Why Gillette Made a Video Tribute to Its South Boston Workers

By Ilan Mochari Ilan Mochari's debut novel, Zinsky the Obscure (Fomite Press, 2013), earned rave reviews from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist . Boston's NPR station named it one of 10 "Good Reads for the Summer." He is a senior writer for Inc. magazine. @ IlanMochari Senior writer, Inc. @ IlanMochari

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With all the hype you'll hear about storytelling in business settings, it's easy to forget a simple truth: Your story is not merely the chronology of your company. It's a composite biography of all your employees, young and old, new and experienced.

For a timely example of how to document this in a short, heartfelt format, look no further than Gillette's recently released series of five videos, called "Faces Behind the Blades." The campaign, timed for Labor Day, shines a light on the employees who design and build razors at the company's South Boston factory, which opened in 1904. 

"We saw this as a way around Labor Day to celebrate everything our employees do for our business," Kara Buckley, global communications leader for grooming at Procter & Gamble Co., Gillette's parent company, told the Boston Globe. "I don't think people realize what happens here or the many, many people that put their hearts into it every day."

If you merely read Buckley's statement and don't watch the video, you might think it sounds like exactly what you'd expect a communications exec to say. When you watch the video, you realize how believable the "put their hearts into it" part is. 

Your skeptical side might wonder: What's in it for Gillette--besides some win-win Labor Day messaging--to showcase its loyal, longtime workers and its detailed-oriented, Boston-based manufacturing processes?

Quite a lot, when it comes to the landscape of razor sales. In recent years, a bevy of e-commerce blade-making startups have emerged, all with the intent of slicing away at Gillette's century-old competitive advantages. Online razorblade sales from these startups reached $189 million last year, and they are growing: Sales reached $141 million in the first five months of 2015. 

True, that is a mere follicle in the bucket compared to Gillette's global might--a Wall Street Journal estimate clocks Gillette's revenues at nearly $6 billion for a recent nine-month span. Nonetheless, Gillette is now in a marketing war with the startups who, generally speaking, have been enticing customers by offering blades at prices lower than Gillette's. 

Gillette cannot compete with the startups on price or on novelty factors. Likewise, no startup can compete with two of Gillette's defining traits: Its 111-year history and its status as a dyed-in-the-steel American manufacturer.

These videos, highlighting how employees value their place in Gillette's history, highlight of all that. You probably think of Gillette as the pricey razor behind the locked plastic at the drug store. But the company is likely hoping you'll think of it differently when you hear the stories of, say, these two employees, each of whom has logged more than 40 years at the company. Sometimes the best way to tell the story of your products is to put the camera on the people who've dedicated their lives to them.