Gillette: Shaving Stereotypes – Inspiring the next

generation of men
Arun Raman, Lavanya M N, Devanshi Zaveri
Source: WARC Awards for Effectiveness, Entrant, Long-term Growth,
2023
Downloaded from WARC

A cause-related communication platform allowed male grooming brand Gillette to boost brand equity by
taking a stand beyond shaving in India.

Although Gillette was market leader in terms of functional credentials, any brand could emulate
this functionality and innovation.
Recognising that its core target group, Gen Z India, connects with brands with a purpose, with
70% willing to consider buying from brands that stand up for causes they believe in, Gillette
decided to get behind the new cultural values Indian men could bring to society, while shaving off
inherited stereotypes.
It created a communication platform that integrated shaving and stereotypes, establishing itself as
a force for good by sparking conversation around subjects that are extremely relevant and
contextual to today's young men.
The campaign exceeded expectations in terms of building positive sentiment, and put young men
and Gillette at the heart of a national conversation that challenged cultural notions.

Campaign details
Brand: Gillette
Brand owner: Procter & Gamble (P&G)
Entrant company: Grey India
Idea creation: Grey Mumbai
Market: India
Sector: Shaving products
Media channels: Public relations, Television & Connected TV
Budget: Up to 500k
Executive summary
With the rising beard culture amongst Young Indians, Gillette had to take a stance beyond shaving to stay
relevant. Gillette’s stated purpose of “Inspiring the next generation of men, to be better versions of men” allowed
us to bring Gillette out of bathrooms and into popular culture.

Under the platform of ‘Shaving Stereotypes”, Gillette regularly sparks debates around notions of masculinity
which have resulted in Gillette’s Equity score (emotional relevance) going up and has significantly improved
Value share and topline growth.

Market background & objectives

“We'll stop making razor blades when we can't keep making them better.” ~ King C Gillette

Gillette, a global brand and the category leader with almost 60% market share in India had always been on a
relentless quest for perfection with a passion for technology. But first and foremost, it was about shaving!

Through its purpose of “Inspiring the next generation of men, to be better versions of men”, Gillette believes that
what a man presents to the world- how he looks, feels and acts- has a direct impact on the world. It is about men
who always seek to give their best version, thus evolving the philosophy to #TheBestAManCanBe.

At the same time, in India, a lot was changing for Indian men in terms of grooming. More and more Indian men
were beginning to grow beards. Shaving which was once ‘cool’ was now seen as ‘proper’ and ‘boring’. Beards
had become the new ‘cool’.

Beards have a larger share of popular culture than shaving.

With almost all movie stars sporting their facial hair/beard in their movies like Pushpa, RRR, Shershaah, Haseen
Dilruba and more, the consumers had not only gotten a fresher perspective on facial hair but also picked up on
that as a style trend. Additionally, during the lockdown, the need for shaving dropped and hence, the frequency
of purchasing razors also dropped. And hence, the connect men had with the brand Gillette, which was all about
shaving, was slowly diminishing.

The brand had begun to lose relevance amongst young Indian men aged 18 – 24.

This reflected in the brand dropping down on consideration (- 5 %, 2019 vs 2018). Decreasing consideration led
to decreasing new trialists subsequently leading to flattened user growth. **

We realized that Gillette’s Brand Equity will not be able to break this cultural phenomenon unless and until the
brand becomes a part of popular culture (beyond shaving) with a disproportionate share of conversations.

We also realized that product superiority was of less importance when the category itself was losing relevance.
Thus, the only way forward was:

Strategic communication challenge: Gillette, had to drive RELEVANCE among young Indian men by winning
back the Share of Heart and Share of Conversations. Only then would it translate to Gillette’s Share of Wallet!

To stay relevant, Gillette had to move out of the bathroom and into conversations.
More the relevance, more the consideration; more the consideration, more the trial.

There was a clear 3-fold objective:

Share of conversations - Build on Positive Sentiment +90% through disproportionate conversations

Share of heart - Increase Brand Equity Scores by at least +5pts for MACH3 and +5pts for Consideration
Share of wallet - Increase Value Share by at least +1 pt.

Insight & strategic thinking

Demographically, the target audience can be defined as 18 to 24 Men, GenZ India.

But the real definition is far more nuanced than this. Attitudinally and behaviourally our audience was
transitioning from school to college or securing their 1st Job. Entering a new phase of life. Lots of aspirations
and opinions on what life holds for them.

Shaving is a coming-of-age moment for our audience. But shaving was also uncool. How can Gillette re-usurp
the coming of age sentiment?

