In regards to mainstream positioning, this may be an effective way for Paramount to retain its more loyal customers. The company’s last high-end product (the Pro) had attracted consumers since it was one of the more innovative products in the razor market. By introducing another cutting-edge shaving technology into the broad marketing position, it may help to keep those customers who want to stay up to date with the most innovative products. Mainstream unit volumes are expected to gain over three times that of the niche market in the first year. However, the new Clean Edge razor has great long-term potential. The down-side of entering this new product into mainstream would be the fact that the pro is already been marketed mainstream, and the clean edge would risk decreasing the brand power, and this would in turn lead to cannibalization. Positioning the product as a mainstream product, 60% of new sales would come from existing product lines. Also, with mainstream marketing comes a need to increase marketing in order to reach the mass amount of consumers.
Pertaining to overall pricing, it appears that Clean Edge is competitive in this aspect, as seen in Exhibit 7 of the case. As illustrated in