ibs Brand Elements: Gillette MACH3

Submitted By

Sec A

Manish Mittal 09BSHYD0427

Eshan Raka 09BSHYD0271

Ritika Choraria 09BSHYD0671

Arun Yadav 09BSHYD0173

Varun Shah 09BSHYD0961

Submitted To

Prof A.Srikant

Sr. No. Topic Page no.

1. Acknowledgement 3

2. Executive Summary 4

3. Introduction to Gillette 5

4. Introduction to Brand 7

5. Brand Name Selection 9

6. Brand Equity 10

6.1 Brand Name 10

6.2 Brand URL 10

6.3 Logo 11

6.4 Slogan 12

6.5 Brand Character 13

6.6 Packaging 14

6.7 Bundling 16

6.8 Advertising & Publicity 17

7 In the NEWS (Gillette Curse) 20

8 Suggestions 21

9 Bibliography 22

Acknowledgement

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We would sincerely like to thank Prof. A. Srikant for his constant guidance and support, who has provided us with the necessary information and valuable suggestion and comments on bringing out this report in the best way possible and for giving us the opportunity to undertake this project on Gillette MACH3.

We also wish to thank our parents for giving us an opportunity to study in a prestigious institute such as IBS-Hyderabad in which we could nurture our talent by creating such projects.

We are also really grateful to all who have in one way or the other contributed towards our project, without which this would not have been such learning and enriching experience.

Manish Mittal 09BSHYD0427

Eshan Raka 09BSHYD0271

Ritika Choraria 09BSHYD0671

Arun Yadav 09BSHYD0173

Varun Shah 09BSHYD0961

Executive Summary

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Gillette has been the leading brand in mens grooming industry in India and across the globe. Gillette with its wide range of products caters to the premium segment of the mens grooming market. Gillette owns 70% market share in the disposable razors range worldwide. (source P&G Financial Statement 2008-09)

This project aims at identifying the various Brand Elements associated with a product Gillette MACH 3 and then analyse them in detail. By definition, a brand element is defined as visually or verbally distinct information that identifies and differentiates a product or service. Examples of common brand elements include names, logos, symbols, characters, slogans, and packaging. Marketers often choose brand elements to build brand equity--to enhance consumers' brand awareness or facilitate their formation of strong, favorable, and unique brand association.

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Gillette is a brand of Procter & Gamble currently used for safety razors, among other personal hygiene products. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, it is one of several brands originally owned by The Gillette Company, a leading global supplier of products under various brands, which was acquired by P&G in 2005. Their slogan is, "The Best a Man Can Get". The original Gillette Company was founded by King Camp Gillette in 1895 as a safety razor manufacturer.

The Gillette Mach3 is a line of safety razors produced by Gillette and introduced in 1998 after more than $750 million in research and development costs. The three blade design is marketed by Gillette as allowing for a shave with less pressure to the skin and with fewer strokes, thereby reducing skin irritation. While many customers do experience greater comfort with the three-bladed models, some individuals, depending upon skin and beard type, have experienced increased irritation or razor burn as the number of blades has increased.

Due to clever marketing by Gillette (and not the actual cost of producing the blades), the Mach3 is more expensive than many other razors, as consumers are willing to pay more for them. The recent release of the Gillette Fusion with 5 blades is more expensive still, continuing the Razor and blades business model, or a "loss leader" model, pioneered by Gillette in the early 20th century. Since the increased price of the newer cartridges creates slower consumer adoption of each new model, Gillette has heavily discounted the newer models through newspaper and in-

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store coupons and in many cases mailed free copies to individuals on purchased mailing lists. While this practice has accelerated adoption of both, Gillette still has a strong customer base using their two-bladed razors as evidenced by their wide availability and high sales volume. The blades used by Mach3 only cost a few cents to produce, but can sell for over $2 each. This shows that profit margins on Gillette razor blades are typically over 4500%.

Other razors in the Mach3 series are the Mach3Turbo and the M3Power. All Mach3 series razor blades are interchangeable between the three. The Venus series of female razors are based on their Mach3 counterparts. The Venus is based on the Mach3, the Venus Divine based on the Mach3Turbo and the Venus Vibrance is based on the M3Power. The Venus models feature different grip shapes and lengths than their Mach3 counterparts design to assist with the differing angle and reach needs of women shavers.

