Dollar Shave Club: From Everyday Product To Extraordinary Brand

Before Dollar Shave Club launched a viral video humorously depicting the struggles of buying men’s razors, the brand was entirely unknown to the world. Boasting the slogan “our blades are f*#%ing great,” this video was the framework for the witty brand voice that Dollar Shave Club consistently uses across their digital channels and cleverly branded products. Here, Dollar Shave Club explains how they leverage humor to transform an ordinary product into a multimillion dollar brand.

What marketing and branding strategies contributed to Dollar Shave Club’s rapid rise to success?

DSC: Humor has been an integral part of the company since Dollar Shave Club (DSC) began. Many of our members discovered DSC thanks to the now famous tongue-in-cheek video that our founder and CEO Michael Dubin wrote and starred in back in 2012. The video resonated with guys because we spoke clearly and humorously about the struggles of buying quality razors at an affordable price. The video highlighted the ridiculous experience that men face when buying razors at the local drugstore, from the plastic razor fortress to the inattentive sales clerk and high-ticket price.

How does the Dollar Shave Club brand identity inform and influence your digital presence?

DSC: From our packaging to our digital presence to our media strategy, the DSC brand identity informs everything we do. To repeat the success of our first video, we made another satirical video to introduce One Wipe Charlies, a product that many of our members had requested. Once again, Michael wrote and starred in “Let’s Talk about #2” to highlight every man’s quest for a better clean. When we launched One Wipe Charlies in 2013, we partnered with the very important but often-overlooked NFL centers on four teams. For every clean snap they made and for every fan who tweeted #CleanSnap during two home games, Dollar Shave Club donated money to the player’s charity of choice. During those games, DSC also handed out One Wipe Charlies for football fans to try and enjoy.

Dollar Shave Club is a subscription-based service that relies on monthly renewals. What strategies do you employ to maintain customer loyalty?

DSC: We prefer to think of Dollar Shave Club as a member-based service; all of our customers are “members” of the Dollar Shave Club community. We spotlight their causes and accomplishments in our “Bathroom Minutes,” which is our monthly lifestyle magazine. We’re closely engaged with our members on our blog and social channels, which has helped us build a great customer experience. We always strive to offer the best quality grooming products to help men live smarter lives.

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