gillette vs. dollar shave club final
TRANSCRIPT
Battle of The Blades
Zach Morgan
TABLE OF CONTENTS2……….Executive Summary
4……….The Basics
9……….Social Mention Metrics
12………Blog
15………Facebook
18………Twitter
21……….Instagram
24……….Youtube
27……….The Winner
29……….Going Forward
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
In March 2012, the entire competitive landscape for men’s shaving products changed forever. With one viral video, a new
start-up company, Dollar Shave Club, propelled a seemingly stable, cash cow industry into a frenzy. Through a quirky, off kilter
Youtube video, Dollar Shave Club revolutionized the E-Commerce sector for men’s shaving products, challenging the industry’s
leader, Gillette, to catch up. This E-commerce business is driven, in large part, by social media marketing strategy. Here we will
examine the strategies, techniques, and results for both Gillette and Dollar Shave Club.
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DOLLAR SHAVE CLUBFounded: 2011
Type: Private
Founders: Michael Dubin and Mark Levine
Headquarters: Venice, California
Company Projected Value: $615 Million
GILLETTEFounded: 1901
Type: Subsidiary of Protector & Gamble (2005)
Founders: King Camp Gillette
Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts
Company Projected Value: $20.4 Billion
The Basics 4
Acquired by P&G in 2005, Gillette is a brand giant controlling 70% of the market for men’s razors with $7.9 billion in sales through the Month of May. The Fusion ProGlide, priced at the higher end of the premium segment, achieved $1 billion in sales faster than any other P&G brand in history.
Gillette initially did not take Dollar Shave Club to be a real threat but has quickly seen the start up capture 54% of the emerging e-commerce market for razors.
The Basics
Not even 60 minutes after the viral video went live the Dollar Shave Club’s servers crashed due to traffic, and within 48 hours, they had 12,000 initial members. Today, they boast 600,000+ members and sell over 24 million razors per year while offering a more varied collection of shaving products.
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Because Dollar Shave Club (DSC) began as long-shot underdog in a classic David and Goliath fight with Gillette, DSC was forced to be creative in how they positioned and marketed their brand using three powerful techniques: • Creating a new E-commerce market for a traditional brick
and mortar product
• Building customer loyalty and value with shave club format
• Initiating active and creative brand interaction across
social platforms through relatable grass root campaigns
The Basics
In The Beginning 6
Gillette has recently recognized DSC to be a force to be reckoned with and are quickly attempting to respond by:• Creating it’s own shave club program
• Advertising their club to be a cheaper option
• Emphasising superior quality of razors
• Becoming more active on social channels
• Developing a more relatable brand voice and personality
The Basics
Today
DSC continues to evolve into becoming a household name and is beginning to run larger broader TV and radio ads.
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While the broader advertising and brand positioning by both companies are
fascinating, we will refine our focus to each company’s social media strategy, content,
and results across five different platforms
The Basics
Today
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This image cannot currently be displayed. -By The Numbers• Strength- the likelihood that your brand is being discussed in social media;
calculated by number of phrase mentions within the last 24 hours divided by
total possible mentions.
• Sentiment- the ratio of mentions that are generally positive to those that are
generally negative
• Passion- a measure of the likelihood that individuals talking about your brand
will do so repeatedly
• Reach- a measure of the range of influence. Measured by the number of
unique authors referencing your brand divided by the total number of
mentions.
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This image cannot currently be displayed. -By The Numbers5 Day Avg
Gillette Dollar Shave Club
Strength 59% 3%Sentiment 18.1 8.1Passion 51% 7%Reach 24% 2%• Each has positive social sentiment
• Gillette has greater strength, passion, and reach
• Could be skewed due to social mention error and the use of 1 keyword vs. 3
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This image cannot currently be displayed. -By The NumbersWhile it appears Gillette is dominating in every single category, Social Mention is a free service and is often found to be very inaccurate. What is important is to note the role these four metric classifications play in each company’s social presence as we take a closer look at each company’s performance, platform by platform, digging deeper into the vality of these numbers.
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SITE/BLOG
• No consistent blogging
presence
• Helpful shaving/styling tips
& videos
• Answers FAQs
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SITE/BLOG
• 5-7 posts per week
• Original/curated
content
• Interactive
• Answers customer Q’s
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SITE/BLOG
Winner!With a consistent blogging presence,
Dollar Shave Club provides informative information with a unique voice to
address their customer’s common pain points and gain valuable trust as an
industry expert.
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• 2,088,802 Likes
• 5,712 talking
• 1 post every 10-14 days
• Relies heavily on celebrity brand reps
• More formal tone
7,851 new fans/month
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• 2,126,567 likes
• 17,726 talking
• 1-2 posts per day
• Quirky tone of voice
• Lots of shares
• Link’s to blog posts
• Quick to respond
43,000 new fans/month
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Winner!Dollar Shave Club wins again. With better, more consistent content, their Facebook
community is growing rapidly and the consistent conversation/interaction around the brand reflects the social
outcomes of developing a company around the idea of a club.
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• 72,400 followers• 12,400 tweets• Interactive posts• Inside workings of company• Joining the current conversation
Followers18
• 70,200 followers• 4,345 tweets• Mostly links to blog content• Contests
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Winner!With frequent posts, interactions, and active
conversations around current events with consumers, Gillette far surpasses DSC in the
Twitter arena. Gillette proficiently uses Twitter to engage it’s consumers while developing a more three-dimensional brand personality
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• 2,448 Followers
• Avg likes: 60 per post
• Highlights everyday men
who use Gillette’s razors
• New to the party
• Playing catchup
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• 37,100 followers
• Avg likes: 365 per post
• Big/engaged following
• Wide rang of content
• Product highlights
• Funny brand relatable
videos
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Winner!Dollar Shave Club dominates this platform
with far superior following, content and interaction.
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YOUTUBE
• Channel created: 2006
• 600 + videos
• 75.8 million views
• Use of celebrities
• Mixture of content:
Ads, how-to tips, behind
the scenes of the brand
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YOUTUBE First viral video
20.9 million views
• Channel created: 2011
• Platform for early success
• 21 videos
• Almost 30 million views
• Quirky, off-beat humor
• Mostly advertisements
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YOUTUBEWinner!
Although Dollar Shave Club brilliantly used Youtube’s viral potential to catapult their
brand into significance, Gillette wins this battle because of their consistent presence, amount
of content and overall channel reach. Their Youtube presence is the biggest content
platform for the brand and their instructional series acts as an alternative blogging tool.
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OVERALL WINNER!Outperforming Gillette on 3/5 social platforms Dollar Shave Club wins this
duel by crafting a unique brand identity that is easily liked, shared,
and enjoyed.
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Gillette’s Response• 2014 ad campaign attacking DSC
• A little too little, too late
• Punch did not land
• No customer insight
• Brand comes off condescending
or out of touch
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Takeaways Going ForwardGillette is already doing several things well through their social platforms but great marketing on social channels and off must be genuine. While Gillette has some work to do to catch up to new industry players like DSC, they must not merely try to copy DSC both in product offferings (ex. shave club format) or in social media content. In today’s social media society Gillette and other large brands cannot rely on being a big brand but work tirelessly to create and grow a dynamic brand personality across all channels.
While DSC social media strategy has been proven to be incredibly active and innovative, there is still many areas to imrove. Examples include: adopting a more interactive, connected presence on twitter and providing more content on their Youtube channel.
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