Gillette Advertising Campaign
Valerie Spears Principles of Advertising Spring 2014
Table of Contents Personal Background .................................................................................................................... 1 Product Background ..................................................................................................................... 2 Company Background .................................................................................................................. 3 Research ....................................................................................................................................... 4 Target Market ................................................................................................................................ 5 Campaign Objectives .................................................................................................................... 6 Creative Planning.......................................................................................................................... 7 Television Advertisement .......................................................................................................... 7 Billboards ................................................................................................................................... 9 Social Media Advertisements .................................................................................................. 10 Magazine Advertisements ....................................................................................................... 12
Personal Background Choosing what to do for the advertising campaign was not a difficult process for me. I knew I wanted something challenging, something that I could prove to myself that I could do. I thought about it off and on for a few days, swirling different ideas in my head throughout my busy schedule. I had thought about creating my own product to advertise and was working on the idea when something stood out in class. Dr. Smith had mentioned that Gillette had lost money in November because of ‘no shave November’. I never really understood why men did that, I just thought it was something catchy. They could take a break from shaving their face. However, as Dr. Smith carried on the conversation, I learned that it was in support of men’s cancer. This was perfect. A million ideas popped into my head, filling up my mind like popcorn freshly popping in the popcorn machines at the movies. I want to take this challenge. To me, this is not a project for a class; it is a challenge to do something I have not done before. I desire to go beyond what everyone else does, and crave to make something big and meaningful. I could not think of a better way to do this. My ultimate goal is to make not just Gillette a wonderful promotion, but to help spread word about the cause. I did not know that is why we have no shave November, and after talking to some friends and co-workers about it, I realized that maybe a lot of people don’t. This task of raising awareness and promoting the Gillette brand will be difficult, but hopefully it will help me challenge myself to be a better marketer.
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Product Background Cave men paintings have been shown to portray men shaving by scraping hair off with things such as stone, flint, and natural sharp objects. As time evolved, men shaved with simple metals that they fastened into razor blades. Ancient Egyptians began the trend of shaving beards and heads, and later the trend was adopted by the Greeks and Romans. The practice of shaving became important with the growth of battles, making sure the enemies could not grab your hair in combat. In the nineteenth century, men would have to shave with heavy, wedge-shaped blades. The blades often needed frequent sharpening and eventually became too worn to use. This implement was called the “cut-throat� razor. The product then became safer with the invention of the safety razor by Jean-Jacques Perret. However, safety razors with disposable blades, started with a patent in 1904 by Gillette. A determined salesman, Gillette took six years to evolve the disposable safety razor. Modern disposable razors have now evolved to include more service. Women can now use them to shave unwanted hair as well. Razors can include long-life stainless steel blades, twin-blades, and completely disposable (disposing the handle along with the blade). However, all types of razors have been declining in the past few years. Marketers are scrambling to compete in a tough market by coming up with some inventive ways to sell disposable safety razors. Companies, like the Dollar Shave Club, have started doing all of its business online. They sell razors for $1, $6, and $9 per month with a free handle, and then shipped to your house every month. This has opened up a new market playing field for disposable razors.
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Company Background The Gillette Company started in 1901 as the American Safety Razor Company. It was founded by King Gillette, a traveling salesmen with an idea for a disposable safety razor. This idea started the creation of the disposable safety razor, which was helped in production by William Nickerson. Together, they raised enough money to manufacture the razor. With Gillette now president of the company, he decided to rename it Gillette Safety Razor Company and began advertising in October 1903. The first ads appeared in Systems Magazine. In 1904, he received a patent and sales rose from 90,884 to 123,648 blades in a year. The company began to grow even more, expanding into a six-story building in 1905, and its first cash dividend in 1906. Gillette steadily increased earnings through print advertisements. The razors grew from the notion that men could shave themselves without cutting or irritation. During this time, the company started expanding abroad, opening in London in 1905. In 1909 he established manufacturing plants in Paris, Montreal, Berlin, and London. He also opened offices in France and Germany. By 1923, foreign business accounted for 30 percent of the sales. Ever since then, Gillette has been a strong company. They have kept sales through postwar times, and even kept back companies from buying them. Today Gillette is known for parenting with sports. They have joined Proctor and Gamble in selling their products, which gives them cutting edge in the modern market.
