P&G launches Gillette body and hair care range for men

Procter & Gamble (P&G) is poised to launch a series of men’s body and haircare products under the Gillette brand. First to hit the market will be a body wash called Gillette 2-in-1 Dry Skin Hydrator & Body Wash.

The body wash product will be available next month, initially in the US, and it is thought it will be followed with a range of haircare products for men. An entry into the men’s haircare market would make Gillette virtually the only mainstream haircare brand aimed solely at men, rather than a male variant of an existing haircare line.

The new products are the latest move in P&G’s efforts to extend the Gillette brand since it acquired the company in a merger worth £32bn just over three years ago.

The women’s Gillette brand, Venus, added major extensions to its razor range earlier this year with the launch of Venus Vibrance, a vibrating razor, and Venus Breeze, with integrated shaving gel, in February (MW.co.uk February 6).

But trademark problems in the US have slowed P&G’s plans to launch women’s body care products under the Gillette Venus brand. A body wash, Pure Divine, was launched in 2007 and classed by P&G as a Gillette Venus brand extension but it did not carry the Venus name and had a restricted trial in Canada.

A further Venus razor, called Venus Embrace, the first five-bladed women’s razor, is due to arrive in the UK imminently.