General Features :

New Blade Edge New Corruguration With Ten Flexible & Softer Microfins Enhanced Lubricating Strip Raised Elastomeric Grips & Grooved Handle

Benefits

3 Spring Mounted Blades Progressive Blade Alignment Reduces Cutting Force Closer Shave Less Drag & Pull Greater Comfort Closer Shave As Fins Stretch The Skin Increased Lubrication, Improved Razor Glide Consistent Fading Indicates When To Change Less Irritation Enhanced Grip Better Control

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Brand

A brand is a distinguishing name and/or symbol intended to identify a product or producer.

The American marketing association defines a brand as “ a name, symbol, term, sign, design or a combination of them, intended to identify the goods or a service of one seller or a group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitors.”

A brand conveys a specific set of features, benefits and services to buyers. It is a mark, a tangible emblem, which says something about the product. The best brands, for example, often convey a warranty of quality. A brand can deliver up to four levels of meaning:

1. Attributes. A brand first brings to mind certain product attributes. For example, Mercedes suggests such attributes as 'well engineered', 'well built','durable', 'high prestige', 'fast', 'expensive' and 'high resale value'. The company may use one or more of these attributes in its advertising for the car. For years, Mercedes advertised 'Engineered like no other car in the world'. This provided a positioning platform for other attributes of the car.

2. Benefits. Customers do not buy attributes, they buy benefits. Therefore, attributes must be translated into functional and emotional benefits. For example, the attribute 'durable' could translate into the functional benefit, 'I won't have to buy a new car every few years.' The attribute 'expensive' might translate into the emotional benefit, 'The car makes me feel important and admired.' The attribute 'well built' might translate into the functional and emotional benefit, I am safe in the event of an accident.'

3. Values. A brand also says something about the buyers' values. Thus Mercedes buyers value high performance, safety and prestige. A brand marketer must identify the specific groups of car buyers whose values coincide with the delivered benefit package.

4. Personality. A brand also projects a personality. Motivation researchers sometimes ask, 'If this brand were a person, what kind of person would it be?' Consumers might visualize a Mercedes automobile as being a wealthy, middle-aged business executive. The brand will attract people whose actual or desired self-images match the brand's image.

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All this suggests that a brand is a complex symbol. If a company treats a brand only as a name, it misses the point of branding. The challenge of branding is to develop a deep set of meanings or associations for the brand.

Careful brand management, supported by a cleverly crafted advertising campaign, can be highly successful in convincing consumers to pay remarkably high prices for products which are inherently extremely cheap to make. Brands should be seen as more than the difference between the actual cost of a product and its selling price - they represent the sum of all valuable qualities of a product to the consumer.

Consumers may look on branding as an important value added aspect of products or services, as it often serves to denote a certain attractive quality or characteristic. From the perspective of brand owners, branded products or services also command higher prices. Where two products resemble each other, but one of the products has no associated branding (such as a generic, store-branded product), people may often select the more expensive branded product on the basis of the quality of the brand or the reputation of the brand owner.

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Brand Name Selection

Selecting the right name is a crucial part of the marketing process. The brand name should be carefully chosen. A good name can add greatly to a product's success. Most large marketing companies have developed a formal, brand-name selection process. Finding the best brand name is a difficult task. It begins with a careful review of the product and its benefits, the target market and proposed marketing strategies.

Desirable qualities for a brand name include the following:

1. It should suggest something about the product's benefits and qualities.Examples: Oasis (a still fruit drink), Kleenex (tissue paper), Frisp (a light savoury snaek).

2. It should be easy to pronounce, recognize and remember. Short names help.Examples: Dove (soap), Yale (security products). Hula Hoops (potato erispsshaped like the name). But longer ones are sometimes effective. Examples:"Love My Carpet' carpet cleaner, 'I Can't Believe It's Not Butter' margarine.Better Business Bureau.

