Why do men skip shaving so readily these days?

This was the question to which Gillette wanted an answer. It's tempting to state the obvious and say, "Well, maybe they're lazy and everything is so much less formal nowadays"

OK, all true, but now what?

Do we believe that these two guys regard shaving in the same way?
What is the influence of partners, or peers, or the workplace?
When do they shave, and what is it that triggers this behaviour?

This was the focus of the work I lead for Gillette R&D last year. I carried out an ethnographically inspired research programme, looking in depth at the shaving and grooming behaviours of 8 men and speaking with their partners.

What emerged was the belief that shaving is still the "proper" thing to do; it is associated with commitment to others and with commitment to work; it connotes organisation and personal care. It is a clear expression of your values; shaving shows you care.

All of these 8 guys would shave before meeting someone for the first time, but they wouldn't always shave super-close. Most of them felt discomfort after shaving, they felt that their razor did not always meet their particular needs - the two faces above are very different - and some men simply don't want to shave close, but they all want to show that they care.

With these and other findings I ran a series of collaborative workshops with Gillette. We developed not simply new product and service ideas, but some of the ideas were relevant to strategic product direction and mix, and to how the benefits might be communicated to men for whom shave "closeness" is not all important. Lastly, we created a user need-centric process for developing new product propositions.

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