Gillette and the #MeToo Movement Custom Case Solution & Analysis

Evidence Brief: Gillette and the #MeToo Movement

Financial Metrics

• Market Share Erosion: Gillette market share in the United States dropped from approximately 70 percent in 2010 to 54 percent by 2017.
• Competitive Growth: Subscription-based disruptors such as Dollar Shave Club and Harrys captured a combined 12 percent of the market by 2017.
• Parent Company Performance: Procter and Gamble Grooming segment reported a 3 percent decrease in organic sales in the quarter preceding the campaign launch.
• Campaign Reach: The short film We Believe reached 118 million views across social platforms within the first week of release.
• Stock Performance: Procter and Gamble stock remained relatively stable despite the social media backlash, trading within a 2 percent range of its 91 dollar price point during the launch week.

Operational Facts

• Brand Longevity: The slogan The Best a Man Can Get had been the central brand pillar since 1989.
• Content Shift: The campaign transitioned from traditional 30-second television spots to a nearly 2-minute digital-first short film.
• Digital Engagement: The YouTube upload received over 1.4 million dislikes compared to approximately 800,000 likes within the initial month.
• Distribution: Gillette maintained physical retail dominance in big-box stores while attempting to scale its direct-to-consumer Gillette Shave Club platform.

Stakeholder Positions

• Gary Coombe (President, P&G Global Grooming): Argued that the brand was losing relevance with younger consumers and needed to take a stand to remain culturally significant.
• Marc Pritchard (P&G Chief Brand Officer): Advocated for brand activism as a means to drive growth, suggesting that brands must use their voice for good.
• Traditionalist Consumer Base: Expressed feelings of alienation and insult, viewing the ad as an indictment of their masculinity.
• Target Demographic (Gen Z/Millennials): Showed higher affinity for brands that align with social values, though actual conversion rates remained unproven in the case.

Information Gaps

• Direct Sales Correlation: The case lacks specific point-of-sale data for the eight-week period following the campaign launch.
• Customer Acquisition Cost: No data provided on the cost to acquire a new younger customer via purpose-driven ads versus traditional performance marketing.
• Long-term Retention: Absence of data regarding whether the backlash led to permanent brand switching or temporary social media posturing.

Strategic Analysis

Core Strategic Question

• Can Gillette successfully reverse a decade-long market share decline by pivoting from product-performance marketing to social-purpose advocacy?
• Does the risk of alienating the existing core customer base outweigh the potential gains from capturing the values-driven younger demographic?

Structural Analysis: Brand Positioning and Market Dynamics

The grooming industry has shifted from a technical arms race (number of blades) to a lifestyle and value-based competition. Gillette was stuck in a middle-ground trap: its premium pricing was no longer justified by perceived technical superiority as Harrys and Dollar Shave Club offered acceptable quality at significantly lower price points. The We Believe campaign was an attempt to build brand equity through emotional resonance rather than technical specifications.

Applying the Jobs-to-be-Done framework: The traditional customer hires Gillette to provide a clean shave and a sense of masculine confidence. The new campaign altered this job, asking the customer to hire Gillette as a partner in social reform. This created a functional-emotional disconnect for the existing user base.

Strategic Options

Option 1: Double Down on Purpose-Led Brand Evolution

• Rationale: Secure the lifetime value of Gen Z and Millennial consumers who prioritize brand ethics.
• Trade-offs: Sustained short-term churn among older, traditional demographics.
• Resource Requirements: High investment in social media management and community engagement.

Option 2: Pivot to Product-Value Hybrid

• Rationale: Address the price-value gap created by DTC competitors while maintaining a modern brand voice.
• Trade-offs: Risk of appearing indecisive or reactionary to the backlash.
• Resource Requirements: Research and development for lower-cost blade innovations and streamlined supply chain.

Option 3: Segmented Brand Portfolio

• Rationale: Use the Gillette master brand for traditional performance and create a sub-brand for social activism.
• Trade-offs: Increased marketing complexity and potential dilution of brand spend.
• Resource Requirements: Separate creative teams and distinct channel strategies.

Preliminary Recommendation

Gillette should pursue Option 2. The brand cannot afford to ignore the price-value disruption from DTC competitors. While social purpose helps relevance, it does not fix the fundamental pricing disadvantage. Gillette must reconnect its social message to the act of shaving itself rather than broad societal critiques to bridge the gap between its legacy and its future.

Implementation Roadmap

Critical Path

• Phase 1 (Days 1-30): Sentiment Analysis and Damage Control. Conduct deep-dive regional sentiment tracking to identify if the backlash is translating to retail shelf-space loss.
• Phase 2 (Days 31-60): Product-Centric Pivot. Launch a secondary campaign focusing on the technical quality and value of the Gillette Shave Club to provide a rational reason to stay with the brand.
• Phase 3 (Days 61-90): Grassroots Engagement. Transition the social message from top-down video manifestos to community-level actions that support positive masculinity without the accusatory tone.

Key Constraints

• Brand Elasticity: The degree to which a 100-year-old brand can be redefined without breaking the trust of its most loyal, high-volume users.
• Retailer Pressure: Major retailers like Walmart and Target require stable demand; any sustained boycott could lead to reduced shelf-space allocation in favor of Harrys.

Risk-Adjusted Implementation Strategy

The execution must move away from moral instruction toward local community support. Success depends on shifting the narrative from what men do wrong to how the brand supports men in doing right. Contingency plans must include a rapid return to performance-based advertising if Nielsen data shows a week-over-week sales drop exceeding 4 percent in key territories.

Executive Review and BLUF

Bottom Line Up Front

Gillette made a necessary but poorly executed attempt to modernize its brand. The 16 percent market share loss over seven years proved that product superiority was no longer a sufficient moat. However, the We Believe campaign violated a core rule of brand management: it prioritized social commentary over customer empathy. To stabilize, Gillette must anchor its brand purpose in the tangible benefits of its products while addressing the price-value gap created by direct-to-consumer rivals. The brand should not retract the message but must immediately pivot to a positive, performance-oriented narrative to stop the churn of its core high-volume users.

Dangerous Assumption

The most consequential unchallenged premise is that social media engagement and viral reach are valid proxies for brand health. The analysis assumes that 118 million views indicate success, ignoring that a significant portion of this reach was driven by negative sentiment that actively damages brand equity among the primary revenue-generating demographic.

Unaddressed Risks

• Competitor Opportunism: Harrys and Dollar Shave Club can now position themselves as the neutral, customer-focused alternative, capturing the alienated Gillette base without spending a dollar on their own social campaigns.
• Internal Misalignment: The tension between the purpose-driven marketing team and the sales teams responsible for retail relationships could lead to inconsistent execution and fractured messaging.

Unconsidered Alternative

The team failed to consider a silent transition. Instead of a polarizing manifesto, Gillette could have updated its brand through subtle shifts in casting and storytelling within product-focused ads. This would have achieved the same modernization goals without triggering a defensive response from the existing customer base.

Verdict

REQUIRES REVISION

The Strategic Analyst must revise the recommendation to include a specific plan for addressing the price-value gap. Purpose alone will not defeat a competitor that is 40 percent cheaper. The revised strategy must demonstrate how Gillette will compete on both values and economics.