The Gillette Company: Dry Idea Advertising Case Analysis: Integrated Marketing Communication

The Gillette Company: Dry Idea Advertising
Case Analysis
Integrated Marketing Communication
Group 10 - Section A
EP Shanmuga PGP/24/082
R Shachin Shibi PGP/24/105
Nivedita Barui PGP/24/166
Manish Ranjan PGP/24/158
Prerna Raviraj PGP/24/299
Aditi Biswas PGP/24/432
Group 10 | Sec A
Analyze Deo market and Dry Idea's Place in it. What drives the category from the consumer
behaviour point of view?
The first product that was commercialized in the under-arm segment was sold in the year 1988.
This was a cream-based product. By the year 1983, the overall demand for underarm products in
the US market alone rose to 500+ million units, which made up for over $1 billion in revenues.
The types of products in this category included:
● Deodorants - constituting around 25% of total sales volume. The overall benefit from this
category was the fact that the product was anti-odour
● Antiperspirants - constituting upto 75% of total sales volume. This category of products
provided effective protection against sweating
The active ingredient was the key component of the product, which possessed the odour or sweat
control attributes in itself. These active ingredients were then added in the carrier systems which
could be oil or water, etc. Back in 1983, the kind of products that were available were as follows:
● Aerosols
● Sticks
● Roll-ons
● Solids
The Dry Idea was effectively a roll-on antiperspirant that was introduced in the market in early
1970s. These products were packaged in individual roll-on plastic containers. There were two
kinds of this - scented and unscented fragrances. Some of the most prominent benefits of this
product were as follows:
● Provision of a dry feeling

● Silicon suspension formulation in products
● Superior protection against dryness
Group 10 | Sec A
Understand the Brand management (client-gillette) and Account management (agency-
BBDO) organization based on the case data, read and follow the interactions (scenes 31-32,
62-44 in video transcripts) and analyze/ compare the client and agency perspectives on the
Gillette marketing and advertising issues faced during the period.
The issue in hand for the Brand Management team in Gillette and the Account Management team
of Dry Idea in BBDO, was surfacing due to the falling market share of Dry Idea since 1982 with
the Roll-On Category (from 14.6% in 1982 to 14% in 1983), while the Roll-On Category was also
declining, as a behavioral shift is being observed (3% decline in sales in Roll-Ons, while Solids
saw a increase by 21% in 1982)
The key reasons contributing to the decline of Dry Idea as identified by both parties are as follows:
● Lack of impactful and pre-emptive creative (Spokesman vs Start Drier - Finish Drier)
● Advertising spending has been erratic - spending not on par with competitors. (ratio 1:3)
● 3 different creative selling ideas in 5 years (Brand Building is inconsistent)
● Lack of identifiable brand personality - emotional end benefit that separates Dry Idea from
every other competitor
The team agreed on a two step recommendation, to address the short term and long term issues on
hand. While in the short term, the discussion was on airing a creative for the next 6-12 months,
before the new strategic direction is identified.
Brand Management
SPOKESMAN CREATIVE START DRIER - FINISH DRIER
● clearly communicates the brand's ● Consumers do not find the strategy as

heritage of superior application persuasive as Spokesman. (Got -2 on
aesthetics with no water reason why. persuasion, while Spokesman scores
● extremely persuasive - women primary +5)
target ● Does not communicate the key equity
● brand recall is high 76% women and that Dry Idea’s been built upon - goes
65% men. on drier, no water story.
Group 10 | Sec A
● communicates the brand's concept
clearly in a believable manner. (sender
- receiver interpretation is positive)
Account Management
SPOKESMAN CREATIVE START DRIER - FINISH DRIER
● does not communicate any meaningful ● Successfully communicates the

consumer benefit. (attribute oriented balanced efficacy and aesthetics story
rather than benefit oriented) ● Communicates a brand personality,
● Not a suitable communication from a which will give the brand a strategic
strategic point of view. direction in the future
● Dual Communication Strategy
(aesthetics and efficacy)
● Line extension of the brand possible
with this strategic messaging at the core
As we can observe, the Brand Management team was focused on Performance Marketing in the
short term to generate adequate return on investment, while the Account Management team was
focused on Brand Marketing. This was the primary difference between the two parties involved
in the discussion.
Q3. What really is the problem? What alternatives Carol has and what should she do?
The real problem was to know the reason behind the non-working of the current advertisements
full stop as mentioned in the case. After spending 500 million rupees and devoting a lot of time
into the project, the result was still average. This was bothering the organisation as well as the
advertisement agency who wear short of blaming each other for the non functioning of the
advertisement. The ad agency was playing the sector altogether and saying that the sector is
declining and the sales so it's not beneficial for the company to start the expenditure again and to
Group 10 | Sec A
devote more time for a product which is on decline. Johnson was very disappointed from the work
of the agency and he was like it is a very little thing of strategy that needs to be communicated.
Also, the communication of the company in advertisements were not essentially up to the point.
He mentions that we have done a lot of good things, a lot of great solid work in the initial first year
of this creativity work and now they have not moved further and now they see a stagnation in the
creativity aspect of the advertisement. The creativity part was one of the reasons why the brand
was not able to gauge the attention of the consumer and was not able to make the consumer buy
the product.
She has three alternatives:
1. Hire new agency
2. Another round of development
3. Hire a new agency to work with BBDO
From the above list of alternatives, hiring a new agency(only for this brand) makes more sense
then the other alternatives because of the following reasons
1. They will provide a fresh pair of eyes and look at the project from different angles.
2. They should not look at the SUNK cost and take a fresh start.
3. The new company should have prior knowledge of the sector and workings of it.
4. This is supposed to be the last option and they should not repeat the already done mistakes.
Group 10 | Sec A

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The Gillette Company: Dry Idea Advertising

Integrated Marketing Communication

R Shachin Shibi PGP/24/105

Nivedita Barui PGP/24/166

Manish Ranjan PGP/24/158

Prerna Raviraj PGP/24/299

Aditi Biswas PGP/24/432

The types of products in this category included:

● Provision of a dry feeling

SPOKESMAN CREATIVE START DRIER - FINISH DRIER

● clearly communicates the brand's ● Consumers do not find the strategy as

SPOKESMAN CREATIVE START DRIER - FINISH DRIER

● does not communicate any meaningful ● Successfully communicates the

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