Gillette: the Razor Wars Continue
Gillette
The Razor Wars Continue
Overview
Case Overview: Founded in 1901 by King C. Gillette, the Gillette Company has been extremely successful since it’s inception into the shaving market. Gillette did such a good job from the start in the shaving market, that the company went sixty-years before having any meaningful competition for it’s customers. In 1962 Gillette was enjoying a seventy percent share of the market and everything was looking rosy for the top shaving product company in the world, until the Wilkinson Sword – Schick Company (Schick) introduced a stainless-steel blade to the market, becoming the Pepsi to Gillette’s Coke. Due to competition with a new product design, Gillette’s market share dropped below fifty percent of the market in just three years, it’s lowest point in the company’s sixty-four year history. Luckily for Gillette, Schick was not in position to take advantage of the market share that they had quickly carved out and they eventually had to sell a large portion of their blade business to Gillette. While Gillette could consider themselves lucky, lessons were learned within the company that would be applied in the future. Over the next thirty years, Gillette continued to grow their company by expanding into new product lines, including pens, batteries, and deodorants. However the lessons that Gillette learned from the Schick stainless-steel blade competition came to fruition in 1990 with the introduction of Gillette’s Sensor razor, which quickly gained global market domination. Over the next few years Gillette continued to tweak their Sensor razor product with great success. The success of this razor allowed Gillette to invest in the type of research and development that was necessary to release Gillette’s next generation razor in 1998 – the Mach3 razor. The Mach3 became Gillette’s most successful product ever, hitting sales of one billion dollars in eighteen months and winning the Grand Edison Award for the best new
The Razor Wars Continue
Overview
Case Overview: Founded in 1901 by King C. Gillette, the Gillette Company has been extremely successful since it’s inception into the shaving market. Gillette did such a good job from the start in the shaving market, that the company went sixty-years before having any meaningful competition for it’s customers. In 1962 Gillette was enjoying a seventy percent share of the market and everything was looking rosy for the top shaving product company in the world, until the Wilkinson Sword – Schick Company (Schick) introduced a stainless-steel blade to the market, becoming the Pepsi to Gillette’s Coke. Due to competition with a new product design, Gillette’s market share dropped below fifty percent of the market in just three years, it’s lowest point in the company’s sixty-four year history. Luckily for Gillette, Schick was not in position to take advantage of the market share that they had quickly carved out and they eventually had to sell a large portion of their blade business to Gillette. While Gillette could consider themselves lucky, lessons were learned within the company that would be applied in the future. Over the next thirty years, Gillette continued to grow their company by expanding into new product lines, including pens, batteries, and deodorants. However the lessons that Gillette learned from the Schick stainless-steel blade competition came to fruition in 1990 with the introduction of Gillette’s Sensor razor, which quickly gained global market domination. Over the next few years Gillette continued to tweak their Sensor razor product with great success. The success of this razor allowed Gillette to invest in the type of research and development that was necessary to release Gillette’s next generation razor in 1998 – the Mach3 razor. The Mach3 became Gillette’s most successful product ever, hitting sales of one billion dollars in eighteen months and winning the Grand Edison Award for the best new
References: [ii] “India Votes”. Aug 2008 – Sep 2008. CMDGlobal.com. 8 Feb. 2010 [iii] “India Votes” [iv] Diaz, Johnny. “Winning campaign becomes marketing mess for Gillette”. 11 Dec. 2009. Boston.com. 9 Feb 2010. [v] Poulter, Sean [vi] Mears, Teresa. “The top 9 shoplifted items”. 19 Nov. 2009. MSN Money. 9 Feb. 2010. [vii] “Best Global Brands: 2009 Rankings” [viii] Berner , Robert, and William Symonds. “Gillette’s Lost Edge?”. 2 Aug. 2006. Business Week. 8 Feb 2010. [ix] Abelson, Jenn [x] Sewell, Dan. “5 is Enough, but Gillette Upgrades Razor, Again”. 12 Feb. 2010. AbcNews/Money. 12 Feb. 2010.