Happy Birthday, from Gillette
Three days before my 18th birthday, I received a package from Gillette. It said “Happy 18th Birthday!”, and it turned out to be a Gillette Sensor razor. All stalking aside, I was always impressed with this bit of marketing. Even more-so because I’ve been using this same razor for more than 11 years, buying refills along the way. A very effective mailing.
Today in the mail I received another package from Gillette, this time a Mach 3 Turbo razor. How stupid is that name by the way? About as ugly as the design, it turns out. Anyway, it didn’t coincide with my birthday, but I bet I’ll end up using it anyway.
This technique of giving the core product away, with the hope of covering the cost with the consumer buying refills is old hat. From the recent past, ink jet printers and Polaroid cameras spring to mind. The difference of course, is giving away the core product for free or for cheap. In this example, free wins out. I will probably never buy a razor in my life, but Gillette will have a lifetime worth of revenue from the blades.
I will never buy a cheap Polaroid or Ink Jet, because I don’t place enough the value on them to pay out even that small amount. But, if Poloroid wants to ship me a free camera or two, they may pick up another customer.
