Fresh off a $75 million Series D funding round, Dollar Shave Club, Inc. reportedly is working to grow its offering and consumer reach without diluting its pitch to consumers – that quality razors and other men's grooming products can be had for a fraction of the price of competing offerings, if minus some advanced technologies "you don't need."

The Venice, Calif.-based subscription mail-order service has seen explosive growth in its first three years of business, with sales more than tripling in 2014 to reach $64 million, after storming onto the scene in 2012 with a hit viral video in which CEO Michael Dubin discusses in comic deadpan DSC's "f'ing great" blades and affordable pricing.

DSC now is projecting at least $140 million in revenue for 2015 and is being valued at more than $600 million, according to recent reports. The firm's most recent funding round completed in June, led by Technology Crossover Ventures, generated $75 million.

While the firm is not yet profitable, parlaying its winnings in recent years into wider exposure via traditional advertising media, its success has the attention of major men's grooming brands.

One such competitor, Energizer Holdings, Inc.'s Schick division, recently challenged DSC's advertising in the National Advertising Division's self-regulatory forum, alleging that the company denigrates higher-priced razor brands while deceptively suggesting that its products perform at the same level ([A#02150629001]).

NAD disagreed, ruling that while DSC's hyperbolic advertising may be provocative, it does not falsely disparage competing products or cite any specific performance attributes that could be interpreted as constituting an unwarranted parity claim.

Rather, NAD said, the company poses a reasonable question to consumers: Are the advanced razor features from competing brands worth the substantial additional cost compared with DSC's more conventional offerings?

In DSC's words, "do you think your razor needs a vibrating handle, a flashlight, a back scratcher and 10 blades?" In ads depicting shoppers getting kicked in the groin and otherwise "beat up" by competing brands' prices, the firm urges consumers to "stop paying for shave tech you don’t need."

The firm's marketing strategy has helped win the company more than 2 million monthly and bimonthly subscribers since its launch, touching off an exploding market for Internet razor sales and raising questions about what the future of the men's shave and larger grooming market will look like.

DSC already is expanding into other product categories outside of razors, shave butter and the like, with One Wipe Charlies flushable moist towelettes ($4 for 40 wipes), touted as "the life-changing way to handle your business," as well as a range of Boogie's hair-styling products, priced at $10 apiece.

The company's expansion plan across categories is not atypical among men's grooming brands. Neither is DSC unique in its use of slapstick and irreverent tongue-in-cheek humor to engage younger male consumers.

The firm's launch video is reminiscent in its tenor and delivery of another wildly successful ad campaign in the men's grooming space – Procter & Gamble Co./Old Spice's "The Man Your Man Could Smell Like" series, introduced in early 2010 Also see "Importance Of Brand "Purpose": P&G's Old Spice Ads Beget Free Impressions" - HBW Insight, 1 November, 2010..

In that campaign, former NFLer Isaiah Mustafa was presented as the perfect man for women, turning tickets "to that thing you love" into diamonds, for example, as coolly as he rides a horse (backwards).

In DSC's now-famous video, Dubin makes his way across a factory floor with the same cheeky sangfroid, riding a forklift and chopping packing tape with a machete as he sings his razors' praises and spells out the company's value proposition.

Do Razor Innovations Still Resonate?

Both Dubin and Mustafa are immediately engaging, likeable and believable in their core messages to viewers. While the latter's message, when boiled down, may be simply that Old Spice body wash smells great (like Mustafa), Dubin's is all the more compelling in that it bears on consumers' wallets and because it gets at a reality that's been growing more glaring for years.

The issue is that technological advancements in razor design, deservedly or not, may not command the same awe among consumers – particularly the younger crowd – as they once did. In many consumers' minds, in fact, next-generation innovations over the years have been viewed as uninspired or even farcical.

As far back as the mid-1970s, SNL was parodying razor commercials with its own spoof for a then-unthinkable three-blade razor called the Triple Trac Razor Blade, "because you'll believe anything."

Decades later Philips took its own shot at competitors' blades race in a commercial for the Philips CoolSkin electric razor, in which it invented a mock Quintippio Mega Shave razor with "15 extra-large blades" to call into question the value of multi-blade manual razors.

