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The new Gillette TV commercial

OK, new to me, anyway. They've kept their The Best A Man Can Get slogan, but the ad was all about "Made in America" and -- lower cost!! Plus, their history, with a brief display of their razors over the past century plus. A profound change in their marketing strategy, it seems to me, that smacks of desperation. Appeals to patriotism? They must be kidding. I guess Harry's, Dollar Shave Club and all the other new kids on the block really are hurting their bottom line.
 
So the best a man can get was when Gillette was an independent company. I am a shareholder in P&G and there is a proxy fight to get someone from an outside investment group on the P&G board because of performance woes. One of the divisions that the outsiders cite is Gillette. It is losing market share to upstarts.
 
So the best a man can get was when Gillette was an independent company. I am a shareholder in P&G and there is a proxy fight to get someone from an outside investment group on the P&G board because of performance woes. One of the divisions that the outsiders cite is Gillette. It is losing market share to upstarts.
A classic story that I guess nearly everyone here over a certain age knows well. They had a great product, superior to their leading competitor, fat profits and dominant market share. You might get a better shave with the safety and straight razors everyone here loves, but they offered a key feature in spades: convenience. Then they began to force "innovations" on their customers that weren't all that innovative, but were increasingly expensive, until finally their cartridges had to be kept in locked cases at the drug stores as if they were watches or jewelry (smh).
Now, finally, the other shoe is dropping.
 
I also noticed that commercial and found it to cry of desperation. Now that I am fully ensconced in vintage razors and double edge technology, they are probably missing my Mach 3 cartridge purchases. I still use it when traveling by air but I haven't bought any blades in about 2 years. The ones I have will last me a lifetime. And I've never had a desire to try their razor with 5 blades. To me that is just overkill. My son is 14 and about ready to start shaving. I'm going to start him with a brush, some cream, balm, aftershave, a bowl and......get ready for it.......a Mach 3. I want him to get the hang of shaving first. I don't want him to rip his face apart on his first attempt and decide to go out and buy an electric razor. Once he gets comfortable with the Mach 3, I'll PIF him a vintage Gillette Tech from my collection and the rest will be up to him. Once he tries the Tech, I can't see him going back to the Mach 3, unless he's traveling. What I will say though is that I like the Art of Shaving software. Their creams are top notch and pretty competitively priced. But no way am I going to buy a razor or other implement from them when I can buy one of equal or better quality for 1/3 the price or even less. I bet Art of Shaving is also a financial drain on P&G.
 
They had a great product, ...fat profits and dominant market share. .... Then they began to force "innovations" on their customers that weren't all that innovative, but were increasingly expensive, until finally their cartridges had to be kept in locked cases ....

+1! A company needs to respect their customers!
 
So the best a man can get was when Gillette was an independent company. I am a shareholder in P&G and there is a proxy fight to get someone from an outside investment group on the P&G board because of performance woes. One of the divisions that the outsiders cite is Gillette. It is losing market share to upstarts.

The profitability of Gillette has come from the envious situation of being a premium brand and the volume producer. Gillette's business model is one-size-fits-all, and that model will find it increasingly difficult to survive in a world dominated by the Internet and automated production. As I see it, computerized automated production will erase much of the returns to scale that Gillette as market leader has relied on just as the Internet and personalised marketing, cheap direct shipping etc. will erode its position as a premium brand.
 
I was a huge user of gillette products, loved my mach 3 and my sensor 2, when i switched to the 5 blade i wound up with a staph infection because the blades were so close they never got fully cleaned even under hot water. When i switched back to the mach 3s i would get ingrown hairs and multi hairs growing together causing nothing but skin problems. The last straw was when i would buy the blades they were so cheaply made that they would randomly get stuck backwards and the spring to push them back to the upright position would jam due to the blade plastic. Thats when i switched to a de blade, and yes i have 2 fatboys, 2 slims, and a 47 aristocrat, all gillettes i might add, ia have gotten closer and less irritation shaves and have gotten 0 hair problems or infections and id like to add no 5 o clock shadow at 12 noon ever. Been so happy i will never use the modern equipment again.
 
