The advertisement below showcases a small company selling $1/month subscription based razor-blades. Take a look for yourself:
DollarShaveClub.com – Our Blades are F***** Great
“Alejandra, what were you doing last month?” “Not working.” “What are you doing now?” “Working.”
After only 2 days after that video was released, 12,000 orders were lined up at Michael Dubin’s door.
Nostalgically reminiscent of Old Spice’s commercials that went viral last year, Dublin successfully utilized social media to target a mass consumer base. The company’s humorous but bold message that “simple is all you need”, derails many larger company’s (Gillete’s) value proposition.
Customers could easily watch the video and choose to buy any sort of cheap disposable razors, but instead they were encapsulated by the cool and authentic looking life-style that the company offers, a brand image that relays more than just a cheap razor-blade. This product differentiation is bound to increase the rivalry in the mens-hygiene industry.
Thanks to social media, which lowered the barrier of entry, companies such as the Dollar Shave Club are able to utilize another option to enter the industry. The success of such a small but out of the box video advertisement leads us to realize how fast marketing is changing.
Resources:
http://www.quickmba.com/strategy/porter.shtml
Leave a Reply