The Homa Files

Excerpted from AP: Gillette Unveils Razor, and No, It Doesn’t Have 6 Blades, Friday, Feb 12, 2010

A redesign of Gillette’s Fusion razor, the nation’s best seller, is coming and it doesn’t have any extra blades.

The blades war started with Gillette’s introduction of a two-blade razor in 1971, Japan’s Kai went to three in 1998, soon followed by Gillette’s three-bladed Mach3, and then Schick launched Wilkinson-Sword’s four-blade Quattro in 2003.

Not to be outdone, Gillette countered with the five-blade Fusion which has become a $1 billion brand in annual sales and accounts for 45 percent of the men’s razors sold in the U.S. (Below is a revealing internal perspective on Gillette’s 5-blade strategy – it’s well worth reading)

Now. the company’s focus is on making shaving easier and less irritating to the skin.

“Shaving is a very complicated and precise operation. Guys don’t say they want more blades. They want more comfort.”

So there will be no escalation in the decades-long blades race.

New features range from blades that are 15 percent thinner and meant to tug skin less, to a better grip and new mineral-oil lubrication.

The ProGlide will cost 10 percent more than the current Fusion, at a suggested price of $10.99 for a handle and a single shaving head.

Full article:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/35364266

* * * * *

Company Confidential

We’re Doing Five Blades!                                         

By James M. Kilts
CEO and President,
The Gillette Company

February 18, 2004

Would someone tell me how this happened? We were the vanguard of shaving in this country. The Gillette Mach3 was the razor to own. Then the other guy came out with a three-blade razor. Were we scared? Hell, no. Because we hit back with a little thing called the Mach3Turbo. That’s three blades and an aloe strip. For moisture. But you know what happened next? The competition went to four blades. Now we’re standing around selling three blades and a strip. Moisture or no, suddenly we’re the chumps. Well, we’re going to five blades.

Sure, we could go to four blades next, like the competition. That seems like the logical thing to do. After all, three worked out pretty well, and four is the next number after three. So let’s play it safe. Let’s make a thicker aloe strip and call it the Mach3SuperTurbo. Why innovate when we can follow? Oh, I know why: Because we’re a business, that’s why!

You think it’s crazy? It is crazy. But I don’t care. From now on, we’re the ones who have the edge in the multi-blade game. Are they the best a man can get? Hell, no. Gillette is the best a man can get.

What part of this don’t you understand? If two blades is good, and three blades is better, obviously five blades would make us the best razor that ever existed. Comprende? We didn’t claw our way to the top of the razor game by clinging to the two-blade industry standard. We got here by taking chances. Well, five blades is the biggest chance of all.

I’m telling Engineering to stick two more blades in there. I don’t care how. Make the blades so thin they’re invisible. Put some on the handle. I don’t care if they have to cram the fifth blade in perpendicular to the other four, just do it!

You’re taking the “safety” part of “safety razor” too literally, grandma. Cut the strings and soar. Let’s hit it. Let’s roll. This is our chance to make razor history. Let’s dream big. All you have to do is say that five blades can happen, and it will happen. Hey, if I’m the only one who’ll take risks, I’m sure as hell happy to hog all the glory when the five-blade razor becomes the shaving tool for the U.S. of “this is how we shave now” .

People said we couldn’t go to three. It’ll cost a fortune to manufacture, they said. Well, we did it. Now some egghead in a lab is screaming “Five’s crazy?” Well, perhaps he’d be more comfortable in the labs at Norelco, working on electrics.

Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe we should just ride in Bic’s wake and make pens. Ha! Not on your life! The day I shadow a penny-ante outfit like Bic is the day I leave the razor game for good, and that won’t happen until the day I die!

The market? Listen, we make the market. All we have to do is put her out there with a little jingle. It’s as easy as, “Hey, shaving with anything less than five blades is like scraping your beard off with a dull hatchet.” Or “You’ll be so smooth, I could snort lines off of your chin.” Try “Your neck is going to be so soft, someone’s gonna walk up and tie a Cub Scout kerchief under it.”

I know what you’re thinking now: What’ll people say?  When you’re on top, people talk. That’s the price you pay for being on top. Which Gillette is, always has been, and forever shall be, Amen, five blades, sweet Jesus in heaven.

Stop. I just had a stroke of genius. Are you ready?  Put another aloe strip on that thing, too. That’s right. Five blades, two strips, and make the second one lather. You heard me—the second strip lathers. It’s a whole new way to think about shaving. Don’t question it. Don’t say a word. Just key the music, and call the chorus girls, because we’re on the edge—the razor’s edge—and I feel like dancing.

Source: The Onion.com

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