Every day 750,000 men pick up a Gillette razor to ‘Be The Best A Man Can Get’.
(I know I’m a year or two behind with their advertising here, but they did a good job on me with that old slogan!)
Now, despite their upstart subscription competitors like Dollar Shave Club giving them a hammering, they’re still the goliath in the market, worth a cool $50 Billion.
How’d they get so big?
In a word, innovation.
Look at the ‘Mach3’. It took 5 years to develop and was protected by 35 patents.
And how’d they come up with innovations like that?
Simple – they took the time to find out what their customers wanted.
But to get to that answer they had to go further than traditional surveys and focus groups which only tell you what people think they do or want.
Instead, they hired anthropologists to watch what their customers actually did.
Which was a good move, because when surveyed, people estimated that they drew the razor across their face 20 or 30 times during their morning shave.
But when the anthropologist actually watched them shaving, they counted 135 strokes!
And how’d you get a closer shave with fewer strokes?
Well obviously, you add more blades.
So, the ‘Mach3’ was then joined by the 5 blade Fusion.
If you’ve made decisions about your products and services based on how your customers SAY they do use it …
Maybe you should find a way to watch them using it instead.