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Research My information started with a simple day dream of what an advertisement would look like to a male. What would make him want to buy a Gillette razor? Then it progressed to asking some of the men I know what kinds of razors they preferred, which lead me to cheap, good quality razors. With this little information, I turned to some research to find out which brand of razors were most commonly bought. While Gillette Razors are costly, such as the Fusion series, men rated them higher than any other brand. A lot of reviews on Yahoo and Google state the same repetitive theme of costing too much compared to the competitors, and even if they work better, it is not worth the price. I also went to the competitions sites, like bicworld.com and thedollarshaveclub.com. Consumerreasearch.com lists a report comparing the different brands. It named off a lot of magazines that did research on the best razors, with Gillette being on top almost every time. It wasn’t about the price as much as the quality. So with this conflicting information I turned to psychology. Most people are willing to help for a greater good. They would pay a little extra for a good cause. However, this cause has to be portrayed in a way that makes them feel comfortable to help. Pressuring people, especially men, causes them to not help. They are more willing to help if they are happy, share a similar situation, and the person in distress actually looks like they need help. I found this information on sparknotes.com. This idea is how I am going to sell the Gillette Razors in November.
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Target Market The demographics have been chosen to focus on the major cities in the United States based off of their income level, and the donations to charity. The southern, east side of the United States tends to be more generous. I also examined income levels that would most likely buy Gillette brand. The target will be focused on men with a higher disposable income. The men with this kind of income tend to buy higher brand names, such as Gillette, because they have the money to afford the quality razors Gillette offers. This includes men aged 25-55, mainly Generation X and the Baby Boomers. They also have the money to donate to charitable causes, unlike men in their early twenties who are focused on beginning their life. I will also have a concentration more on single and divorced men. Most major cities have a major population of single men, with California having the most. However, I will not exclude married men, or men with girlfriends because most men in the 25-55 age group shave regardless. This group is not the main focus of the campaign, however. The psychographics should be appealing to the charitable man. This target should want to give to a man who has suffered. I am hoping to reach the men who consider themselves a man by not what they say, but what they do. The man who is generous through his actions, and wise. The man should associate himself as a gentleman.
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Campaign Objectives The goal of this campaign is to increase Gillette’s razor sales, in the men’s category, by 10% within the month of November. If successful, the goal should also provide an increase to the donations for prostate cancer. It will also raise awareness of no-shave November and the history of the relations with prostate cancer. This campaign will also help with Gillette’s public relations, making it appear to the general public as a company with goodwill. The campaign will also kick-start the holiday season. Donations are a great way to show generosity within the holiday season, and the campaign will be showing the consumers more than just buying their product. Another goal of the campaign is to raise money for prostate cancer research. This accomplishment would be agreed upon by Gillette. Working with Gillette, we could come up with a reasonable donation goal we could tell consumers we want to reach. The objective of the campaign would also be striving to reach the goal we set.
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Creative Planning The campaign will consist of a 30-second television commercial, Facebook and twitter advertisements, and magazine ads. The main focus will be encouraging men to “buy Gillette in November, and shave in December� because Gillette will donate 20% of their razor sales in November to charitable causes for prostate cancer. The campaign should also raise awareness of why we have no-shave November and the link it has to prostate cancer; and, encourage men not to shave during the month of November. The slogan will be repeated throughout each medium and then go on to explain that when the consumer buys a razor during the month of November, Gillette will donate 20% of their profit to prostate cancer research.
