Dollar Shave Club’s Edginess Work Abroad

Mini Case
Will Dollar Shave Club’s Edginess Work Abroad?
Michael Dubin launched Dollar Shaving Club (DSC) in 2012 as a mail-to-home razor blade subscription company costing members as little as $1 a month. A key element in the successful U.S. launch was an edgy video that introduced Dollar Shave Club to the world by opening with Dubin at a desk, pitching his razors. He then stands up and asks, “Are the blades any good?” After responding, “No,” he stops beside a sign that says “our blades are f***ing great.” The video then turns into a hilariously slapstick pitch, with Dubin driving a forklift, dancing with a guy in a bear costume, and scattering dollar bills into the air with a leaf blower. The video proved an instant success, going viral and crashing the company’s server but generating 12,000 orders the first day. The video has since been watched about 26 million times on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUG9qYTJMsI).Page 366
More than 3 million people subscribed to DSC, and the company’s $152 million in sales in 2015 represented nearly 50 percent of the online razor market in the United States. In 2016, Unilever, the giant British-Dutch consumer goods multinational, purchased DSC for $1 billion, one of the largest deals in e-commerce history. Despite the steep acquisition price, Unilever vowed to allow the company to retain its autonomy in order to preserve its edginess and close affinity with customers. Alan Jope, Unilever’s president of beauty and personal care, claimed that rather than intervening in DSC’s affairs, Unilever would instead learn from the newly acquired unit, particularly regarding the brand’s approach to lifestyle marketing and advertising.
DSC represents a disruptive force in a personal care sector that has traditionally been characterized by high priced competition and traditional approaches to product positioning. “American men are evolving in their bathroom routine,” Dubin says. “Five years ago, if you spent time in front of the mirror, people would have called you a metrosexual. We now live in the age where it’s okay to hug guys and compliment and give advice.” To help establish itself as a lifestyle brand rather than just a purveyor of shaving supplies, DSC has expanded into a broad range of toiletry items, including skin-care and body washes, hair creams, and toothbrushes and toothpaste, with discussion of further expansion into vitamins, hair color, and makeup for men. Despite the expanded product line, DSC tries to retain its quirky image. A video released in mid-2018 featured a range of people preparing for a night out, including a drag queen shaving her legs, men shaving their privates, a woman shaving her head, and DSC’s CEO stuffing his underwear with toilet paper (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEU-MAZRhJs).
While DSC has had success in the U.S. market, a key question is whether and to what extent it can successfully apply its business approach in international markets. While the company ships some product to Australia and Canada, the range of products being sold has been limited, as have sales. In 2018, the company announced that it would expand to Europe, initially to the United Kingdom. The company was coy about other European markets they might target, while suggesting there was strong growth potential in the region. The company has also hinted at an interest in other areas, such as Brazil and India. But penetrating new cultures could prove challenging. DSC’s success to date has been based on a keen understanding of the American man, but penetration of foreign markets will require detailed understanding of grooming standards elsewhere, some of them quite different. Will DSC’s wacky, sometimes raunchy humor work abroad? “We’ll test it and see what happens,” Dubin said of the company’s future overseas marketing efforts.
Sources: Ann-Marie Alcantara, “Once the Brand of Bros, Dollar Shave Club Is Now Aiming to Conquer the Wellness Market,” Ad Week, September 23, 2018, www.adweek.com; Dave Paresh, “Dollar Shave Club Succeeded with Razors, But the Rest of the Bathroom Is a Challenge,” Los Angeles Times, September 01, 2017, www.latimes.com; Shomara Roosblad, “Unilever’s Dollar Shave Club to Expand to Europe in 2018,” Fashion Network, October 13, 2017, www.uk.fashionnetwork.com; Jaclyn Trop, “How Dollar Shave Club’s Founder Built a $1 Billion Company That Changed the Industry,” Jaclyn Trop, www.jaclyntrop.com; and Entrepreneur, www.entrepreneur.com.