Gillette Face vs L’Oréal

When the first meeting came, the sales director arrived to present the launch of the first granular facial cleansing cream with apricot, and turning to me he asked: “Frega, what do you think?”

And I answered: “Doctor, who bought up all those apricot orchards around the world and decided to make us sell fruit — let’s just hope vegetables don’t come next.”

He burst out laughing like a madman, but quickly regaining his role, he said: “Let’s show international that we don’t just collect orders for blades and razors, mind you.”

We launched together with the UK and Spain, and everyone tried to come out on top in the numbers — that’s natural competition — but the consumers in the south of every nation are always the ones portrayed as the beautiful woman the men of the north can’t do without, and this time it was no different.

Brand APRI, product type GRANULAR FACIAL CLEANSER, then three months later, FACE WASH CREAM, and three months after that, MOISTURIZING CREAM in jar and tube.

After nine months, we were inside the market share, alongside Nivea, Leocrema, and other pharmacy-leading brands, and clients were happy the product was already moving in consumption without a single advertising campaign.

And then the usual Gillette Naples colleague came out in a meeting with the line: “They buy it to make fruit salad — ours costs less.”

But here’s the fact that says it all: when we sold the brand to Henkel, that kind of fruit stopped being eaten in those markets altogether.