Gillette is amongst the top manufacturers of shaving and grooming products such as shaving blades, shaving creams, gels, colognes, aftershaves, bath creams and shower gels. Gillette manufactures its products in over 27 countries and boasts an employee strength of over 31,000. The corporate headquarters of the company is located at Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
The history of Gillette dates back to the 19th century. In the year 1895, King Camp Gillette, the creator of Gillette Company, was shaving as usual with a conventional open blade when he was struck by a revolutionary idea that would change the way men around the world shaved. With the help of his friend William Painter, inventor of the Crown Cork bottle cap, he worked on the idea of creating disposable, safe and inexpensive steel blade razors. Finally, in 1901, after William Nickerson, an MIT graduate, contributed to the invention, a safety razor was launched. Initially, the product didn’t do as well as expected but soon clever marketing and advertising led to considerable rise in the sales of the safety razor. Soon, Gillette safety razors were a household name with almost every American possessing one. In 1905, the company started overseas operations and met with huge worldwide success. Gillette further expanded its product line with the acquisition of Braun, manufacturer of electric shaving appliances in 1967. By 1984, the company acquired Oral-B, the manufacturer of dental care products.
Since the beginning, Gillette has brought about many innovations to the shaving blade industry. The company’s repertoire includes strategic planning, research and development, excellent marketing and distribution systems and continuous product innovation.
The company has given many firsts to the world. The Techmatic razor with a continuous band, the GII with twin blades, the Contour First with a lubricated strip, the Sensor with spring mounted blades and shell-bearing pivot, and the SensorExcel with microfins are some of the products by Gillette that truly spell innovation. The Mach3, a razor with triple blades, was a landmark product launch by Gillette. The M3Power razor (for a power-wet shave) and the Gillette Fusion (manual as well as battery operated) are the most recent ones. The Gillette Daisy, the Venus, the Passion Venus and the Venus Divine are a few razors for women launched by Gillette. Today, Gillette is owned by Procter & Gamble.
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