Diverse Customer :: Shoutout :: Gillette :: Incidental Product, Dispelling Macho Stereotypes

Image: Gillette

Gillett's #HandleWithCare proves a point in addition to pulling our heartstrings. Point is that creating beautiful stories can make customers connect with the brand emotionally and they can become it's biggest advocates.

The emphasis is not on the razor but on the evolution of a brand! 

Among the few empirical studies done on the emergence of consumer research have investigated this proposition, Goodstein

(1993 ) has demonstrated that consumers generally attend more to atypical than typical adverts.

What's atypical about the Gillette ad you might ask? It challenges the norm by not conforming to the typical macho stereotypes. Men as caregivers, crying, and showing emotions is a divergence from the traditional thinking about masculinity. 

In addition, when the content is compelling and the narrative is so neatly woven, the product placement becomes subtle and just incidental. 

While customers might get distracted by the noise around a product when brands outspend on marketing, but they can never overlook brands that invest in authentic stories because some stories strike a chord and evoke a deep sense of Déjà vu!

A customer's affinity and stickiness to a product develop through emotions and not by bribing them with freebies and continuous bombardment and barge of advertising.


-Amit Anand