Business Case Studies, Leadership Case Study, Tata Group,Ratan Tata

Code : COM0021

Year : 2004

Industry : Home Appliances and Personal Care Products

Region : USA

Teaching Note:Not Available

Structured Assignment :Not Available

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Introduction:St. Louis-based Schick, a part of the Energizer Holdings, for a long time, remained a No. 2 in the US shaving razor market that was dominated by Gillette. However, the introduction of Quattro the first ever four-blade razor, had given a new vigor and look for Schick. Right from the time it was taken over by Energizer, Schick was seriously challenging the leadership of Gillette, not only in the US shaving razor market, but also across the world. Gillette enjoyed a comfortable lead with the success of products like Mach3 and Sensor Excel.

Mach3 and Mach3-Turbo alone contributed $215 million and $108 million respectively, to the company's sales in a single year ended April 2003. However, Schick's new Quattro and Intuition, which were introduced in 2003, have started making inroads into the market.

Introduced in September 2003, Quattro had gained 4.5% share till January 2004 and Intuition gained 15% share till January 2004. Intuition was rated among the top 25 consumer products of 2003 by Business Week magazine and Quattro was rated in the top 25 products of 2003 by Fortune magazine. Some analysts believed that after a long phase of domination, Gillette was facing tough competition in the form of Schick. However, many felt that Gillette with its marketing muscle would be able to effectively counter Schick’s competition and retain its position.