GILLETTE COMPANY CASE B Study Solution
Introduction
This case discusses the bake off strategy “BBDO”,which the Gillette Company used for branding. This case discusses the effectiveness of this strategy and the implementation plan of Bake off strategy. Due to an increased competition in the industry; the company is looking for innovative advertising techniques to generate results and acquire a major portion of the consumers.
Background
In 1996, Carl Gilbert was appointed as the new CEO of the Gillette Company. In the 1960s, the double-edged blade had already come into existence. Meanwhile, the Wilkinson Sword Company began exporting stainless steel blades to the United States. The Wilkinson Sword Company developed a polymer coating to protect the blade against corrosion. The polymer coating allowed the razor to put an edge on the blade, increasing the number of shaves a single razor could provide.
However, the company's underperformance continued to the early 2000s. While the company's profits increased during these years; its losses persisted in its small appliances and stationery business. By the end of October, the underperformance of the company led the managing board to fire the company's CEO, Michael Hawley. He was replaced by James M. Kilts, who was a veteran of restructuring the troubled companies.
As its reputation grew, the company expanded abroad. In 1905, the company opened its first overseas offices in London. By 1909, the company had manufacturing plants in Paris, Montreal, and Leicester. In 1923, the foreign business contributed over 30 percent of the company's total sales. In the beginning of the twentieth century, the company expanded into the United Kingdom. By the mid-twentieth century, the company's growth was extremely slow.
Dry Idea Antiperspirant
The Gillette Dry Idea brand is an all-natural antiperspirant. It is a brand that uses hypoallergenic ingredients. It has a fresh scent and is hypoallergenic. Unlike most other antiperspirant brands, this one is gentle on skin. With its nonirritating formula, it will not affect the environment. The gel goes on clear, making it easy to apply.
The Dry Idea is available in a variety of different types. The clear gel is a non-irritant gel, and the Clear Gel antiperspirant deodorant is made with Dri-Tech technology to fight odor at its source. The gel also has a fresh scent. Its transparent gel makes it invisible and provides 72 hours of protection. There are several other brands which also sell deodorant gels.
The Dry Idea brand sells only antiperspirant deodorants. It is available in a variety of form, among whichthe aerosol cans, gels, and sprays are more prominent. These products all have their own distinctive characteristics. However, you can find a scented deodorant gel for women. If you're looking for an unscented deodorant; you can find it in a natural, fragrance-free formulation.
Problem statement
In this case, Gillette Company has decided to roll on a Bake off strategy for Dry idea along with BBDO advertising agency. The other advertising agency was working on “cook up” Strategy. In this case, we have to analyze three commercial campaigns and then analyzed which campaign generates better results. The analysis would be done by analyzing the six months’ performance(Spence, 1986).
“Bake off “for Dry idea
Dry idea possessed a strategic positioning in the market due to the continuous efforts of BBDO advertising agency. Since 1978 agency was working on the strategic positioning of BBDO. In 1981, the market share of the company was declining and so were its sales, the reason behind which was that the advertisements had turned out to be high ineffective on consumers. Gillette’s managers was worried about Dry Idea and was considering that it was no longer an attractive and creative project for BBDO. So they thought that in order to increase the efficiency of BBDO;Agency Company should bring another agency to develop competitionso that BBDO can make extra effort to recover the brand image and consumers’ attention. The Management had a belief that new agency can bring change and innovation in the company.
Advantages of ‘bake off” strategy
Bake off strategy will allow the GilletteCompany to divert its attention towards Dry idea because there was a creativity crisis in the company. The company has also announced that it will introduce new forms of dry idea, i.e. Solid and Roll-ons. Gillette Company started to focus on long term goals and it asked the agencies to develop a business plan. This also allows the company to get to know about the advertisement issues and other brand related issues so that it can solve such kind of issues in future, through strategic planning.
Disadvantages of “bake off”
Gillette Company designed and delivered same orientation plan for BBDO and Ames Advertising agencies. Whereas, we know that Ames was a new agency for Gillette, so the company should have managed to deliver a separate orientation plan for Ames. Separate orientation would have delivered a detailed information about the company and its brands. This act would have motivated Ames and increased the chances of its involvement in the project. This information gap was the reason that allowed Ames to use reserved approaches during the campaign. It was not treated the way clients treat the agency................
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