3. The brand name should be distinctive. Examples: Shell, Kodak, Virgin.

4. The name should translate easily (and meaningfully) into foreign languages.For example, in Chinese Ferrari is pronounced as 'fa li li', the Chinese symbols for which mean 'magic, weapon, pull, power', which flatter the brand. But accountancy firm Price Waterhouse was reported to have been translated as 'expensive water eloset'.

5. It should be capable of registration and legal protection, A brand name cannot be registered if it infringes on existing brand names. Also, brand names that are merely descriptive or suggestive may be unprotectable. For example, the Miller Brewing Company registered the name Lite for its low calorie beer and invested millions in establishing the name with consumers. But the courts later ruled that the terms lite and light are generic or common descriptive terms applied to beer and that Miller could not use the Lite name.

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Brand Equity

Marketers build brand equity by creating the right brand knowledge with the right consumer. The main brand equity drivers are:-

Brand Name-

The Brand name is the name used to recognize the brand and to distinguish it from the competitors brand.Gillette Mach 3 uses the name MACH3 for its razor. Mach means the ratio of the speed of an object to the speed of sound in the surrounding medium. For example, an aircraft moving twice as fast as the speed of sound is said to be traveling at Mach 2.So MACH3 denotes a shaving speed equivalent to three times the speed of sound in the surrounding medium i.e. air.The name is attributable of speedy close shave.

Brand URL-

URL or Uniform Resource Locator refers to the web address of the brands web page. More and more brands are moving on to the web to increase customer touch points and to increase brand awareness.Gillette Mach3 has a website www.gillettechampions.com which use some famous international athletes such as Roger Federer (Tennis), Tiger Woods (Golf), Thierry Henry (FootBall) and Rahul Dravid(Cricketer)(for South Asian countries only) on the website to publicise its products.

Gillette also has its own website as www.gillette.com which lists all its products including Gillette Mach 3. The webpage is so designed that the visitor can zoom and see the various product features of MACH3 razor.

Brands use the power of internet by posting their url’s at common places or sites which encourages the consumers to visit a campaign website and retrieve information regarding a product. These may be in the form of signs, symbols or simply the brand name.ome of the common sources of url posting are:

URL placement on t-shirts to promote Interactive brand engagement Social networking sites Twitter( ) (and perhaps soon Facebook), campus

threadz to increase the potential exposure

Gillete to some extent has used such url displays while promoting their events such as Clean Shave India and Champions.

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Moreover website links are provided in discount and offer displays such as these:

Logo

Logo is a term used to refer to a graphic symbol or emblem commonly employed by commercial enterprises, organisations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition. At the level of mass communication or simply in the high street a company's logo is today often synonymous with its trademark or brand.

Gillette Mach 3’s logo has the words Gillette Mach 3 printed on it with three horizontal stripes present on the left hand side. The word Gillette is written in the same fashion as that present in the parent brand’s logo. In order to provide continuity and to avoid confusion Gillette uses the strategy of using the parent brand’s logo as a part of the logo of all its sub brands.

The three stripes which are sharp and somewhat faded at one end signify the speed, accuracy and comfort which the triple blade action formula present in Mach 3 provides.

The three horizontal stripes which are blue in color and the letter ‘M’ in Mach 3 which has a tinge of blue on a white base hint at the freshness that a ‘Gillette Mach 3 shave’ gives to its users.

Therefore it can be said that Gillette Mach 3’s logo somewhat fulfills the requirements of all the parameters that we discussed above and has been a constant driving force in its brand building process

Slogan

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For the most effective branding results, the slogan selected should be a short sentence which is memorable or ‘catchy’ and, again, easily remembered by customers. This will then combine with the name to strengthen the branding structures working for the product. In order to generate ideas for slogans to lead the branding, focus on the potential customer should be maintained.

What are they looking for in a product such as yours? What values and aspirations do they expect from a firm producing it? Why should they buy your product in particular? What do the products and slogans of your rivals represent?

The slogan you choose should attempt to take into account strong answers to each of these questions.

Have fun remembering the famous advertising slogan used by the Gillette company as an aid to the advertising, publicity, promotion and marketing of their product. This famous slogan is so well known that it has entered our everyday language and used as a quote or quotation. This famous and familiar advertising slogan is now seen as a clever saying and catchword used as a motto and catchphrase to identify the brand.