Coming of age means many things to different men: Be it feeling like a grown-up instead of a boy or having to
make those difficult decisions of life.(“should I work for a company or have my own start-up”, “should I ask that
girl out’”, “does my beard look stylish enough”, “is that the right thing to do”).

But they are also from a generation whose opinions and aspirations are shaped by hand-me-down stereotypes
from fathers and elders.

And therein lies the BIG CONFLICT. A generation coming-of-age looking into the future and yearning to be
better than previous generations was being pulled down by inherited notions and tropes.

For this generation which was looking into the future and yearning to be better than previous generations but
was being pulled down by inherited notions and tropes, Gillette the pre-eminent male brand, had an opportunity
to resolve this conflict.

Gillette’s stated purpose is - Inspiring the next generation of men to be the best version of themselves. While
looking for opportunities to take this purpose ahead, we drew inspiration from popular culture.

India had always been an interesting melting pot of cultures. While this makes the country interesting, it also
makes it complex and intimidating. This is essentially because Indian society has been bogged down by a
number of cultural and societal stereotypes over the years. Caste based discrimination, Family & Marriage
Obligations, Poverty, Educational baggage, Gender Inequality, Machismo and Toxic Masculinity to name a few.

While a number of these stereotypes were being voiced by women’s brands… not many men’s brands were
cognizant or vocal about it. This was reducing India and Indian men to predefined stereotypes.

This was the unlock opportunity for Gillette

Gillette wanted to rally the cause of new-age cultural values Indian men could bring to society, while shaving off
the inherited stereotypes.
Shaving is a coming-of-age ritual and Gillette is a coming-of-age brand. Hence it was imperative to have a POV
on coming-of-age cultural truths to gain discontinuous share of conversations.

But shaving is also a father to son ritualistic hand-me-down moment. As a brand, while we encourage this
relationship, we needed to shine a mirror on these inherited notions from father to son. There are many
instances where these hand-me-down notions are full off age-old beliefs and out of sync with the current world.
Be it with gender roles or masculinity or career choices.

Insight: Every shaving occasion is a moment of introspection in front of the mirror. And introspection sparks
inspiration.

Gillette wanted to feed the right questions for such introspection. And add a layer of male responsibility to male
grooming.

The strategic big idea: Shaving Stereotypes, one stroke at a time.

Implementation
#ShavingStereotypes - A platform to spark debates around the stereotypes that men are
boxed in.

Lensed through the perspective of conversations, we changed how the communication needed to be designed –
we created a communication platform which integrated Shaving (integral to what Gillette’s product portfolio
does) and Stereotypes (what we wanted to shave off in order to inspire the next generation of men).

The #ShavingStereotypes platform has carried the mantle of “Gillette as a force for good” by actively sparking
conversation about subjects that are extremely relevant and contextual to today’s young men whether it is
‘Gender Equality’ or ‘Definition of Masculinity’.

The campaign platform has elevated the definition of grooming from a physical act of looking one’s best to
behavioural aspects being one’s best.

Year 1 (2018- 2019):

Boys learn from what they see in their environment and almost every boy in India from an early age sees clearly
defined gender roles.

Gillette’s POV- Taking on the stereotype that gender defines your role in society.

#BarbershopGirls

The film showcased how 2 girls, from a remote village in UP, Banwari Tola chose to run their father’s
barbershop, a profession solely reserved for men. This inspiring story is told through the eyes of an 8-year-old
boy, who witnesses gender biases around him and is conditioned to think it’s normal. That’s until he meets these
two girls running a barbershop, which compels him to question everything he’s been growing up with.

Year 2 (2019-20):
Boys learn from their dads as to what is manly and from a very young age, they are told that men should always
be stoic and unemotional.

Gillette’s POV– Is showing emotions a sign of weakness for a man?

#ManEnough

Inspiring the next generation to think beyond stereotypical notions of masculinity by showing that men (even men
perceived to be strong) should be allowed to cry and express their emotions.

Released on international’s men’s day, The film showcased a heartfelt story of Lt Col Manoj Kumar Sinha, SM
(Retd)and it said it is ok for men to cry.

Year 3

(2020-21 The pandemic and the subsequent lockdown forced Gillette too to take a communication hiatus)

Year 4: 2022-23:

Boys from a young age are taught that the culmination of education lies in high paying jobs.

Gillette’s POV– Is there a purpose to education beyond just a great pay package?

#EngineeringChange

Inspiring the next generation to think beyond stereotypical notions of success.

