Insights, Strategy and the Idea:
The Indian man's traditional shaving
device, the double-edged razor, could not be dislodged by newer and
better shaving systems like the Gillette Mach3. The Gillette Mach3
is 10 times more expensive than this default choice, and, despite
being able to afford it, Indian men did not consider shaving to be
a significant enough activity to justify such a premium.
As a result, after a decade of
presence in India, Gillette Mach3's trials and sales were flat.
For men to rationalise the price
premium and switch to the Mach3, the real challenge lay in
combating men's inertia and indifference to shaving.
Our insight was that we needed to
spark a national debate, recognising Indian men's love for voicing
their opinions on everything. We needed to get shaving out of the
bathroom and into the living-room, chat-rooms and
conversations.
We developed a platform for the
campaign: "India Votes… to shave or not".
Creative Execution:
First, we piqued the nation's interest
by commissioning the first ever Nielsen survey on the country's
attitudes to shaving. Research highlighted a series of
controversial points. Were clean-shaven men more successful? Did
the nation prefer clean-shaven celebrities? And the big one: did
women prefer clean-shaven men?
The provocative results created
immediate interest and hit primetime news. As expected, people were
ready with their point of view! And the Great Indian Shaving Debate
was on. For 8 weeks, leading TV news and radio stations ran
celebrity interviews, panel discussions and news stories.
Newspapers and men's magazines carried editorial features and
reader polls. In a PR event, Bollywood stars shaved off their
famous stubbles in front of the media. Live polling conducted in
malls, gyms, cinemas and offices kept the debate raging, and
offered men a chance to trial the product. All media directed
people to a dedicated website to cast their vote.
Results and Effectiveness:
This radical communications model led
to a record sales increase of 38%. Awareness doubled. Trial
increased by 400% as did market share by 35%. In the end 12.2
million Indians voted for a clean shave.