GILLETES SLOGAN:

THE BEST A MAN CAN EVER GET

Now going by the slogan we can make out two meanings from it, either Gillette is the best shaver a man can get or with the use of Gillette products a man is “the best he can get”. But the more obvious and intended meaning is thought to be the former, that Gillette razors with their superior and innovative technology and instant ability to recognize consumer needs are able to offer the best shave a man can get out of all the available options to him.

Going through its features what makes it admirable, efficient and popular among the general public are installations like sharp blades, easy to clean, good handle design and not to mention the number of blades-three to be precise in the mach 3 version of its razors, not seen in any other brand. The slogan is what catches the attention of most potential buyers of razors as it gives a strong meaning and identification to the buyers that what the product offers is nothing but the best, that is not offered by any of the other competitors.

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As said above it is the slogan which plays a very important role in catching the attention and signifying what the company is intending to offer to its buyers and what the buyers can derive out of the product, and in the same lines Gillette’s slogan of ‘the best a man can ever get’ gives out a strong signal to the buyers that what they are going in for is the best shave they can get and thus shapes the buyers perceptions about the product as well. This again is well accompanied by its extensive features as listed above which reaffirms their belief.

At the same time being such a strong statement by declaring itself the best among others it acts as a catchy phrase that consumers will always remember, as buyers being rational would always want to go for the best they can get to satisfy their need at competitive prices, and Gillette’s slogan thus will always remain in their mind. Whenever they think about shaving and shaving blades they think of the best being Gillette.

Brand Character-

Brand character typically introduced through advertising and can play a central role in these and further subsequent ad campaigns. Brand character comes in many different forms. Some brand characters are animated while others are live action figures. Consequently brand characters can be quite useful for creating brand awareness. Characters often must be updated over time so that their image and personality remains relevant to the target markets. It is a symbol that takes on human or real life characteristics. This can add imagery to a brand and create feelings among the target audience through placement in advertising and/or on packaging.

It has certain benefits also such as:- It enhances brand personality and builds relationship with the customers. It has valuable licensing properties It can be updated to suit the changing times

Although Gillette is one of the most successful brands it does not use the character element in its brand management. It focuses more on the other elements like packaging, logo and name. Using characters gives an edge as above it has been mentioned that it has many benefits .people can relate the character with the brand and in many case character adds a lot in making the product popular.

Packaging-

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Packing is the container in which a product is shipped, displayed, sold and/or purchased in. It can represent the brand’s category while also enable transport, storage and consumption ease.

Packaging includes the activities of designing and producing the container or wrapper for a product. Packaging performs a vital function for most products. It protects goods from being damaged before you buy them, helps keep, for example, foodstuffs hygienic and fresh, and is often necessary for labelling and information reasons. Some marketers have called packaging a fifth P', along with price, product, place and promotion. Most marketers, however, treat packaging as an element of product strategy.

OBJECTIVES OF PACKAGING-

Packaging identifies the brand; there is a strong brand association with packaging style of the company.

Packaging Conveys descriptive & persuasive information Packaging Facilitate product transportation & protection & storage Packaging Assists at-home storage It Aids Product consumption It also aids “Color vocabulary” (product and category) Innovations can boost sales. Identify brand Present information Protect product Helps consumption Pop displays

PACKAGING ESSENTIALS-

It is important to know your consumer. Take the big-picture approach is always beneficial. It should aim at both Aesthetics & function. It is important to know your distribution channels. Educating Management is also one of the essentials.

Gillette has come up with packing which fulfill all the above essentials of packing the material, color, size and shape has been designed well. Its packing is very eye catching. Gillette created similar packaging for both the Mach3Turbo and Gillette Series brands, which enabled the creative team to develop POP designs that visually linked the products while maintaining their individuality.

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The front of the Gillette razor pack is transparent allowing the customer display of the product. Also for men’s razor the colors that have been chosen are dark and solid but for women the colors have been kept soft and feminine. For women also the packaging has been designed well and different women razors like its Venus model has shown.

The cartridges are packed in similar blue box and comes in sets of 4,8 and 12 cartridges. The only difference in the packing of cartridge is that it is packed in hard multilayer corrugated box and the inner pack is a plastic casing which protects the blades.

