The brand manager for Gillette France gave a talk at school today. It was pretty interesting. I asked him a lot of questions after the talk. Here is a brief summary of what I learned:
1. Blades make up 60% of Gillette razor sales (the rest is handles and disposables)
2. Gillette is aware that the price of blades is high but they have not lowered it because demand is still high. As long as people are willing to pay a fortune for blades, Gillette will not lower the price.
3. It costs 100 million dollars (!) to develop a new razor system. The reason that there are always minor "improvements" that come out between major improvements (for instance Mach 3 TURBO and Gillette Fusion PROGLIDE) is to boost sales in the middle of the product's lifecycle.
4. The next Gillette razor will not have more blades.
5. Gillette's new marketing strategy is to use the "average Joe" as their spokesperson rather than professional athletes
6. Gillette's target is a fictitious character called "Mr. Magnetic" who believes that he has to "look good to feel good". Mr. Magnetic tends to shave his entire body, including what they refer to as the "groin area". They also have Mr. Responsible and Mr. Simple and other characters which represent segments which basically are not willing to spend as much money on Gillette stuff as Mr. Magnetic.
6. Brand managers at Procter & Gamble usually stick with a brand for about three to four years. The current brand manager for Gillette France does not appear to have any interest in the company's history and shaving in general (not a surprise, of course!). In fact, he was very poorly shaven. He claimed he use the Proglide himself.
There are a few more specific things I also learned which I can post later if you are interested.
1. Blades make up 60% of Gillette razor sales (the rest is handles and disposables)
2. Gillette is aware that the price of blades is high but they have not lowered it because demand is still high. As long as people are willing to pay a fortune for blades, Gillette will not lower the price.
3. It costs 100 million dollars (!) to develop a new razor system. The reason that there are always minor "improvements" that come out between major improvements (for instance Mach 3 TURBO and Gillette Fusion PROGLIDE) is to boost sales in the middle of the product's lifecycle.
4. The next Gillette razor will not have more blades.
5. Gillette's new marketing strategy is to use the "average Joe" as their spokesperson rather than professional athletes
6. Gillette's target is a fictitious character called "Mr. Magnetic" who believes that he has to "look good to feel good". Mr. Magnetic tends to shave his entire body, including what they refer to as the "groin area". They also have Mr. Responsible and Mr. Simple and other characters which represent segments which basically are not willing to spend as much money on Gillette stuff as Mr. Magnetic.
6. Brand managers at Procter & Gamble usually stick with a brand for about three to four years. The current brand manager for Gillette France does not appear to have any interest in the company's history and shaving in general (not a surprise, of course!). In fact, he was very poorly shaven. He claimed he use the Proglide himself.
There are a few more specific things I also learned which I can post later if you are interested.
