Living On The Edge: How Gillette Achieved Success
Living On The Edge: How Gillette Achieved Success
The idea might have come to Gillette in an instant flash of inspiration, but how did he manage to turn it into a profitable company that has lasted for more than a century?
Instinct: They said it could not be done. One by one, the technical experts slammed the door in Gillette’s face, telling him his dreams of creating thin but strong, disposable razor blades were too lofty. It was only by being persistent and listening to his inner voice that he was able to get the idea off the ground.
Advertising: Gillette was one of the very first businessmen to understand the importance of sports imagery in advertising. He moved his ads away from being product-focused to touting a different kind of lifestyle – a desirable lifestyle that he knew his target market would be attracted to.
Value: Gillette understood where his product derived its value from. It was not from the razor itself, however unique it may have been. Rather, he knew his profits were going to come from the disposable razor blades. That is why he focused on packaging and selling those as strategically as he could.
Marketing: When other businessmen might have been worried about how World War I was going to negatively affect their business, Gillette was focused on finding a way to use it to his advantage. By creating Service Kits and distributing his razors to millions of American soldiers, Gillette was not only building a strong customer base, but he was demonstrating his prowess in making the most of potential marketing moments.
Foresight: Gillette knew the importance of his patents, and he also knew what would happen once they expired. He anticipated his competition and introduced a new product onto the scene before they had the chance. He then carefully crafted his marketing strategy, and by positioning his new razor design as the only alternative to the older obsolete razors, he ensured that his competitors would be dead before they even got off the ground.
Until his dying day, Gillette remained disappointed by capitalism. He believed that competition was the greatest of all evils and envisioned one “world corporation” as the answer. It is thus ironic that Gillette founded one of the most successful and long lasting companies to date. Up until it was purchased by Procter & Gamble in 2005 for $57 billion in stock, Global Gillette – the successor of The Gillette Company – remained one of the world’s leading suppliers of products under various well-known brands, including Braun, Duracell, and Oral-B.
Living On The Edge How Gillette Achieved Success
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“As I stood there with the razor in my hand, my eyes resting on it as lightly as a bird settling down on its nest, the Gillette razor was born,” said Gillette. “In that moment I saw it all: the way the blade could be held in a holder; the idea of sharpening the two opposite edges on the thin piece of steel; the clamping plates, with a handle halfway between the two edges of the blade.”
The idea might have come to Gillette in an instant flash of inspiration, but how did he manage to turn it into a profitable company that has lasted for more than a century?
Instinct: They said it could not be done. One by one, the technical experts slammed the door in Gillette’s face, telling him his dreams of creating thin but strong, disposable razor blades were too lofty. It was only by being persistent and listening to his inner voice that he was able to get the idea off the ground.
Advertising: Gillette was one of the very first businessmen to understand the importance of sports imagery in advertising. He moved his ads away from being product-focused to touting a different kind of lifestyle – a desirable lifestyle that he knew his target market would be attracted to.
Value: Gillette understood where his product derived its value from. It was not from the razor itself, however unique it may have been. Rather, he knew his profits were going to come from the disposable razor blades. That is why he focused on packaging and selling those as strategically as he could.
Marketing: When other businessmen might have been worried about how World War I was going to negatively affect their business, Gillette was focused on finding a way to use it to his advantage. By creating Service Kits and distributing his razors to millions of American soldiers, Gillette was not only building a strong customer base, but he was demonstrating his prowess in making the most of potential marketing moments.
Foresight: Gillette knew the importance of his patents, and he also knew what would happen once they expired. He anticipated his competition and introduced a new product onto the scene before they had the chance. He then carefully crafted his marketing strategy, and by positioning his new razor design as the only alternative to the older obsolete razors, he ensured that his competitors would be dead before they even got off the ground.
Until his dying day, Gillette remained disappointed by capitalism. He believed that competition was the greatest of all evils and envisioned one “world corporation” as the answer. It is thus ironic that Gillette founded one of the most successful and long lasting companies to date. Up until it was purchased by Procter & Gamble in 2005 for $57 billion in stock, Global Gillette – the successor of The Gillette Company – remained one of the world’s leading suppliers of products under various well-known brands, including Braun, Duracell, and Oral-B.
Living On The Edge How Gillette Achieved Success
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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