Pia Adolphsen PMBA 7250

Case Study 1: Gillette Indonesia Mar. 31, 2014

What marketing plan would be appropriate for Gillette Indonesia?
Questions in the text: Should market be allowed to grow at own pace? Should Gillette invest
additional resources in sales/dist to accelerate market development? What should be
emphasized? Danger of losing investment if spent on concepts beyond consumers?
Problem #1: Distance between Company Goals
The country manager (Allen) and Asia-Pacific manager (Effio) have a gap between their growth
goals for the region Allen projects 19%, Effio expects 25-30%.
Problem #2: Brand Awareness
Initially, it seems that brand identity is not a problem (97% of men are aware of Gillette.)
However, further analysis of the growth projections shows that biggest jumps in growth are
expected to come from disposables and the Sensor project, which had much lower brand
awareness (disposables having a 41% and 9% recognition, and the Sensor having only 12%).
Problem #3: Cultural Barriers
Shaving is still an emerging art in Indonesia. Increasing instances of shaving may be difficult due
to the fact that Asian beards dont grow as quickly. Plus, the products are harder to place due
to lower numbers of supermarket shoppers in addition to high rates of supermarket placement.
Distributors are often in poor areas and difficult to communicate with; salespeople are lured
away by competitors, but are of increasing importance due to cultural know-how.
Goals:
Advertising goals: 1
st
shave, increasing incidences of shaving, and trading existing shavers to a
higher cost system. Growth goals: Allen, 19%, Effio 25-30%.
Recommendations:
Should the market be allowed to grow at its own pace? What is that pace? The market is
growing quickly (whether 19% or 25%, the growth rate is still significant.) Based on current
growth patterns, market development investment is tricky, due to the fact that the
infrastructure of the country is also concern. Im not sure that additional market development
budget would solve distribution or sales challenges, if these are caused primarily by poor
infrastructure.
The current allocation of marketing funds seems reasonable, so long as campaigns around the
1
st
shave and increasing shaves objectives focused on disposables, where brand awareness is
still lacking. A third of the budget to increase the awareness and usage of the Sensor seems
reasonable also, assuming it is targeted only at the higher income consumer who can afford this
product and acquire it at a supermarket.
If anything, I believe a fourth advertising category could be added and funded, a branding
initiative to encourage both the act of shaving, and the brand of Gillette, as Indonesian. The
focus would be primarily PR its an Indonesian made product, were hiring locally (which
would also support recruiting objectives and potentially deter salesmen from jumping ship if
they identified strongly with the message), shaving is an act that binds all of us together as
Indonesians (were not some barbaric country). This would be a longer term campaign, and
payoff would not be immediate. However, the only way to overcome infrastructure problems is
to work within the countrys structures and encourage the local population to embrace not just
the products, but the company itself.