For Women

For Men

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Bundling

More and more companies are bundling their products with other accessories to use the product. Bundling is the process of packing and selling more than one product with related features or use together.

The MACH3 comes with a shave gel combo in which the customer can save upto Rs.100.

Advertising and Publicity

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Advertising is defined as Any paid form of non personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods, or services by an identified sponsor.

Publicity is defined as a deliberate attempt to manage the public's perception of a subject. The subjects of publicity include people (for example, politicians and performing artists), goods and services, organizations of all kinds, and works of art or entertainment.

Gillette MACH3’s print ads can be seen in the print and the television media. The advertisements could be found in newspaper supplements such as Times City, HT City and in men’s magazines such as sports car magazines pc magazines fashion and lifestyle magazines such as GQ, Cosmopolitan, Vogue etc.

MACH3 is advertised in the television media through various ads made by AD Agency MediaComm which also won the Cannes Lion for the upside down anti gravity MACH3 ad.

Gillette roped in famous athletes for its MACH3 advertisements which included Roger Federer (Tennis), Tiger Woods (Golf), Thierry Henry (FootBall) and Rahul Dravid(Cricketer)(for South Asian countries only) the company named them as Gillette champions and showed them shaving and winning in their advertisements.

Look the Best, Feel the Best, Be the Best

The Best a man can get

Was the ad slogan. Gillette also roped in football star David Beckham for MACH3 Power. The advertisement was aired the most during sporting events such as FIFA World Cup, Barclays Premiere League, US Open, Wimbeldon, Cricket matches T20 world cup etc.

In a blurring of editorial and advertising content common in some countries, MindShare negotiated with Singapore's No. 2 newspaper to promote the launch of Gillette's Mach 3 Turbo razor by printing the daily's front page in reverse to convey the brand message of "No up or down" and writing an editorial about the world "becoming upside down."

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In another publicity stunt Gillette roped in Bollywood celebrities like Milind Soman and some famous models and also cricket ace MS Dhoni to shave with Gillette MACH3 and tell how confident, good, and smooth it feels.

It also undertook a survey which asked respondents to shave or not and to inform the benefits of shaving.The survey result showed that Indian women preferred shaved men.

The result was a 38% increase in sales, 400% increase in trials and 35% increase in market share.

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In The News (Gillette Curse):

Henry, Woods, Federer: The Gillette Curse

First, the world denounces Henry as a cheat. Then, police consider charges against Woods after a mysterious car smash. And, last night, Federer finally lost a tennis match!

Thierry Henry was first on November 14th with his “hand of god” where he caused worldwide controversy after scoring a goal with an illegal handball and therefore ending Irelands world cup hopes.

Then Woods, the golden boy of golf and all-round sporting god, makes headline news after crashing his car following an argument with his wife.

Then a shock defeat for Federer, the world's best tennis player, who was knocked out of the ATP World Tour semi-final by sixth-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko. On the scale of sporting defeats, it's hardly Armageddon, but any Federer defeat is noteworthy.

As we have already discussed that Gillette brand and MACH3 Razors are heavily promoted by the trio the mis-happenings in their personal or professional careers also has an adverse affect on the image of the product brand. A lot of negative criticism has been unleashed on the brand which is a common news now days known as The Gillette curse.

This is one of the main disadvantages of using celebrity endorsement because people relate the brand ambassador or brand celebrity directly with the brand.

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Suggestions

Use of a Character

A character/spokesperson could help Gillette build brand awareness and create brand equity. A character would be more fitting as it could be designed in alignment with the brand’s meaning an also be easily transferable through future brand growth.

Thus we can conclude that use of character could have been a contributing factor in Gillette’s success.

Increased use URL

Gillette has not used its URL or SMS postings effectively. Most of them have been developed by bloggers only to share their views. A giant like coca cola has used this option in a big way in almost all the sources listed above as well as special events such as soccer and cricket world cup.

Bibliography21 | P a g e

Marketing Management by Phillip Kotler

www.gillette.com

www.gillettechampions.com

www.mediacomm.com

www.independent.co.uk

www.huffingtonpost.com

www.urbandictionary.com

www.brandbuilder.com

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