Dollar Shave Club - love at first shave

First agency visit of many, and off to a great start already!

On September 18, 2019, we went to Dollar Shave Club to learn about consumer insights. They identify themselves as a men’s lifestyle brand and subscription service. In 2012, DSC shot to fame with their “Our razors are fucking great” viral ad.

To reach consumer insights, you must do the research. But why?

DSC gave us 6 reasons why research is key in business and how it can propel you as a brand to reach more customers who will care and thus increase profits.

1. Make better business decisions

a. Research will point to one option over another

2. Remove uncertainty and reduce risk of failing

a. Data doesn’t lie

3. Inform optimizations

a. With data, you can better reach someone who wants to interact with your brand

4. Save money in the long run

a. Don’t waste your money on people who don’t care

5. Understand the general population

a. What are the moods around a razor subscription brand

6. Understand your target consumer

a. Research can help create personas for ideal customers and for you to reach them

I greatly enjoyed the activity they set up for us. They took a group of the class to a focus group room and live streamed it to us in the conference room.

We can talk all day about types of questions and how to lead a focus group, but until we all experienced one did we fully understand it. Sean Krimmel was upbeat in his questions and seemed like he genuinely cared. I learned how important it is in focus groups to make everyone feel comfortable so they will open up more and be more truthful in their answers. Some of the most important notes I took away from the experience were:

· Ask the group to define what they mean a lot

· “name some examples” helps set up open-ended questions

· broad to narrow questions create a great flow

· “it sounds like…” is a great way to sum up their answer and see if you understand correctly

· don’t tell them the point of the focus group or they will tailor their answers to it

I loved the office set up of DSC. It was very open and modern, but warm. My favorite piece

was the creative bench designed as a razor. The presenters, Sean Krimmel, Ally, and Jeff, were welcoming, knowledgeable, and helping with our questions. I love learning about research and how it informs strategy. In the future, I would love to work full time on the strategy side of marketing. Learning from real consumers, turning their answers into data, and reaching the ideal consumer while making the company more profitable from it excites me.

Also, giving each of us in the class a trial box was SO KIND of them!

I thought it was funny that our presenters were not entirely sure who their target market was. They define it as men and target men, but acknowledge that women use their products too. AND I LOVED THEIR RAZORS. I don’t care if I am not the target market they advertise too, DSC razors are gold and I will order from them in the future. And the shave butter? Heaven. Plus, I told my friend Brandon Sanchez while bored in our Business Ethics class how much the razors surprised me and he bought some too. Nice going DSC.

P.S. DSC – if you see this, pls hire me :)