Gillette Hair vs L’Oréal Garnier

We were becoming, day after day, the brand present in every human ritual before leaving the house — shaving, face scrub, and for hair, at least for those who still had it, we had to do something too.

Boston’s view was that MALE GROOMING should carry the entire men’s market, but we, as always, relied on women — our best customers — though back then no one had the nerve to say it out loud to anyone. Today, I’ve found the right moment to finally say it.

Scientel shampoo, four variants: for normal hair, frequent use, oily hair, anti-dandruff.

One of the largest markets around — back then it was worth nearly 600 billion lire — and even holding a small share of it was already a major result.

Our stroke of luck was that the sector leader was still confined to selling inside perfumeries — that company known as L’Oréal, home to some very strong brands. But it was only a momentary advantage, because right around the same time, with tremendous force, Garnier’s GRAPHIC BRAND arrived en masse, and no one should have been able to outsell them in that category. But we did more.

At the same time, we launched the completion of the Scientel hair line — gel, mousse, spray — and customers became convinced that Gillette had bought L’Oréal. When L’Oréal’s own salesmen passed through those same clients, they’d hear, with a smile: “We already placed the order — directly with Frega.”

At night it was nothing but laughter in the hotels where we’d all meet up, and me and my colleague from J&J used to swap the orders of a client in Crotone who, for years, kept ordering: Oral-B from him, and “OB” from me. We never managed to convince him otherwise.

AHAHAHAHAHAH.