Gillette Case: India

In men’s safety razors, Gillette is a well-known brand. Gillette is one of the brand names in Procter & Gamble (P&G), which is a multi-national company. Among other personal care products such as shaving gels, aftershave, body wash, deodorant, and other supplies, owned by the P&G. Gillette is based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, it was originally owned by The Gillette Company. Gillette Company merged into P&G in 2005. In 1901, the Gillette Company was founded by King C. Gillette as a safety razor manufacturer. Gillette India was incorporated in the year 1985 as Indian Shaving Products limited.

P&G acquired Gillette Company's assets internally known as "Global Gillette". Global Gillette was dissolved in July 2007. It incorporated into Procter & Gamble's other two main divisions, P&G Household Care and P&G Beauty. Gillette's brands and products were divided among the two departments accordingly. P&G also got Gillette R&D center in Boston, Massachusetts as well as the Gillette South Boston Manufacturing Center (known as "Gillette World Shaving Headquarters"). Gillette's subsidiaries Braun, Duracell and Oral-B, etc., have also been maintained by P&G.

Proctor and Gamble bought out Gillette for a $57 billion price tag, which made P&G an even more dominant presence in consumer products. P&G added 300 consumer brands, including Ivory Soap, Head and Shoulders shampoo, Pringles, Crest toothpaste, and Bounty paper towels.

Razors are one of the most profitable businesses for P&G, which operating margins of 31%. Gillette's market share is 70% of the global blades and razors market. Gillette's’ annual revenue in personal care products is near $9.25 billion dollars, and the brand value is estimated to be near $16 billion dollars. Gillette franchise including Fusion, Mach3, Presto bar, and Venus. Gillette’s electronic hair removal devices, such as electric razors and epilators, are sold under the Braun brand in some markets around the world where Gillette competes against both global and regional competitors. Gillette holds over 20% of the male shavers market and 40% of the female epilators market. The company employees 29,400 employees all over the globe.

In 1984, Gillette India was incorporated, at Rajasthan. The Company was a Joint venture of House of Poddar enterprises and Gillette Company, U.S.A. The Company Manufacture stainless steel razor blades.

Two types of blades were manufactured by the Company, the premium 7 O’clock Ejtek Super Platinum, and the stainless brand 7 O’clock Ejtek Super Stainless. In 1986, Company took over Sharpedge Ltd., by acquiring the entire share capital of that company.

The Company introduced a new twin-blade shaving system called 7 O’clock Ejtek P II with platinum enriched edges.

In 1993, Gillette commenced the launch of Gillette Shaving products in India with the launch of Gillette Presto Readyshaver. In 1994, The Company launched another Readyshaver under the Brand name of 7 O’clock Ready II.

In 1997, Indian Shaving Products Ltd (ISPL) and Duracell India Pvt Ltd have merged their respective Ltd and marketing networks in the country.

In 1999, The Company launched the Gillette Mach-III, the three-blade razor, as part of its growth plans in the country. It was the latest razor in the Gillette portfolio, MACH3 has been developed.

Gillette India introduced a new shaving system 'MACH3 Turbo Champion'.

The Gillette MACH3 is a safety razor produced by Gillette. MACH3 was developed with a cost of more than $750 million in research and development.

Primarily want close and safe shaving experience.

• Use unique gripping patterns when shaving that needs to be addressed.

• Lubrication is also required when a consumer has a hard beard.

• No need for the second shave

• Shaving activity should take very little time.

• A flexible pivoting razor head helps better maneuver the curves of the face and neck and tackle the hair under the chin – difficult areas for double-edge razor users to shave safely.

• Razor should be lightweight

The Gillette Razors are perceived as a luxury razor by the majority of Indians and the packaging of the product is an important aspect that Gillette has worked on. The packing has to be eco-friendly and should minimize the use of paper-based pulp because it will result in the cutting of trees. 

Gillette has therefore designed the packaging in such a way that it is not only eye-catching but projects as an environmentally friendly package due to the usage of recycled materials. It recently partnered with ’Be-Green’ packaging that reduces the use of plastic and uses bamboo, bulrush, etc.

The marketing strategy of Gillette was different than the existing players of the market as they wanted to carve a niche for themselves in this market segment. Some people purchased Mach 3 Turbo because they have disposable income and can afford its price, few others who buy the products aim at changing their lifestyle due to changes in social attitude, etc. 

Indian mass's shopping habits include buying bundles of related packages viz. toothbrush plus toothpaste, brush plus cream, razor plus shaving cream, etc. Gillette too followed this bundling strategy for the promotion of its products when they realized the Indian consumers' buying habits and thus also advertised and developed the marketing strategies surrounding it.