Executive summary
Gillette, one of the leading men’s grooming products company, It holds more than 70% of the market share (Hartline 2007) in this segment. Since starting in 1901, it has become known for delivering the finest shaving care products both for men and women. Recently diversified its product lines extending it to toothbrushes, toiletries, stationeries, cosmetics, and other household appliances. It was on the top, dominating its domestic market in the United States before slowly becoming a global leader. Their target market is for young teens, and above, its market is very saturated and apply to many. Their Marketing strategy is very advance, mostly digitally based. Gillette usually hit the mark for advertising using many different channels such as Selling the brands experience, promotions and even Teaching customers how to use the products via Youtube videos. However, their recent campaign gained huge backlash. A failed attempt to spread a positive message to stop “inappropriate behavior” has come across as man shaming. The ad suggests that all men harass and bully. It is damaging the company’s image. A new marketing campaign involving celebrity endorsement of people who took part in the #MeToo movement, will, in hopes, restore that brands image by having popular, loved celebrities promote the brand and its message. By using different aspects of the communication mix: Digital marketing, Public relations, and advertising. A newer successful ad campaign will improve brand awareness, image ad sales.
1.Introduction
This report evaluates the company Gillette’s recent marketing campaign controversies, based on a marketing consultants view. Gillette is currently rebuilding the brand after scrutiny for its poor ad on toxic masculinity. The ad intended to fight American culture, showing men and boys bullying each other and engaging in sexual harassment. The narration then encourages them to “say the right thing” and “act the right way.” However, although some have praised the ad, it was seen a lot on social media people boycotting the Gillett razers. The company’s current tag line “The Best a Man Can Get” has always been seen in a good light. However, many feel the ad suggest that all men are bullies and sexually harass women, instead of purely a fight against inappropriate behaviour.
2.Company Overview
Gillette was established in 1901 by King C.Gillette in Boston, with an estimated brand value of US$16 billion. It is a supplier of safety razors and other personal care products, owned by the multi-national corporation Procter & Gamble (P&G). The companies tag line “The best a man can get” portrays the image of the company and their goal that the best men use Gillette razors. The tag line has recently changed to “The best a man can be” following the release of their campaign in January 2019. Their products intend to be gentle and for sensitive skin and are currently the favorite pick for shaving gel.
3.Target market/Context Analysis
The products are designed for men and women in their mid-teens and above, Gillette’s products are mostly known for catering towards men’s grooming equipment. The customer segment is willing to pay premium prices for their products. Gillette has a clearly defined target market, when branding a product. Gillette shows only sexy and powerful men engaging shaving and daily grooming. This invokes a powerful response. Building an association between the power and sex-appeal of the men in the ad with the shaving, by branding a product upon a transcendent feeling or emotion which was to create a truly powerful product brand. Gillette strength lies with their shaving gel lines, along with the vast array of products they sit ahead in the competition. capturing the market while also maintaining technological superiority
3.1 Brand Identity
Gillette is credited as a pioneer in shaving products. At the core of Gillette’s product strategy and development sits the idea of staying ahead in the competition. The Brand has near 700 million loyal customers in 200 countries across the world. Gillette advrtisies the benefit of using a particular product and highlights all the special features. Using a more informational approach has proven more successful for sales, and therefore it uses usage based positioning strategy.
3.2 Current Marketing
Gillette recently launched a new Ad campaign featuring their new tag line “The best a man can be.” Rebranding and creating a good image promotion for Gillette. Gillette used components in the marketing communications mix for the campaign strategy: Promotion was chosen for this campaign, specifically targeting Cause marketing.
Cause marketing, or cause-related marketing, helps non-profits and worthwhile causes but it also helps brands differentiate and drive business. We outline how to do it, using examples. Gillette has announced their three-year plan to donate $1m each year to the organisation, Boys & Girls Clubs of America. It is a national organization of local chapters which provide after-school programs for young people. They aim to enable all young people to reach their full potential as productive, caring, responsible citizens. The organization encourages people to plan for the future, demonstrating good character and citizenship, and living a healthy lifestyle. Teaming up with the organization was to display its new marketing and brand identity. To encourage men to be their best, promoting a positive and healthier version of what they believe men should be. They pledged to challenge the serotypes and expectations of what it means to be a man. Their website has a link to apply one’s organisation to help The Boys & Girls club. Studies show that globally, Consumers are likly to swith brands, 66% change brands because they support a good cause, or for similar price and quality as other brands. 92% of consumers would buy a product with a social or environmental benefit over others, and 67% said they had done so in the past 12 months (cone).