The Onion similarly satirized a fictional five-blade razor launch from P&G/Gillette less than two years before the Gillette Fusion five-blader hit the market in late 2005.

In the social-media era, when consumers can express their cynicism about products and services as freely as they "like" them, such takeoffs have contributed to widespread consumer suspicion as to how meaningful innovations in the razor segment are to product performance and the average user's shaving experience.

Kristina Vanoosthuyze, Gillette's senior manager of scientific communications, spoke with "The Rose Sheet" June 9 about the difficulty of communicating technological improvements to consumers, emphasizing that while the addition of blades may be the most visible change from one generation of razor to the next, a razor is significantly "more than the sum of the blades" Also see "Gillette Works To Promote Razor Science, Male Underarm Shaving" - HBW Insight, 24 June, 2015..

In recent Gillette launches, it's not the blades that are providing closer shaves but rather P&G's pivoting FlexBall technology. Introduced in Gillette Fusion ProGlide razors in August 2014, the innovation is being heavily promoted as a revolutionary game-changer that provides "maximum contact over tricky contours and gets virtually every hair" ([A#02140505004]).

One need not look far to find skeptical consumers, however. One sardonic commenter on the brand's "Mercy Rule In Shaving" YouTube video states: "If for some reason I end up breaking every bone in my wrist, I might consider buying one of these. Otherwise I really do not see the point."

Another asks, "What's next? One of these days they're gonna develop a cartridge with 25 blades that they're gonna sell for $100 a 4-pack."

Others weigh in to counter detractors. "For those guys saying there is no point in getting one of these, consider the fact that you also grow facial hair beneath your chin, between the lips and the chin, and the sides of your lower jaw," noted one FlexBall champion. "Man, that is so goddamn hard to shave there without one of these. It's like trying to play ping pong with a golf putter!"

Such debate over the usefulness of razor innovations seems to reignite with every new launch. In this environment, DSC's pricing and marketing model found ready acceptance among that contingent that believes, as Dubin suggests in his video debut, the single blade used by their "handsome-ass grandfather" got the job done just fine.

Others just want to relate to the brand they patronize, outside of any efficacy or pricing considerations. One commenter on DSC's "Our Blades Are F***ing Great" video notes: "[I] signed up solely because of this commercial."

Competitive Landscape Increasingly Hairy

As it moves forward, DSC faces growing competition from similar businesses such as Harry's, which tailors delivery frequency to individuals based on how often they shave.

The company's messaging is comparable to DSC's. "Like most of you," the firm says on its website, "we’ve long had to choose between over-priced, over-marketed razors that disrespect your intelligence, and low-quality, cheap razors that disrespect your face. We knew there had to be a better way, so we created Harry’s as a return to the essential: a great shave at a fair price."

800Razors LLC offers three- and five-blade sets that include five and four cartridges, respectively, plus shaving cream and aftershave moisturizing cream, each priced at $20, while ShaveMOB offers two-, six- and 12-month supply options across its Baby Face, Average Joe and Caveman razor selection.

Wet Shave Club, which markets its service as "handsome shaving in a box," represents a variation on the shaving club theme more akin to a beauty box, delivering "different soaps, blades, aftershaves and more from around the world" to subscribers' doors on a monthly basis.

"Bringing back the manly ritual of traditional shaving," the company, which also offers a shave box for ladies, offers plans for up to one year, priced at $22 to $29 per monthly installment.

In the U.K., The King of Shaves Company Ltd. offers plans for regular, weekday and infrequent shavers. The company's founder and CEO Will King has spoken highly of DSC's "genius" marketing, suggesting that such an approach potentially could work to generate enthusiasm and promote uptake in other product categories, including men's skin care Also see "Men Can Be Reached With “Right” Language – King Of Shaves Founder" - HBW Insight, 21 May, 2012..

Retail market leader Gillette has its own shave club as well, with Classic, Advanced and Ultimate plans providing cartridge refills for the brand's Mach3 Turbo, Fusion and Fusion ProGlide razors. The monthly plans run from around $16.99 to $19.49.

The Wall Street Journal reported June 23 that online sales of men's shaving products more than doubled in the U.S. in the first five months of 2015, reaching $141 million, prompting Gillette to reexamine its strategy.

Dollar Shave Club Focused On Growth Post-Viral Video Sensation

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