I was a huge user of gillette products, loved my mach 3 and my sensor 2, when i switched to the 5 blade i wound up with a staph infection because the blades were so close they never got fully cleaned even under hot water. When i switched back to the mach 3s i would get ingrown hairs and multi hairs growing together causing nothing but skin problems. The last straw was when i would buy the blades they were so cheaply made that they would randomly get stuck backwards and the spring to push them back to the upright position would jam due to the blade plastic. Thats when i switched to a de blade, and yes i have 2 fatboys, 2 slims, and a 47 aristocrat, all gillettes i might add, ia have gotten closer and less irritation shaves and have gotten 0 hair problems or infections and id like to add no 5 o clock shadow at 12 noon ever. Been so happy i will never use the modern equipment again.
I never had most of those problems, certainly not a staph infection. But as your story shows, a fundamental problem of the Gillette approach of adding multiple blades, springs and levers and elaborate moving parts is that it's very hard to keep soap residue, and eventually corrosion, from gumming up and ultimately jamming the works. Rinsing with hot water every day is not enough. This more than a little defeats the convenience idea, which was the main advantage of cartridges to begin with. That's also the main reason I never stuck with an older model once Gillette mailed me their latest for free (how generous, lol). Their razors worked well enough for a couple of years but deteriorated pretty quickly.
 
I used a Gillette (or Schick) razor for 40+ years, but I can't think of any Gillette or P&G product I've purchased in the last 8-10 years, except for some old SuperSpeeds/Techs on ebay. I see the name Gillette or P&G on any product and I automatically think bad or millennial product and step away.
 
Good points all around. I had similar thoughts about their current state - losing market share and current ads are not working. Had to try something new.
 
Could the display of their old DEs in new commercial be a sign that they might bring back the DE ? I do think a DE revival is possible beyond the niche/long tail market and subculture that we here at B&B are a part of. If Gillette or a similar company saw that this could worth, they might attempt it.

Wouldn't a brand new Gillette DE with a few little updates borrowed from Merkur be awesome?!
 
I use a DE every day with the only exception being when I travel,internationally and then I take a Fusion, whose cartridge I have not changed in years
 
Could the display of their old DEs in new commercial be a sign that they might bring back the DE ? I do think a DE revival is possible beyond the niche/long tail market and subculture that we here at B&B are a part of. If Gillette or a similar company saw that this could worth, they might attempt it.

Wouldn't a brand new Gillette DE with a few little updates borrowed from Merkur be awesome?!
Nah. If they came out with a new DE razor, it would require their own special blades and wouldn't accept the standard blades. Then they would give away the razors for free or close to it and charge a fortune for the blades. That is and always has been their strategy.
 
Could the display of their old DEs in new commercial be a sign that they might bring back the DE ? I do think a DE revival is possible beyond the niche/long tail market and subculture that we here at B&B are a part of. If Gillette or a similar company saw that this could worth, they might attempt it.

Wouldn't a brand new Gillette DE with a few little updates borrowed from Merkur be awesome?!
Christoph, what "little updates from Merkur" would you be thinking of? Just curious.
 
Nah. If they came out with a new DE razor, it would require their own special blades and wouldn't accept the standard blades. Then they would give away the razors for free or close to it and charge a fortune for the blades. That is and always has been their strategy.

This is a very good point. Gillette would not want us all using DEs that use standard blades as we would rarely have to buy them. I go though one a week so a box of 100 lasts me 2 years. But I have an inventory of several hundred at least so I don't need to buy DEs (unless i want to) for several years.

What did I mean by "Updates from Merjur"?

I have shaved with a few Gillettes. While I do like them, I find that the head deign of Merkurs is better. Something about the fatness of many Gilletes make them less accurate.
 
I actually like the Gillette Fusion, especially the power handle. The latest with the cooling strips or the easier glide strips do nothing for me though.

What drove me away from Gillette as my daily shaver was their price. About $5.00 or $5.50 a cartridge that for me only lasts for three shaves eventually drove me to other products.
 
I never stepped up to the M3 when I used a Sensor exclusively. In fact I never bought the Excel blades unless I had to, the regular twin carts were just fine. I had a problem with the ever increasing prices, which along with the desire to start using a brush and good creams/soaps eventually drove me to start using a DE. For me, they priced themselves far beyond any perceived value I felt the newer carts or razors had. I still use my Sensor if I'm in a hurry, and I get a great shave on par with my DE and favorite blades, but I refuse to spend $20 for a pack of carts on a regular basis, let alone the more expensive ones for the "better" razors. I saw it as them being greedy, and I'm not fond of greed.

I do think their blades from the PPI plant are the best made, along with Personna med preps, and am happy to use them, but cart purchases are a rare thing for me, maybe one pack every couple of years if not longer.
 
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I actually like the Gillette Fusion, especially the power handle. The latest with the cooling strips or the easier glide strips do nothing for me though.

What drove me away from Gillette as my daily shaver was their price. About $5.00 or $5.50 a cartridge that for me only lasts for three shaves eventually drove me to other products.


Indeed!

In retrospect, had I just stayed with my carts and foam, I would have been perfectly content and, despite the costs of carts, would have saved $$$,$'s versus getting hooked into this wet shaving extravaganza!
 
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