Clean Edge Essay

3) What are the arguments for launching Clean Edge as: a) a niche product; and b) a mainstream brand? Which would you recommend? What are the strategic implications of your recommendation?

1. What changes are occurring in the non-disposable razor category? Assess Paramount’s competitive position. What are the strategic life-cycle challenges for Paramount’s current products as well as Clean Edge?

I would recommend launch “Clean Edge” as a “niche” positioning. This would help paramount to become a revolutionary leader in non-disposable segment, focusing on highly

This leads into the next issue their organization faces, which is their lack of informing the consumers of their product benefits. The Fantastik cleaners are the only ones on the market that are 100% safe for the environment. With such a competitive advantage over their competitors, they have to be able to bridge this communication gap they currently have with consumers, because many of them are unaware of Fantastik’s triple bottom line goals. In order to help build brand awareness, they have to advertise more to their target segments. But one of the issues is Fantastik’s advertising budget has decreased from $1,375,000 in 2005 to $825,000 in 2006. Fantastik also has the problem of lacking diversity in their product line. Although they have five different cleaners, all of them are fairly similar and many consumers would not be able to tell their differences other than the price.

The introduction of the Sensor Shaving System, one of the biggest product launches ever, forced Gillette to reevaluate its strategy in its shaving and non-shaving business. It had to decide whether to go ahead with the launch and if so, at what scale.

Colgate-Palmolive Company (CP) launched a new toothbrush, Colgate Precision, to the market. But having developed for three years, CP was fiercely competing with other companies in the market. In order to have the power to fight in the highly competitive market with substantial product activity, Colgate-Palmolive Co. was in a problem of considering the how to position its new product--Precision, and to define the market strategy in terms of positioning, branding, and communication strategy. It provided some options with details to the reader, hence, for such purpose, this case would be a decision case, finding the optimum to segment the new product to the target and how it should be marketed.

In other words, customers are willing to purchase low-tech products as long as their prices are relatively low. As a result, Niche Cost Leadership seems to be the most appropriate strategy for these two segments.

The positioning strategy should be driven by the market, rather than by the ambitions of the product champions. The source of the problem is failure to understand how consumers' value product attributes. In all, over-appreciating a breakthrough or new technology that

Paramount has become a market leader in global consumer products; but knows that innovation is vital to continue success. Paramount has used technology to create an innovative razor, but wants to make sure that it is positioned effectively.

|After such a fantastic run the industry is facing new challenges, raising questions about its future. For us to understand the current state of |

For this reason, Gillette has always been trying to innovate in the market with new products. But they did not want their product to be bought just because they are a novelty but because it was perceived by the customer as a good quality product and have a staying power and product loyalty. This can be illustrated by the launch of the “Fusion” product by

Paramount Health and Beauty Company is in the process of launching a new technologically advanced nondisposable razor “Clean Edge”. With its improved design, Clean Edge provides superior performance by utilizing a vibrating technology to stimulate hair follicles and lift the hair from the skin, allowing for a more thorough shave. The company has decided to introduce it in the men’s market where it has a strong presence. The company is now focussing on positioning and naming of this new product. It also needs to decide on the promotional activities to be performed adhering to the budget constraints and also must decide on the distribution channels through which it can reach to the masses.

The products that had given the company success, were forgotten. For that reason, the new strategy was based to revive those ‘core products’ and bring with them back the values that their founders set at the beginning (Breen 2013). (See Appendix 2)

There are also some risks for each strategy. Upholding cost leadership can be risky because of the requirement of frequent capital investment to sustain cost advantage, then cost surges narrow price differentials and diminish ability to compete with other’s brand royalty. Differentiation strategy has some threats, such as imitation decreases alleged differentiation, buyers need for differentiation falls. Meanwhile, the risks for focus or niche strategy are the differences in preferred products or services between the strategic market and target as a whole narrows, the cost discrepancy between wide ranged competitors and the focused firms broadens to eradicate the cost advantages of allocating a narrow target or to offset the

The focused low cost strategy purposed to create a price advantage for the company. Usually, a company that use this kind of strategy more focus on a specific market niche, offering products to a narrow market segment instead of a broad one. The company then aims to be the cheapest supplier in the particular niche but not necessarily in the overall market.