Gillette’s “Shave India Movement”: Razor sharp against the stubble (A)

• Main Authors: REDDY, Srinivas K., DULA, Christopher
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2013
• Subjects: Frugal Innovation; Bottom of the Pyramid; Diffusion of Innovation; Innovation; Consumer Adoption; Consumer Adoption Process; Technological Innovation; Segmenting and Positioning; Market Segmentation; Positioning; Opinion Leader; Communication; Advertising; Channels; Distribution; Price-Based Costing; Price Point Alignment; Value Proposition; Advertising and Promotion Management; Business Administration, Management, and Operations; International Business; Marketing; Technology and Innovation
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cases_coll_all/62; https://cmp.smu.edu.sg/case/2191
• Institution: Singapore Management University

Case A begins in April 2010, where Sharat Verma, the Brand Manager for Gillette India, reflects on the solutions that were developed to overcome stagnant growth in their men’s grooming segment – specifically Mach3 razors. The product was unsuitably priced to the market and suffered from poor availability. Faced with this problem, he worked with Harish Narayanan, the Assistant Brand Manager in the Singapore Regional Business Unit, and together they influenced an R&D effort that focused on frugal innovation, wherein they succeeded in removing non-essential features of the Gillette razor design in order to reduce costs, thereby aligning the value proposition and price-point to the target segment. In addition, Verma and Narayanan helped work to develop an unconventional marketing campaign, called the “Shave India Movement”, which catalysed the previously unresponsive yet more affluent urban market, which resulted in record breaking sales for the Mach3 razor in 2010. Verma and Narayanan are then left to analyse the mechanics underlying the success of this campaign, and determine if the Movement can be further expanded. They must also determine if lessons from the campaign can be applied elsewhere, and if so, how?