The Gillette Company
The Gillette Company, sketches
2005 AIGA CORPORATE LEADERSHIP AWARD
In the more than 100 years since Gillette was founded, the
company has gained, held and strengthened its leadership role in
the market through its strategy of managing its business with a
long-term, global perspective, inherently including a role for
design and innovation.
For Gillette, creating value has depended upon a commitment to
several strategic concepts:
- Accumulation of scientific knowledge that is constantly
growing;
- Innovative products that embody meaningful technological
advances and allow the production of, literally, billions of high
quality products; and
- Design that creates a meaningful and genuine connection with
the hearts and minds of consumers.
Gillette has not focused on design for design's sake alone.
Instead it aims at creating innovative and effective products and
visually representing the products in a way that communicates the
Gillette brands to the consumer. Package design must validate what
A. G. Lafley calls the “first moment of truth”—when the consumer
sees the product at shelf and can identify and connect with it.
Transforming ideas into useful and innovative design engenders
another fundamental Gillette strength—strong and enduring brand
loyalty. Throughout its history, Gillette has recognized that great
design not only differentiates, but can inspire, educate and
communicate a brand's unique and superior attributes. Pamela
Parisi, the director of global design resources at Gillette, has
led this effort for more than fifteen years, and has been part of
the effort since 1967.