Taking Male Personal Care Viral A Social Media Listening Case Study

Prepared by Conversition

July 2012

• The Dollar Shave Club is an online start up that promises monthly delivery to your home of quality razors at a low price

• Objective: Raise awareness of the brand, generate product trial

• It’s tactic: Appeal to the male sense of humor by launching an ad in the style of The Old Spice Man

Research Objective: Evaluate the Campaign

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• Measures

• Competitor comparisons

• Conversation volume

• Commercial likes and dislikes

Methodology

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Collect

Clean

Categorize

Calibrate

• Clean out spam and non-relevant chatter (e.g., fun engagement conversations on Facebook)

• Scour the internet for thousands of messages related to the brand

• Categorize the verbatims into relevant content areas, e.g., pricing, recommendations, commercials, celebrities

• Calibrate the sentiment into 5-point Likert scale buckets

Listen to Learn

Razor Category Competitors

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• In terms of the sheer volume of online messages, the razor category generates hundreds of thousands of online conversations (the largest circle). Gillette and Schick generate the most branded conversations (larger circles) followed by Bic.

• The Dollar Shave Club lags behind all the major brands in terms of overall volume of chatter in the social media space.

• When mapping the brands according to consumer rated product features and product pricing, Schick delivers a product with the most positive messages in both areas.

• The Dollar Shave Club delivers a well priced product but it does not compete with Schick or Bic in terms of its product features.

Dollar Shave

Gillette Schick

Bic

Razor Category 20%

70%

40% 70%

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Product Sentiment

Chatter about Razor Commercials

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• Though the major razor brands have a large online presence and regularly air television and online commercials, those commercials have generated very little consumer chatter.

• In 2012, the only brand to break through the noise, and far above the competitive brands, was the previously unknown Dollar Shave Club which launched a YouTube commercial in early March.

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Bic Razors Dollar Shave Club Gillette Razors Schick

Raw

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Opinions About the DSC Commercial

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• Messages from consumers indicated that they appreciated the DSC commercial (82% positive), felt that it was funny (65% positive), and even spoke of purchasing the product (55% positive).

• As expected, verbatims related to anger were more negative, however they were few and not focused in any one problem area (e.g., shipment didn’t arrive, razor bumps, hate double blades)

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Appreciation New Funny YouTube Usage Purchasing Pricing Product ProductLaunch

Anger

B2B T2B n=259 45 119 41 38 33 56 161 26 22

Consumer Interpretations of DSC

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• The commercial communicated the Dollar Shave Club message clearly and effectively. Based on chatter related to just four variables, we can see that the DSC ran a commercial about a razor service that consumers love.

Emotional Chatter Product Chatter

Personal Care Chatter Promotion Chatter

It’s a Smooth Shave

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• One of the components that arose out of the Product Chatter was “Smooth” (n=51).

• For the most part, consumers have a positive perception in this regard (42%) though another 8% have a negative opinion.

• Positive references: – “Just got my blades today. Gave a nice

smooth shave. Love them!” – “I had an allergic reaction to your

razors today. Shaved my chest and broke out with two magnificently smooth pecs

– “using your razors make my face feel smooth as a baby's bottom and on the plus side, it smells better!

• Negative references – “I hate to say this, but I tried first shave

and blades are dull. very rough shave, might have to cancel. anyone else?”

0% 25% 50% 75% 100%

B2B Neutral T2B

And the Service?

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• Social media comments about their service are generally positive (54%) with very few negatives (7%)

• Positive references: – “on the ball and resolved the issue

with blazing speed! Excellent support and service! Thx!”

– “Best value for the price in the market, and best service, too. Goodbye Gillette!”

– “great customer service! I got my blades within 2 days of emailing about my issue. Your blades are great!! Very happy.’

• Negative references: – “No response to my email concerning

billing problem/order not shipped” – “sent a customer service email a

couple days ago, not sure if you guys got it”

– “I want to reiterate, YOU SUCK. Poor customer service, mistakes, and sloth delivery”

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B2B Neutral T2B

Where is the DSC Chatter?

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Source Sample

Size Bottom 2

Boxes Neutral

Top 2 Boxes

YouTube 1713 1% 21% 78%

Twitter 1134 12% 32% 56%

Reddit 498 1% 29% 70%

Tumblr 176 3% 28% 69%

Blogspot 104 4% 42% 54%

Wordpress 96 4% 43% 53%

Facebook 79 13% 37% 51%

TigerDroppings 72 8% 35% 57%

Yelp 42 14% 48% 38%

M3Forum 40 8% 55% 38%

• Unlike most brands that lead with Facebook and Twitter, YouTube is the top data source for Dollar Shave Club. Consumers thoroughly enjoyed engaging on the YouTube page where the commercial was posted (78% positive).

• And, unlike most brands, Facebook was not one of the top data sources even though commentary there was also positive (38% positive).

Who is Chatting about the DSC?

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• Based on social media users who choose to provide their demographic information, those chatting about Dollar Shave Club are male (88.8%, n=1271) and aged 18 to 34 (93.2%, n=59)

• The brand did not attract the engagement attention of older people

Gender

Female

Male

Age

35-64

18-34

65 and older

under 18

Viral May be Necessary but It’s Insufficient

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• Though the DSC generated much chatter due to its viral YouTube ad in early March, that level of chatter was unsustainable. Consumers reverted back to their old ways.

• The commercial generated awareness but was unable to maintain ongoing interest.

Summary

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• The Dollar Shave Club was able to raise its brand name above major competitors such as Gillette and Schick by launching a funny and informative commercial

• The commercial, which could be seen as a spoof of The Old Spice Guy style, was a viral hit

• Unfortunately, without follow-up marketing and promotions, the brand did not maintain consumer interest and generate ongoing brand engagement.

• Though viral ads are highly desirable for generating brand awareness, it is impossible to create virality and it impossible to maintain that level of engagement without active marketing campaigns.

Thank you

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