When Gillette introduced the four razor blade, the male population was excited to finally have their closest shave ever. A few years later, after exhausting many versions of the disposable razor, Gillette thought why not take it one step further and introduce a fifth blade? Unfortunately, this time around the male population was skeptical that the extra sliver of a blade would deliver value equal to the higher price.
Marketing maintenance products to men is always more difficult than the opposite gender because men don’t tend to spend tons of money on their looks. It is even more difficult when men don’t feel any sort of functional need for the product. According to the Financial Post Marketing Blog, Gillette tackled this problem through a spoof commercial that pokes fun at the ever-increasing number of blades in their razors.
The spoof is an advertisement for an 80-razor blade, which I believe works by targeting men’s psychological needs rather than their functional needs. Since razors are cheap, men will not take long to make their purchasing decision. They will gravitate towards the Gillette 5 blade-razor because it is associated with being fun and not taking itself too seriously. The funny ad even manages to trigger man’s need for love on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, by displaying the freshly shaven man with an attractive blonde. While it may seem like a funny spoof at first glance, it manages to incorporate the correct balance of functional and psychological needs to target the adult male population.
With a cheaper, disposable product such as razors, consumers are not likely to invest in a lengthy external search for information about the product. Gillette has launched the video on youtube, which is an ideal site, since its target market spends a large amount of their time searching for funny videos and it is likely that this one will eventually pop up.