Case Study: Gillette

The factors determining demand for blades are the following:

1. Frequency of shaving

If people do not want to shave often, then they will not buy blades as often because their blades will not dull so quickly. The quality of the blade also has significance. If the quality of the blade is not good, it will dull out faster. So this will lead to the demand for higher end blades, which is where Gillette can capitalizing on generating demand for their blades.

2. Western grooming practices

People of Indonesia watch the television commercials and they see good looking actors, they will follow suit and imitate the actor’s appearance. Western grooming customs and habits are becoming greater in Asian society and Middle Eastern so this leads to have a

Gillette sales revenue in 1995 was 19.6 million, which was 17 percent higher than the sales revenue for the previous year. Although Indonesian market possessed some threats such as government regulations, cultural differences, distribution problems, the company had 20 percent of profit margin which shows the company’s solid position in the market. The level of awareness of Gillette among male adults was 97 percent and 55 percent of which used one Gillette brand most often. Gillette’s strategy in marketing in 1995 included 3 main objectives, such as convincing consumers to shave for the first time, trading up shavers, increasing the frequency of shaving among existing shavers. The mentioned objectives helped Gillette to gain significant market share and strong position. Moreover, Gillette used to mean blade in Indonesian. Brand Gillette was embodiment for shaving among the target group. All the mentioned aspects were result that Gillette utilizing its first-mover advantage. Gillette improved manufacturing process reducing the time of it from 7 days to 3 days in producing 3 million blades and appointed 23 distributors instead of one all over the country which increased sales by 60 %. Gillette distributors still utilized old methods of accounting and distribution which were barriers for on time payment and timely delivery of products. Gillette’s main competitors in the double-edge blades line are Tatra, Super Nacet, Tiger, imported from China and Eastern Europe. These low-end, double-edge blades are a lot cheaper than Gillette’s products, which means that the low-income rural shavers have to settle for using non-Gillette blades. Other problems related to culture between employees and distributors, communication and being unable to meet the