They used a digital marketing strategy to run the ad online only, which was a cost-effective way to get people talking. It was a success, and the Campaign hit big, it got over four million views on YouTube in 48 hours and 13 million after 3 days. However, equally, it has divided the industry and consumers both in terms of creativity and execution, as well as strategy. P&G powerhouse acknowlege’s that brands do, in fact, influence culture and have a role to play in encouraging society, as a whole, to do better. CMO article “Marketing and advertising creative is such a big part of what consumers see every day. Reflecting society and shaping is both happening, but we have control over it, and if we take charge we can positively impact society,” said Anne Miles, managing director of International Creative Services. Gillette has resoundingly stood up and is taking part in the #metoo movement. The movement is against sexual harassment and sexual assault. Going virally in October 2017 as a hashtag on social media Twitter by American actress Alyssa Milano. It was to demonstrate the widespread prevalence of sexual assault and harassment, especially in the workplace. Milano encourages others to tweet about their experiences to show the magnitude of the problem. There was a massive response form high-profile celebrates and A-listers, among others soon followed. Gilette supporting the trend is an excellent digital marketing strategy, as, studies have shown consumers reward brands that have a positive and selfless purpose. Sixty-four percent of people in the 2018 admitted to boycotting based on the company’s stance on social or political issues said in a study by Edelman US. It also stated that around 60% think it is vital for brands to take public stands on social and political issues.
4.The Contradiction
There was significant controversy after its launch, some for and some oppose the message of the add. Sydney Morning Herald said: “If the purpose of advertising is to get people to talk about your product, Gillette has nailed it with their latest campaign for men’s razors…However, in the context of the culture, we live in, and the reality that advertising forms a hugely important part of it. Ads like this can inspire some small amount of change.”. But a small proportion had been offended and had sparked an avalanche of ‘not-all-men’ platitudes. Critics like Piers Morgan slammed the ad for “driving a war against masculinity. “. They argue that they are given portraying all men as sexually harassing people. According to You Gov Brandindex, Gillette’s score has fallen from 5.8 to 3.4. showing more people hear negative thing about the brand. Despite the controversy, the company’s sales following the ad’s remained largely unchanged, revealed Jon Moeller, chief financial officer at Procter and Gamble (P&G). However, Gillette has at lost at least 30% of its market share and that people are talking about the brand, which was the aim they wanted, to create a conversation “more meaningfully with younger consumer groups” and it was successfully achieved, but there was no change in their profits or sales and the majority were negative comments damaging the brands image.
5.Future Recommendations
Recommendations for future marketing campaigns are designed to react to the response of the public towards the recent ad and companies current position. To attempt to up the company’s sales and profits as well as having a successful campaign that builds the brands positioning, a fundamental part of marketing. Gillette was able to have a semi-positive perception of their brand from the last campaign. However, it did not affect the sales, and negative words were being frequently spoken off the company. A new campaign that will retain a positive message by filling people with hope of change rather than evoking shame.
5.1 Creative strategy
Categorizing the buying decision of men’s grooming products and level of involvement depends on the value related to the importance a person accords to material possessions (Kasser et al., 2007), along with the amount of information they would need before confirming a decision (Naderi, 2011). For this campaign, it should focus on sales promotions: a direct inducement or incentive to encourage audiences to buy a product/service sooner rather than later. It moves away from traditional promotions and uses digital marketing (social media) reflecting on consumer’s preferences. Research shows the informational appeals improves the consumer attitude towards the brand and increases purchase intentions. The sub-type of emotional appeal is also recommended to ease off the negative backlash from the “the best a man can be” campaign.
5.2 Communication Strategy
As identified, the target audience is men in their early teens and above. The most recent campaign had good intentions behind it; however, was too aggressive in terms of delivery. It is recommended that to reduce the negative backlash a possible strategy is celebrity endorsement, putting a face to the name. They will give depth to both the products and movement the company is supporting (#MeToo) through social media platforms. Creating an effective communications strategy involves using various elements of the communications mix, for the campaign the strategy’s used will be: Advertising, Digital marketing, and Public relations (Figure 1).
5.3 Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is the building awareness and promoting of a brand or product online using all available digital channels. Gillette should stay focused on a social media marketing strategy. Social media takes up almost every aspects of people’s lives. It is globally used by consumers and brands and is one of the most effective platforms to connect with the target market. So by using this strategy means engagement with their buyers, across the globe is easily accessible. Having leverage on social media builds the brand, it drives demand and engages the buyers, using paid promotions to adversities the new campaign on popular platforms like, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Gillette has been spoken of having a pretentious social media presence. Gillette’s campaign needs to be more relatable to the everyday man and become more of a positive presence online.
5.4 Public Relations
Public relation is for the company to build or enhance its reputation. Gillette will contact influential individuals who campaigned in the #metoo movement, and this will show the continual support against harassment and create a positive image of the brand. Also including both female and male victims will boycott the negative message that was misinterpreted from the previous ad that “all men sexual harassers and bullies.”
5.5 Advertising
Unconscious effects models is where direct exposure to repeated ads will increase a consumer’s preference for promoted products and why the most effective advertisements are the ones consumers do not even realize they have seen. Herding is when a person is influenced into liking or thinking a certain way because it is popular among other people. Herding towards Gillette products can be achieved through celebrity branding. Famous people have always made excellent salespeople. Showing a familiar face is one of the fastest ways for a company to create brand associations. When well known and loved actor/actress or a heroic sports figure endorses a product, it gains immediate credibility.
6.Conclusion
To conclude, Gillette recent ad campaign had been successful in terms of increasing brand awareness, even though it was not all in a good light. They lost part of their market share and damaged the image for the brand. The proposed campaign uses a multi-channel approach to rectify the damaged caused through the use of influencers and endorsements in hopes to create a more positive outlook on the brand’s new slogan “The best a man can be.”
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