Case Analysis of Gillette
...f measuring the length of individual whickers, Gillette has demonstrated that it is willing to do whatever is necessary to maintain its market share and expand it. According to the case, in 1986, the shaving business produced $700 million annually for Gillette. With close to a billion dollars up for grabs, various companies began to enter the shaving market trying to get their piece of the pie. Companies such as: Schick, Wilkinson and American Safety Razor starting to knock on the door, prompting Gillette began to develop razors that separated them from the competition. The Trac II, Atra and Atra Plus allowed Gillette to regain its lost market share and set the competitors back to the drawing board. The case also gives the reader the other areas and different markets that Gillette began to get into to maximize its profits. As Gillette began establishing itself in the pen and lighter markets, Bic’s disposable shaver began to cut into Gillette’s market share causing Gillette to rethinks its marketing and pricing of its Good News! shaver. This was a cause for alarm because Bic did not possess Gillette’s resources and this was a secondary market for Bic and Bic was making a dent in Gillette’s armor. The case then explains the philosophy of Gillette, which is evident in its products. King C. Gillette felt that quality is what keeps consumers and his beliefs are still evident in the company and its products. With comfort and the disregarding of the “low end market”, Gillette wants to establish relationships with the comfort of its shavers and that is apparent in the Psychology of Shaving section of the case. Gillette knew that shaving was and still is rights of passage for young men who watch their fathers shave and aspired to be the very men that they looked up to. If Gillette could establish itself as a stable in American society and abroad, he knew that those individuals would be consumers for life and the quality of his razors was key to the company’s success. Gillette may have expanded in different areas, but their bread and butter is the shaving business. Much like how Proctor and Gamble will not allow anything affect Ivory Soap’s market share; Gillette will abandon all outside ventures to preserve its market share in the shaving industry. As Bic’s success began to worry Gillette, Gillette changed its whole marketing strategy. Shaving has always been associated with men, but Gillette realized that the market did not consist of just older males with beards, but it consisted of women who shave their legs and male teenagers who are trying to show that they too are old enough to shave. With Bic’s success in the disposable shaving market blinding them and the company spending $15 million dollars on advertising and losing $5 million dollars on the product in 1985, Bic became less of threat to Gillette’s market share. As a result, Gillette began revisiting their “outside” ventures. Once it was obvious that Gillette had weathered the storm of Bic, Gillette began to develop its hold on the foreign markets. Realizing that there were tremendous earnings potential in emerging markets such as: Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil, Gillette began pointing its weaponry to those areas of the world as well as others. Gillette began educating the individuals of these countries about shaving with products su...