Continuing the legacy of creating thought-provoking commentary the film depicted a successful engineer
choosing a Start-up career over a high-paying job. This latest edition of the #ShavingStereotypes campaign
inspires the youth to unbox themselves out of societal norms and discover their potential to positively contribute
to the society. The film narrates the true story of social entrepreneur Prashant Gade who opted out of a high-
paying engineering job to create the world’s most affordable bionic arm.

Gillette, leading with example, partnered actively with Prashant’s organization to enable manufacturing of 10,000
incremental bionic arms.

This was followed by a #ShavingStereotypes press conference - The conference was presided over by Sonu
Sood (A true humanitarian), Chetan Bhagat (An IIT-IIM graduate who took the path less traveled) and Prashant
Gade himself.

Our TG, the GenZ lives in a digital world. (70% of this generation prefers to watch content online rather than
TV)*** This platform allowed us to be on digital not just for performance marketing but for larger brand equity
building.

Performance
We were sparking a cultural movement. We had to keep our business goals less ambitious since change in
attitudes, especially those shaped by culture, cannot be achieved overnight.
Attitudinal Result:

The campaign sparked a national conversation that challenged cultural notions, by putting men and Gillette at
the heart of it.

The #BarbershopGirls campaign winning India’s first entertainment lion ever at Cannes, created renewed
attention on the message. Thus, sustaining the campaign’s life beyond paid media. This campaign also
triggered one of India’s leading General Entertainment Channels to create a serialized show on the Barbershop
Girls called Kaatelal and sons.

The #ManEnough campaign was highly discussed on National News TV with icons from sports and cinema
agreeing on the premise that it is important for men to show their emotions.

The #EngineeringChange campaign sparked a debate amongst men led by authors and artistes who chased
their larger purpose in life due to their education.

Share of conversations

Our goal was: Build on positive sentiment +90% through disproportionate conversations.

Result: Surpassed our objectives

Target Achieved
Positive Sentiment 90% 99%
Users +100000 +200000

Share of heart

Our goal was: Increase Brand Equity Scores by atleast +5pts for MACH3 and +5pts for Consideration

Result: Far-exceeded our expectations

Target Achieved
Consideration + 5 pts +10 pts
Equity +5 pts + 9 pts

Share of wallet

Our goal was: Increase Value share by +1 pt

Result:

1. We managed to double the growth rate % YOY in Value Share as against the set target (Graph attached)
2. Consistent increase in the Topline growth YOY (Pls note – the below numbers are indexed) (Graph
Attached)

ROI figure
2.9:1 (Revenue ROI)

The intent though was to spark conversations.

ROI Explanation
1. At the end of 3 years of the platform #ShavingStereotypes, the increase in revenue from operations in the
quarter ended December 2022 over quarter ended December 2021 was = INR 485 Crores
2. The campaign investment in media across TV and Digital was = INR 165 Crores
3. Hence The Revenue ROI of the campaign was = 485 / 165 i.e 2.9:1

(Client Data)

This platform is a successful case of building brand equity through digital media (and not just for performance
marketing). The larger and stronger ROI lies in the movement that #Shavingstereotypes brought about in
popular culture with conversations and positive sentiments.

Lessons learned
When your Brand Purpose is deeply rooted on “Inspiring the Next Generation of Men to be the best versions of
themselves”, we had to look into the lives of 16-24 young Indian Men. What stops these young men to be less
than what they could be? How can Gillette inspire them to overcome those?

This case demonstrates the importance of looking at a brand’s audience not just as product consumers, but as
people. People have aspirations, beliefs and dreams beyond the category. And people have notions and ideas
presented to them by their environment and society that shapes their thinking from a very young age.

With #ShavingStereotypes we realized that to spark a conversation, we had to present a point of view that
makes people question their inherited notions and behaviour. But it needs to be done without making men
defensive. We had to present a better way, rather than just be accusatory. Only then could we inspire new
thinking.

#ShavingStereotypes is an Idea Platform that transformed Gillette’s relevance and equity beyond its functional
offering.

Brands today, in this Purposive world, need to remember that Purpose needs narratives that uplift people. But
these narratives must be at the intersection of Cultural Truths and Category Behaviour. #ShavingSteretypes is
an example of this intersection.

Creative assets
Sources
1. *APAC sustainability survey report 2020 and UN Population Division’s World population prospect 2022

2. ** Client Data

3. ***MTV india GenZ study 2020 – ATMANIRBHAR by CIRCUMSTANCES

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