Last weekend, I walked into Hyper City, that famous shopping haunt of the Western Suburbs of Mumbai, which I have frequented over the past 2.5 years. My wife went on her usual shopping round at the same place, and I was bored pushing the trolley. So, I investigated what they had in the personal care “rows” and shelves.
The moment I walked into the shaving products section and started looking at the stuff, pops up a salesman who had sized me up. He immediately started talking about the virtues of Gillette Mach 3 Turbo and the special package on offer for Rs 310 with a shaving lotion thrown in free. Extra blade set of 8 blades now comes free with an additional 2 blades for Rs 772, et al. I calculated that I have to spend nearly Rs 1100 (SGD 37 or USD 23) for such a purchase !
I am an investigative buyer, not an instant buyer, so wanted to see all the other products on display. I noticed the Gillette salesman moved away after a couple of minutes even though there was no other shopper. I looked at the other “weaker” brands, picked a Schick Quattro Titanium (with 4 blades !) and turned around to the salesman, asked him what he thought about Schick in comparison to the Gillette. Obviously I feigned ignorance about the fact that he was a Gillette salesman (there was no name/company tag on his person, apart from the Hyper City identification). He shocked me by saying that only the Mach 3 Turbo is proven in the field, the Schick is unknown and unproven, he was not sure about it.
This clearly demonstrated the power of the Gillette Brand (similar to other global brands like Coke and Lays’) and the resultant market share it enjoys in the Indian market place, atleast in the upper middle class target market. I am a long time Gillette user, and was obviously tempted to pick up the Turbo with all its offers and walk away. But, I thought, wait !
There was something more interesting about the Schick brand. It was better packaged, though there was no special offer. It occupied small but prominent shelf space, unlike the full takeover of a complete rack of shelves all around by the Gillette. The technical stuff written on the packaging of the Schick was more informative and looked more credible unlike the “marketing” only description on the Turbo pack. And, finally, the “white” colour design of the razor with its seemingly more aggressive grip, appealed to me.
By this time, the salesman has completely moved away from me, taking note of the fact that I was reading every line of the description – he probably had hardly seen a guy who reads everything on a pack of shaving blades ! But, I had time to kill, and further really wanted to buy something this time, instead of just walking around or watching the shopping habits of the other well-heeled Sunday morning shoppers in their jogging pants.
Finally, I bought the Schick for the first time in my life. Ofcourse, I am keeping my two old Mach 3 razors as well. But, in comparison with Mach 3, Schick is far ahead in its usability – I am using it for the past one week. May be Mach 3 Turbo gives a good competition to the Quattro Titanium, don’t know that yet. However, the Schick was not cheap either – - it is very comparable in pricing to the Gillette.
Well, many excellent products with world-class technology are a distant second to the market leader (like in this case, with Gillette being the global #1). I thought it is always better to investigate atleast the no. #2 in almost all the personal products one buys, based on this experience. The #1 premium if it does exist (almost always there is a 5 to 10% premium), may not be worth our while from the experience point of view – it only goes to consolidate further the brand’s #1 position.
Well, that is my experience !
Have a wonderful weekend !!
Cheers,
Vijay Srinivasan
14th Feb 2009
Mumbai
Hi! Count me in! Fusion Power & Quattro Titanium Trimmer hasn’t been introduced to the Malaysian market yet, or at least my state’s market. But the Quattro Titanium has been introduced, although the design is that of Quattro Midnight. The black part of the razor & blade is replaced by white scheme. Overall, its a Quattro Midnight turned white. I hope that the blade is titanium coated. However, when compared to the ‘original’ Quattro Titanium, I think I liked the Quattro Midnight design more. I used to use XTreme 3 SubZero, and before that Mach3 Champion, but switched to Quattro Titanium due to the cartridge of Quattro Titanium is only RM1.40 more that that of XTreme 3. The basic Mach3 cartridge (The original one, not the Turbo one.) cost RM40.00+ (Ugh!), while Quattro Titanium cartridge is only RM26.90. In regards of the performances, I believe that Quattro is better than Mach 3. I’ve never felt any irritation and razor burn when using it for the first time, and that’s without using any lubrication. It’s also easy to rinse, and the razor handle is comfortable and looks more premium than the previous Schick’s product. Even if Schick have lost in the design dept, this brand has won the price dept. In my area’s local shopping mall, it seems that Schick is selling more than that of Gillete.
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