In a world where YouTube is the new way to (potentially) become an instant celebrity overnight, there are endless numbers of people hoping to be the creator of the next viral video, suddenly having the world at one's feet. An extension of that possibility is the purposeful usage of YouTube by web-savvy marketers as a testing ground for a particular advertising approach, if not test marketing the actual product idea itself.
One such effort that has caught my eye is the rather ubiquitous video advertising the supposed next-big-thing in men's razor blades and shaving care - Dollar Shave Club (not quite the type of medical device I would normally be interested in, but it's a fun diversion nonetheless!). The premise is that for a mere dollar a month, you (or if you are a woman, then the man in your life) can have blades shipped direct to your door at a minimal cost. Why bother going to an actual store to procure over-priced blades when they can be delivered right into your eager hands each month?!
Of course, among various initial responses I had to the marketing schtick (please note, that was schtick, not Shick!) was the inevitable one - it was too good to be true. How can they do all that for a dollar a month, which would barely cover shipping costs alone? Quite naturally, the simple answer is that they can't! A closer inspection of the offer reveals that you can have five extremely basic razors (the "Humble Twin") for $3.50 a month, which is admittedly still a very reasonable deal - albeit for what is by today's standards only a very basic razor.
A clear message in CEO Mike Dubin's spiel is that for us men, our grandfathers had no problem scraping a primitive blade across their faces, so why all the fuss over four or five blade razors, and lubricating strips, and battery-driven motors to make the cutting a smoother operation and sensation? If it was good enough for grandad then it's good enough for us, right? Wrong.
Anyone with business expertise in the men's grooming segment has to know that in your typical pharmacy, what used to be a few short shelves dedicated to male grooming has expanded enormously to handle what has become a vast market. Men no longer have to ask their wives to get them that shower gel they secretly love or buy them that new fancy anti-perspirant, because it is no longer considered effeminate for a man to actually choose what he washes or scrapes his face with! Men can now stroll in boldly to the men's shelves and stare adoringly at the wealth of luxurious new products directed at little old us, and insist on making an educated choice.
So, there goes the main and initial premise of Dollar Shave Club (DSC) - give men what they want, the cheapest razor possible, with no bells and whistles. I can tell you right now that it ain't gonna work, today. But someone at DSC clearly realised that also, so guess what, they also do offer razors that are far removed from what grandad used to torture himself with. Hence we have the "4X" and the "Executive" - four razors per month at a cost of $6.50 and $9.50, respectively. The latter even comes with a strip of aloe, lavender and Vitamin E - can you imagine grandad's face scoffing at that girly razor?!
I find the message confusing - which is it, DSC? You are offering primitive razors at a primitive price, or you do not wish to be thus differentiated and so do want to compete in the luxury razor market against the big blades? The video implies the former, yet the website implies the latter, but the insightful (or cynical?!) might conclude that the video's sole purpose was to get traffic to the DSC website, and for that it served its purpose very well, apparently. But then we are all in agreement that a torturous shave is no longer in fashion. Even the CEO admits that there is very little margin in the bottom end deal they offer - so they need to sell the big boys.
Given that we have dispensed with the hypothesis that men do still want grandad's old blades, and so we in fact want something fancier, well, why would I move to this offer from the luxury blades being offered by the seasoned professionals and skilled engineer-designers of say, Gillette? Yep, the only reason would be price. But it's going to be $9.50 per month for four blades from DSC, versus half a pack of Gillette Fusion at about $16-20 total, so around $8-10 per month. Where's the point?
Thus we come to another issue which DSC saw coming, so they brought up the whole idea of us men forgetting to buy blades as the reason for joining DSC. We never have to worry again, because our blades come to our door, for life. But what if I don't just have to buy blades at the grocery store or pharmacy, and because I buy many other items then blades are just one on the list and I do it all on the same trip? This means I am not likely to forget to buy blades, nor see much advantage in only my blades coming to my door, when I have to go to the pharmacy for all the other stuff, anyway. What's next - DSC II - Dollar Shampoo Club?! Dollar Soap Club?!
Additionally, what if I don't need four blades a month due to having some facial hair, or I only want/need to shave three times a week? I am going to have two spare blades per month, and the next, and the one after that, so before you know it the wife is going to be screaming at you when she opens the bathroom cabinet and a mountain of blades falls all over her, scarring her for life?! At least when we buy blades when we need them, we are not accumulating blades we don't use. That's my main issue with DSC - I can't get as few blades as I want as few times a year as needed - it has to be 48 blades, guaranteed.
I think this is all a classic case of great marketing and the viral (and admittedly clever and humorous) video that promotes a product, being superior to the actual product itself. An idea that does not in my opinion solve any real problem or customer need. One sees this as a criticism on "Dragon's Den" all the time - where what looks like a cool, quirky product actually gets torn apart as something that is trying to solve a problem which doesn't actually exist. Investors run a mile from such things, and I would have trouble investing in this idea.
The guy in the video is Michael Dubin, the CEO of DSC, which he co-founded with Michael Levine, back in 2012. I guess the fact that the YouTube video is now doing the rounds on primetime TV is a sign that their launch went well, and they now want to explode the concept across the entire country, and maybe even the world. I wish them all the best with that, even if I see it in the end as a very limited market that will appeal to only a certain percentage of us shavers.
You know? Given that it may indeed be housewives who actually are the demographic that buy the bulk of men's blades, for their husbands, maybe the marketing should actually be targeted towards women, not men, because it is they who have to hear us screaming from the same bathroom cabinet - "Honey, where's my new blades, you said you would pick them up on the weekend? Don't tell me you forgot, again? Whattttt?" - and another version of WWIII erupts!
On that note, so that I can settle in with a clear mind and conscience for my power nap during this afternoon thunderstorm, let me race into the bathroom and ensure that my stocks of lubricated, five-blade motorised Rolls Royce razors are adequate for the next month, at least! ;)
PS Not sure you noticed, but I wonder if the free advertising for Toyota (or even Roger Federer!) is a coincidence, or they sponsor DSC in some way?!
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