Television Advertisement The television advertisement will be run one week before November, and the whole month of November. They will run on Fox, MSNBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, and also during national football games and NASCAR on additional channels such as ESPN, and NFL Network. The commercials will be bought during prime-time access, prime time, and late news time periods. It should be run on a daily basis, with a frequency of 1 commercial per hour. The commercial will be a 60 second spot. The commercial will start off with a man who has had prostate cancer. He will be sitting in a light blue chair, with a black background. The light blue chair is symbolic of the color of prostate cancer. He will have a spot light that is shining down on him. He will give a testimonial about his struggle. (If this were an actual person, I would listen to
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his stories and then help write a dialogue that fit his stories with the commercial. I have put together the following dialogue from testimonies on the internet.) The man would say, “My name is Chris, and I was diagnosed with prostate cancer at 48. I considered my options, including chemotherapy and radiation…” After this scene, the camera should get a close up. The shot should be chest length up. The man should have a look of seriousness and worrisome on his face and say, “…and after a year I still had the disease.” Then it shows the man sitting in the chair, camera backs up to show his legs as well. He has a more happy countenance and say, “I was able to get help with a robotic system recommended by my doctor, which prevented my cancer from spreading. Without this medical procedure, my cancer could have been fatal.” Then the camera will get another close up. His expression will show relief. “The donations to fund the medical research for prostate cancer saved my life.” The commercial will then go on to talk about what other men can do to help with the cause. This section will be talking about buying a light blue Gillette razor. It will show a light blue razor. The razor will spin around slowly. Underneath the razor, there will be copy “Help Gillette Fight Cancer”. The dialogue will state, “By purchasing a light blue razor from Gillette during November, you can help donate to fight prostate cancer.” The razor will then ‘shave’ the word fight cancer away, and the dialogue will continue. “During the month of November, Gillette will donate 20% of the profits received from the light blue razors to the American Cancer Society to help fight prostate cancer.” And the word “Donate” will take place of the missing words that were shaved away, and ‘20%’ will be above the words, slightly spinning. The words will then become hairy. The logo for no shave November will appear, replacing the 20%. The commercial will then take a 8
twist to promote the no-shave November cause by saying, “Be a gentleman, buy Gillette in November and shave in December. Grow your beards during no-shave November in recognition of prostate cancer. For more information on no-shave November, please visit www.no-shavenovember.com.� The Facebook and Twitter symbols will also appear by the words in the last few seconds of the commercial. During the commercial, a snippet of the song Cold by Jorge Mendez will be playing. It will start at 00:15s of the song and start fading at 01:00m and completely end by 01.15m. I chose this song because of its sad and sincere tones. This song should bring awareness to the severity of the commercial, and bring helpful feeling to the audience.
Billboards I chose a billboard to add as a supplement to the television ads. By creating a billboard, I can target the men who are not home to watch TV during our media strategy, and the men who do not have social media. I can also reinforce the television ads. While this choice is difficult for national brands, I can work with conglomerates that own many billboards throughout the country to define our geographic markets. Most of the billboards should be placed in cities with at least a population of 100,000 people. This market has over 200 cities throughout the nation. Since I am targeting a specific kind of man, having a billboard will give the overall campaign strength. I will place a Twitter and Facebook logo at the bottom. Since the consumer cannot write anything down while driving, and will only look at the billboard for a brief moment, I need to capture their attention quickly. 9
I will create a man’s right side face profile covering the far left side of the billboard. It will have a 3D effect, and have a facial hair. The background is a dark greyblue Above the Facebook, Twitter, and American Cancer Society logos will be the message “A gentlemen will buy Gillette in November, and shave in December”. This text is in white, except for Gillette which is in light blue. In-between the slogan and links, the copy will say “Help fight prostate cancer by buying light blue razors during the month of November”. The text will be white, with the exception of the words ‘light blue razors’ which will be in light blue. I will provide some limited information by using a picture of the light blue razor, and the logo for the American Cancer Institute. I will use the bleed technique that is common with most highway billboards. The billboard will be placed for 30 days, starting November 1st and ending November 29th. All billboards will be illuminated.
