Gillette has launched a new shaving range designed for use on mens’ intimate areas. The brand’s Intimate line-up comprises a trimmer, razor and blades, and shower and shaving cream all designed to be suitable for the more sensitive areas of the body.
The Gillette Intimate Trimmer i5 is billed as the brand’s first intimate waterproof hair trimmer with Braun technology and promises a gentle and easy shave while the Intimate Razor promises to help protect against irritation while the Intimate Shave Cream + Cleanser acts as a protective lubricant. With an increase in men grooming body hair, and health concerns that can be associated with DIY manscaping, Gillette’s “intimate” launch introduces uniquely formatted products and technology from with well-established and trusted brands.
“More and more guys across the UK are grooming their intimate area, but until today Gillette didn’t offer products with purpose-built features for such a sensitive and complex job,” said Callum Wood, Gillette brand director for UK & Ireland. “The line-up takes our decades of experience in men’s grooming into a dedicated range that gives guys the confidence to trim their pubes, shave their balls, or groom however they choose.”
This follows the launch of Gillette’s Venus range for female pubic hair removal in 2021, which featured a razor, exfoliant, shave gel and serum. The new range is designed for gentle and easy pubic care but can be used on any part of the body.
This innovation demonstrates how big brands need to be fast followers as well as leaders. Gillette is a mega-brand with a huge reservoir of trust and equity. They would have watched the rapid growth in intimate grooming with interest. Perhaps they should have entered the segment earlier as they have allowed some new brands to enter the market, but in a world of finite resources one suspects P&G were just being canny. They waited for the market to reach a tipping point and entered with a truly mass appeal offer, from the category’s number one brand. The follower strategy has almost certainly allowed them to understand the needs and issues of the consumer and respond to them with laser targeting and powerful competitive claims. It’s always dangerous to predict the future, but the arrival of Gillette means we can say with a degree of confidence that male intimate grooming is now a scalable opportunity with sustainable medium-term growth.
Also, it is worth noting that this is another innovation story that explains why the world needs brands… NONE OF THIS CATEGORY GROWTH WOULD HAPPEN IN A WORLD WITHOUT BRANDED INNOVATION.