"Woke" Gillette Loses $8 Billion!!


From the guy's statements their controversial new direction was a business decision to regain awareness with the intentions of increasing sales.

“It was pretty stark. We were losing share, we were losing awareness and penetration, and something had to be done,” Coombe said. He said Gillette decided to “take a chance in an emotionally-charged way.”

Just looking at it from a purely financial perspective the company chose a strategy that was very unsuccessful. $8 billion in loss in market value is a significant one.
 
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This isn't a loss but a write down, i.e. adjustment of company value based on a valuation of goodwill and intangible assets.

The reasons quoted (devaluation of international currencies v the dollar, competition from subscription clubs and less men shaving regularly or at all) all seem fairly reasonable to me. Shareholders appear to think this a good thing, with a 4% surge in share price.

P&G no doubt have other reasons to publicly back the write down, such as creating a deferred tax asset, or even to take a bath so that future years can compare favourably to this one. Not always a bad move.

Guess it all just depends on where you get your media from.


 
Gillette needed to change their image with the next generation of consumers. Although at the moment they could probably have had a better year without it, they are considering today's 15-20 year olds who will still be their customer base in 15 to 20 years, and the youth market going forward.

As stated in the article, they are looking to the future and to attracting new customers away from DSC and Harry's, which have a more youthful and current image.

Whether we like it or not, those customers are the future of the company. They cannot continue to rely on profit from the older generations who grew up with Gillette. As @doheuk said above, they seem pretty ok with it as a strategy
 
Gillette needed to change their image with the next generation of consumers. Although at the moment they could probably have had a better year without it, they are considering today's 15-20 year olds who will still be their customer base in 15 to 20 years, and the youth market going forward.

As stated in the article, they are looking to the future and to attracting new customers away from DSC and Harry's, which have a more youthful and current image.

Whether we like it or not, those customers are the future of the company. They cannot continue to rely on profit from the older generations who grew up with Gillette. As @doheuk said above, they seem pretty ok with it as a strategy
They seem ok with it until someone decides the companies stock price has dropped enough and then they initiate a hostile takeover by buying up a controlling interest and remolding the company to make it profitable again. You can say its ok to take a 8 billion write down but what happens next quarter when it happens again? Yes they are catering to the young gen now and not to the ones who actually have the money but without that money you cant operate. There are other reasons too im sure for the loss but when you look at the cause and affect it surely had a major role. I still use my vintage DE gillette razors and my SE razors And straights and shavettes but there are so many better options for youths today than paying such a high price for cartridge razor systems and i think the kids have realized that and if gillette wants to recover they could easily come out with some new De or SE razors and im sure they would see their profits return..
 
They seem ok with it until someone decides the companies stock price has dropped enough and then they initiate a hostile takeover by buying up a controlling interest and remolding the company to make it profitable again. You can say its ok to take a 8 billion write down but what happens next quarter when it happens again? Yes they are catering to the young gen now and not to the ones who actually have the money but without that money you cant operate. There are other reasons too im sure for the loss but when you look at the cause and affect it surely had a major role. I still use my vintage DE gillette razors and my SE razors And straights and shavettes but there are so many better options for youths today than paying such a high price for cartridge razor systems and i think the kids have realized that and if gillette wants to recover they could easily come out with some new De or SE razors and im sure they would see their profits return..
Looking at it that way they do nothing, operate exactly the same, gradually profits decrease as the older generations "with money" die, then fade into obscurity 30 years down the line??

All companies must adapt to survive. Not saying I love the ads, but I dont hate them either. I dont buy gillette anymore anyway!
 
They seem ok with it until someone decides the companies stock price has dropped enough and then they initiate a hostile takeover by buying up a controlling interest and remolding the company to make it profitable again. You can say its ok to take a 8 billion write down but what happens next quarter when it happens again? Yes they are catering to the young gen now and not to the ones who actually have the money but without that money you cant operate. There are other reasons too im sure for the loss but when you look at the cause and affect it surely had a major role. I still use my vintage DE gillette razors and my SE razors And straights and shavettes but there are so many better options for youths today than paying such a high price for cartridge razor systems and i think the kids have realized that and if gillette wants to recover they could easily come out with some new De or SE razors and im sure they would see their profits return..
And as for bringing out new DE or SE razors, ... where are Harry's and DSC versions? The wet shaving market isn't there. Maybe never will be again. For most people a speedy cartridge shave works well enough, and generates the most profit.
 
Looking at it that way they do nothing, operate exactly the same, gradually profits decrease as the older generations "with money" die, then fade into obscurity 30 years down the line??

All companies must adapt to survive. Not saying I love the ads, but I dont hate them either. I dont buy gillette anymore anyway!
yep i didnt care about the ads one way or the other. i use some old gillette de but i use other stuff too... no i wasnt saying just stay the same but changes can be done with a bit of common sense also. the wet shave market is growing again as people ( kids included) realize they dont need a razor cartridge that cost a small fortune when they can get cheap blades and pop then in just as quickly as you can switch a cartridge blade... well i gave up politics and whatnot so im gonna let this lie... i understand some were offended and some were not. gillette will either recover or they wont and personally it doesnt matter to me one way or the other.
 
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