MANAGING IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY: GILLETTE COMPANY
This research examines global management through an assessment of the operations of the Gillette Company. A brief background review on the company is followed by an analysis of the company's operations.
King C. Gillette, along with William Nickerson, founded the American Safety Razor Company in 1901. At that time, King was best known as a socialist who had written and published The Human Drift in 1894, and had formed The Twentieth Century Corporation to encompass worldwide business under a single corporation, and, thus, eliminate competition, which King considered to be harmful. Needless to say, the concept of the universal corporation failed.
In 1895, Gillette conceived the idea of the rigid handled safety razor with replaceable blades. His collaboration with inventory Nickerson perfected the device for commercial use. The American Safety Razor Company was successful, and developed a reputation for marketing savvy in promoting the "Gillette razor." When American soldiers began embarking for Europe in 1918, the American Safety Razor Company sold them three million razors and 36 million razor blades in so called "Service Kits." In the 1920s, Gillette across the United States to give a Gillette razor to each new depositor in a "Shave and Save" campaign. Hotels, restaurants, and service stations were persuaded to give away Gillette razors as part of opening ceremonies.
In the 1930s, Gillette became a major radio advertiser, and later extended this type of advertising and promotion to television. In 1941, the company introduced the "Cavalcade of Sports" boxing broadcast series for an overwhelmingly male audience that corresponded with its target market for razors.
In the United States, Gillette had no serious competition in the shaving market until the 1960s, when Wilkinson Sword introduced the stainless steel razor blade, and made temporary inroads on Gillette's market...