ProGlide Launch is Gillette's Largest Ever

Cincinnati -- The latest installment in the ongoing razor battle is also the biggest product launch in the Gillette brand's history -- and Procter & Gamble Co. is flooding stores with high-tech, interactive retail displays as well as launching a full arsenal of digital path-to-purchase initiatives, sampling, TV, print and more.P&G rolled out the Gillette Fusion ProGlide razors and cartridges, along with the Fusion ProSeries shaving and skin products, on June 6, timed with a campaign based on the consumer insight that 65% of men have discomfort during and after shaving because of the tug and pull of blades, resulting in irritation. This finding came in part from a panel of 70 men who shaved every day at a company research center in Reading, England, says Karen Gugliotta, a P&G spokesperson.In addition, the shopper insight driving the scope of the marketing was that men are generally skeptical about the product's ability to deliver on its promises. To convince male shoppers to trade up from Fusion -- Gillette's last major advance in razor technology, introduced in 2006 -- the company sampled hundreds of thousands of the razors and is using flashy in-store vehicles, including a test of a power wing with augmented reality technology and a blue-lit, spinning glorifier dubbed the Tiffany display (search the words "ProGlide + Tiffany" on YouTube to see it in action).In addition, support includes TV, print, mobile marketing, experiential sponsorship, coupons, PR, and digital efforts such as search, social media, online ads and Gillette.com, according to Matthew Smith, brand manager, P&G Male Grooming."The objective is to communicate that Fusion ProGlide turns shaving into gliding, and skeptics into believers, and we deliver that message through thinner blades, less tug and pull, and effortless glide. That message is consistent across all of the touchpoints where our consumers prefer to consume media," Smith says.Beyond the Tiffany rotating glorifier, displays can incorporate illumination, backed by foiling (a reference to the razor's illuminated power button), motion sensors or a pull box that enables shoppers to touch and feel the product. These are on endcaps and in-line, and customized for some retailers and channels, especially club.Stores also received a complementary array of signage, shelf talkers, banners, balloons and other point-of-purchase materials. Although the company wouldn't go into specifics, in a few markets it tested a power wing that incorporates augmented reality (not pictured), which uses video to give shoppers the illusion that they are holding a 3-D image in their hands. Shoppers hold an object to the video camera, which reads a code or marker printed onto the object and renders the 3-D image onto a video screen on the display."We know in the hyper-competitive in-store environment, we need to do everything we possibly can to get the shopper's attention," Smith says. "So all of the displays were built with that in mind, to communicate new, premium, breakthrough, and to stop shoppers in their tracks."Other in-store displays include floorstands, floorstand wings, double-sided floorstands, PDQ trays, single- and dual-sided rolling carts, and full pallets for club stores, he notes. For the club channel, Gillette created split trays with built-in info panels to ensure that not only were they stopping shoppers because of the premium positioning, the newness of the product and the ProGlide name, but also providing product education to let shoppers know why Fusion ProGlide is superior to the older Fusion product.Gillette's partners in creating the various in-store elements were Mechtronics Corp., White Plains, N.Y., which created and built the semipermanent displays and fixturing; RockTenn Merchandising Displays, Winston-Salem, N.C., which was responsible for the corrugated temporary displays; and The Integer Group, Denver, which is the in-store agency for Gillette, as well as other P&G brands.

ProGlide Launch is Gillette's Largest Ever

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