as well. Products like Gillette Mach 3 and now Gillette Mach 5 shave gel have taken the world by storm. Gillette’s shaving foam and gel are much more expensive than those of its competitors. Still, Gillette has maintained its customers’ loyalty through its worth and marketing policies. Consumers are not afraid to pay the extra money to associate themselves with such an irreplaceable brand.
Nowadays, swaying a customer’s loyalty with genuine price hikes is difficult. The company is asking its consumers to value emotions more than the cost price. Gillette’s policy is to encourage the customer to try its product at least once. The multinational company is also confident that it will be difficult for consumers to switch to other substandard products after using this high-quality product. Once the buyer is happy with the product, its high price does not matter.
Gillette’s pricing strategy is a masterclass in balancing premium branding with market competitiveness:
- Premium Pricing Policy: Gillette has traditionally followed a premium pricing strategy, setting higher prices to reflect its products’ high quality and brand value. This approach positions Gillette as a top-tier choice in the men’s grooming market???.
- Quality Justification: The higher price point is justified by the superior quality of Gillette’s products. The brand’s consistent focus on innovation and technological advancement in razors and grooming products underlines this aspect.
- Market Penetration Tactics: Gillette has employed penetration pricing strategies in specific markets, particularly developing countries. For example, in India, they introduced lower-priced razors to capture a broader customer base, adapting their pricing strategy to local market conditions?.
- Psychological Pricing Techniques: Gillette often uses psychological pricing to make their products more attractive to consumers. This includes pricing products at just below a round number, which can make them seem more affordable.
- Promotional and Bundled Pricing: The brand occasionally employs promotional pricing strategies, including discounts, bundled offers, and special deals, especially during new product launches or special events.
Gillette Promotion Strategy
Gillette spends billions of dollars on its advertising policies. 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 its customer base and attract new consumers.
By looking at the ads, one can see the confidence and the unbeatable feeling on the model’s face, transforming the buyer’s mindset. The marketing focus is on the emotion rather than the product itself. The customers want to cash in on this passion by buying Gillette products. The ads have turned an essential shaving into a grooming ritual, evoking a solid response amongst the viewers.
Famous personalities have been roped in for the international market as 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 other persons to act in Gillette ads are ‘Shoaib Malik’ – the Pakistani cricketer, ‘Michael Clarke’ – the Australian cricketer Derek Jeter, and Park Ji-Sung. Rahul Dravid, the famous cricketer, and Irfan Khan, the renowned actor, have acted in ads for Gillette products in India.
Currently, G departmental Gillette’s performance is superior to its adversaries. Its black logo symbolizes a sophisticated male; the blue base cover is associated with men and an excellent and fresh look. The white color signifies purity, whereas the red color is used to highlight the variants. Ingredients are displayed on the cover, and the product’s instructions are written in the local dialect. This avoids confusion and helps the consumers to read and know the product. Eco-friendly packaging has also been a hit with the urban population.
Gillette has single-handedly implemented revolutionary ideas with military precision and patience to increase its sales. It has sponsored famous sports personalities and games like football to upgrade its brand image. Gillette has targeted its promotional policies on the company’s current ambassador. Gillette products are advertised in the print media like newspapers and magazines and in the visual media like the 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.
Some Recent Video ads and Print ads for Gillette are:
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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.