Dollar Shave Club: Marketing Case Study

//Dollar Shave Club: Marketing Case Study

Dollar Shave Club: Marketing Case Study

From start-up to billion dollar acquisition in just a few short years, Dollar Shave Club has become a staple case study for everything from business models and innovation to community management and marketing. In this case study we will cover a range of things that made dollar shave club the huge business it is today and the secrets behind its ongoing success.

In case you’re unsure who or what the Dollar Shave Club (DSC) are, they’re a subscription service for razor blades and have extended into other related products such as shave butter, post shave cream, and hair products. The grooming products you need conveniently delivered to your door all at a great price – what they offered was simple but in high demand. However, where they really stood out is that they were more than subscription service, they were and still are a club, first and foremost. So what is the secrets to the DSC’s success?

They Solve A Problem

As with almost any good business, DSC solved a problem. The problem they solved was the difficulty and inconvenience of buying razor blades. Now you may not think this is (or was) a big issue but as Dollar Shave Club’s marketing videos demonstrate (all be it in an overblown hyperbolic way) it actually was. They thought razors and blades where overpriced, inconvenient to buy and generally though they could make the whole process of buying them better and their customers agreed.

They Built A Community

But why would anyone go to a new company such as DSC when Gillette already had proven that they had a great product and were comfortably dominating the market? Well, because Dollar Shave Club were offering a different product, and I don’t mean that they were delivering to your door on a subscription model, or that they were cheaper. The product they were really selling was membership to their club. DSC connected with their audience, their message resonated and their customers where as excited to be a part of the community as they were to have razor blades sent straight to their door.

It’s right there in the name, it’s a club and the company truly bears this out. From its newsletters to their social materials their message is about their community. They share their customer’s photos online which creates the sense of connection with the company that has led to the word of mouth growth of the brand. Since its inception in 2012, DSC has continually reported great referral numbers.

DSC Cares About Life Time value

As is typically the way with most successful subscription based service the value for the company comes from maximising the recurring revenue and length of a customer’s subscription as much as acquiring new customers. By putting focus on providing the best products and service to extend a customer’s life time value, DSC also increase the time and likelihood for their customers to recommend them to other people. In this way, by focusing on customer retention over new customers DSC still drive a strong word-of-mouth campaign to acquire new customers – it’s the perfect win-win.

Their Marketing Is On Point

All the above is great, but word of mouth aside, a company still needs to market itself and Dollar Shave Club are some of the best marketers. Starting with an incredible launch video (see below) and continuing today with influencer marketing, DSC put heavy focus on the promotional content, ensuring it’s in line with the brands tone and sense of humour. This relaxed tone and sense of humour is what truly makes DSC a club. They relate to and connect with their audience and the consistency throughout their content further demonstrates their authenticity.

The company first caught attention in 2012 when its witty launch video pulled no punches in showing off the company, its products and its unique brand and just a few years later in 2015 Unilever acquired DSC for $1 Billion. But now several years after the acquisition the company has been left to do what made it so special in the first place as it goes from strength to strength leaving competitors such as Gillette scrambling with a shifting stance and marketing angle, which ultimately produces a lack of authenticity a key factor in the recent controversy surrounding their latest ad. DSC don’t react to the market, they don’t change direction on a whim to try capture the market, they stay true to themselves and allow those who align with them to promote and endorse them and ultimately sticking to their guns and being unapologetically themselves is the key to their success, that and everything else. DSC didn’t achieve success by doing one thing really well, they’re a by-product of a series of smart decisions and good executions coming together.

By |2019-04-15T10:22:26+01:00February 19th, 2019|Uncategorised|0 Comments

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