By Ap  Reporter Procter & Gamble executives say it was striking the first time they witnessed a man shave while sitting barefoot on the floor in a tiny hut in India. He had no electricity, no running water and no mirror. The 20 U.S.-based executives observed the man in 2008 during one of 300 visits they made to homes in rural India. The goal? To gain insights they could use to develop a new razor for India. ‘That, for me, was a big 'a-ha,'‘ said Alberto Carvalho, vice president, global Gillette, a unit of P&G. ‘I had never seen people shaving like that.’
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Gillette makes the Guard razor, which accounts for two of every three razor now sold in India
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But in 2002, its predecessor the Vector was a massive flop after intense focus grouping with MIT students rather than India residents
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'A-ha moment': Developers quickly learned to better understand the exploding market
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The story of how @placeholder came to be illustrates the balance companies must strike when creating products for emerging markets: It's not as simple as slapping a foreign label on an American product.
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India
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India
To do that, P&G executives would have to attract the nearly 500 million @placeholder who use double-edged razors, an old fashioned T-shaped razor that has no protective piece of plastic that goes between the blade and the skin when shaving.
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Adding to that, they often shave less frequently than @placeholder men, so they wind up shaving longer beards.
Gillette
Gillette
P&G acquired @placeholder in 2005 and the next several years were spent integrating the companies.
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India
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India
But in 2008, the focus on @placeholder returned when Carvalho decided to bring 20 people, ranging from engineers to developers, from Gillette's U.S. headquarters to India for three weeks.
U.S.
But in 2008, the focus on India returned when Carvalho decided to bring 20 people, ranging from engineers to developers, from Gillette's @placeholder headquarters to India for three weeks.