Gillette Safety Razor Division: Blank Cassette Project
9/3/13
Sydney Jones

1. Who is the protagonist?
The protagonist in this situation is Ralph Bingham. Ralph serves as the vice president of new business development for the Gillette Safety Razor Division (SRD). As vice president – new business development it is Bingham’s job to identify new business opportunities for the division, evaluate their feasibility, and develop plans for execution. 2. What is the situation or problem he is facing?
After the removal of the toiletries division from the SRD’s jurisdiction, the division was left without the product lines that had the greatest potential for growth such as Right Guard, Foamy, and Gillette’s other toiletry division. In seeking new ventures with high growth markets, where SRD’s already established strength can be used to their advantage Bingham has become highly interested in the blank-cassette market. 3. What decision does he have to make? * Should the cassettes be marketed under the Gillette name, more specifically, “Gillette Cassette?” While using the Gillette name in the promotion would be advantageous due to its high connotation of quality and reliability, would it have the same effect with a new, seemingly unrelated product such as the cassette? While Bingham is sure the Gillette name would ensure a high quality product, he is aware that the new cassettes would have no functional advantage over other brands at this point. * While distribution has long been seen as one of SRD’s strong points, in the case of the cassette they may have to look at branching out even further to electronics and high fidelity stores. They will also have to evaluate some of their already established outlets, which don’t already sell cassettes to see if they would be likely to start selling the product. * A much smaller preliminary budget of two millions