Social Media Advertisements By using Twitter, and Facebook advertising, I can create a more personable and targeted ad. This media is known for narrowing the market. I hope to reach the younger males from my target market by using social media websites. They are more likely to respond to the media that is customized to their interests. I would target men interested in Gillette’s products, Gillette’s sponsors, and charities. I could also narrowly define my market to the selected age group of 25-50. I would create a poll that asks men if they knew why we had no shave November. The poll would appear on an ad that is displayed on the target markets feed. Since there seems to be limited knowledge about the organization and the reason behind not shaving, I hope to grow the awareness of both the product and the cause. The poll will have a link to the main page. 10
On the main page, I will create a cover page showing a man with a beard and mustache. The background will be white. It will have the bolded type “Buy Gillette in November. Shave December.” in light blue. Below that type will be more copy writing that states ‘Help fight prostate cancer. Buy light blue Gillette razors during November. 20% of the profits will be donated to the American Cancer Society for prostate cancer.’ This type will be black, with the exception of the sentence telling customers to buy light blue razors, which will be light blue. The man will be in black and white, but have a colored beard. The profile picture will be made to add to the cover photo. The lower part of the man’s face will be in the profile picture, and the rest of the man will surround that in the cover photo. It adds a cool effect that will catch the consumer’s eye. The actual Facebook page will then list where men could find out more information about no-shave November. Both Facebook and Twitter should also show a man who would have an interactive beard, which would grow each day in accordance to the donations. For instance, Gillette would have a goal set goal of $20,000 for donations. The full beard (100%) would be created when $20,000 was donated. The first day of the campaign, if 1% of the $20,000 was purchased, 1% of the beard would be created. The next day, if consumers bought razors equaling 2% of the donation goal, 3% of the beard would then be generated. So on and so forth. For twitter, I will have the Gillette page set up to tweet how much has been donated to the charity. This would be updated daily, and provide customers with information about the donations. I would use the hashtag #lightbluegillette for post that consumers would create for when they tweet their donations. 11
People could also post pictures of their facial hair with the same hashtag for a prize. The same hashtag could also be used on both social media sites for the same testimonials. These would be status only, and start December 1st. They would say “Share your no-shave November before and after pictures with us! Show your light blue razor in the picture to win prizes. Use the hashtag #lightbluegillette.” The grand prize would be free Gillette razors for a year. The second prize would be a no-shave November tee-shirt from the no-shavenovember foundation. The third prize would be a no-shave November mustache water bottle from the foundation.
Magazine Advertisements The magazines should target mainly advocate gamers and sports fans. Since the television ads are during football season, having additional magazine ads will have more frequency serious sports fans. I will use Sports Illustrated November issue to reach to the sports fans. As for the gamers, I will use Game Informer November issue. By having ads in this magazine, I can reach some of the men who don’t watch sports but do play video games. The magazine ads will be a bleed advertisement that is a full page. It will have a white background, with the same man from the social media advertisements. Again, he will be in black and white, but with light blue eyes. He will have a beard placed on him. At the top, the copy will be in light blue. It will read, “Buy Gillette in November. Shave December.” Then there will be a copy describing what Gillette is doing to raise funds. The copy will include, “Gillette is teaming up with the American Cancer Society, and the No-Shave November foundation to help fight prostate cancer. During November,
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purchase light blue Gillette razors to help donate to the cause. Gillette will be contributing 20% of the profits to the American Cancer Society for prostate cancer research. For more information on No-Shave November, visit www.noshavenovember.com” The sentence telling the customers to buy light blue razors will be in light blue, while the rest of the copy is in black. In between those two texts, another text will be bolded saying, “This month is No-Shave November”. This text will also be black, but will also be bolded. At the bottom of the ad, the logos for the American Cancer Society, Facebook, Twitter, and No-Shave November Foundation will be placed.
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