Launch at the Speed of Sound

Gillette didn’t want its $250 to $300 million ad blitz for Mach3 to go to waste, so it stenciled the razor’s logo on supermarket parking spaces.

That unusual signage was just one way Gillette tried to make Mach3 as visible in stores as it was on TV when it introduced the brand this summer, after seven years and $750 million in development. Gillette and its P-O-P printer, Promo Edge, surveyed 50 chains – supermarket, mass merchandisers and drug – before developing 15 kinds of P-O-P, from permanent displays to giant inflatable razors to those parking lot stencils.

“We wanted to hit consumers hard, without overkill,” says project manager Joyce Lorden. “We wanted consumers to feel a strong presence, to feel like that store was behind us.”

P-O-P was an important piece of the launch because Gillette didnt want to drop coupons for Mach3, whose $6.50 price makes it about 30 percent more expensive than Gillette’s top-line Sensor Excel. “We had already hit consumers in so many ways, we thought they’d try it without a coupon,” Lorden explains. FSIs dropped in August and October, with limited in-store couponing.

By the time Gillette sprang its all-out media blitz on Aug. 10, it already had sold $14 million in Mach3 razors and $9.6 million in blades, according to Information Resources Inc. data for 52 weeks ended Aug. 16. Mach3’s 11.8 share of the $120 million razor category already rivals sister brand Sensor Excel, which holds a 14.8 share, per IRI. (Gillette dominates the segment with a 64 share, followed by Schick’s 25 share.) Ads from BBDO, New York, are themed, “Breaking Performance Barriers.” Displays played up Mach3’s triple-blade technology.

Mystery meets history

The research for Mach3’s in-store efforts began before Gillette unveiled the brand. Gillette’s request for proposals said only that it was introducing a shaving product, so Promo Edge called the top 50 retailers – culled from its database that tracks which P-O-P each chain accepts – and asked some very pointed questions about shaving.

“Basically, we asked them how a new product could be competitive in the category,” says Holly Roper, director of Promo Edge’s Retailer Research Center. “We asked about high-tech displays, motion, sound, foil, lenticulars. It sounds so simple, but the difference [between Promo Edge calling, or Gillette] is that I’m not trying to sell them anything. They’re much more inclined to share information with me.”

And how. Since 1995, Menomenee Falls, WI-based Promo Edge has gathered data on retailers’ P-O-P preferences. Its files, updated at least twice a year, cover 90 grocery chains and the top 15 drug chains that account for 80 percent of drug store sales, as well as mass merchandisers, C-stores, and category killers. Promo Edge consults its database for all P-O-P jobs, but went beyond its standard verification process for Mach3.

Promo Edge pitched Gillette by recommending 15 P-O-P pieces, and threw in a list of what to avoid, per retailers’ advice. Gillette placed its order, and Promo Edge called shaving products buyers and merchandisers twice before printing, in addition to calling each retailer’s headquarters “to make sure all three said yes to the same items,” Roper says. “There were some major disconnects we caught up front.” Gillette needed fewer displays and floor graphics than expected, so the order shrank, but so did the waste.

Display kits were packed individually so each store got only the P-O-P it would use. Once advertising kicked in, Roper drove to every store in a half-hour radius of her office, and there was some element of P-O-P in every single store, she brags. This fall, after the introduction, Promo Edge called 500 store managers to tally compliance nationally.

Gillette surveyed its own sales force, as it does every year, to find out what works with retailers. “We’re deep into planning 1999 and want to take the learnings from Mach3’s launch to our other brands,” Lorden says.

By the way, lots of those parking lot stencils are still visible, Lorden says. Seems people are reluctant to drive over them.