His Butt, My Face and a Little Bit of Marketing Advice

His Butt, My Face and a Little Bit of Marketing Advice

Find the nearest baby. Go ahead, the world’s full of ‘em. Feel his little bottom and note the smoothness, the softness, the coefficient of friction of his tender cheeks. Now feel my face. FOR GOD’S SAKE, WASH YOUR HANDS FIRST! Thanks. Anyway, notice the similarities? My previously stubbled and tortured face is now a slightly disturbing cliche about a baby’s bottom due to Dollar Shave Club, one of my favorite startups.

The idea, like nearly all brilliant ideas, is simple: You pay just $1 for 5 dual-blade razor cartridges per month, $6 for 4 quad-blade bad boys, or $9 for three 6-bladers. You don’t pay for shipping and can cancel at any time you want.

Why do I love these guys so much? Because they reaffirm what great marketing and sales should be, but rarely is:

1. It’s a simple value proposition: It’s right there on the home page of their website: “A great shave for a few bucks a month.”
2. They solved a problem (and explained it WAS a problem): Shaving is expensive, and too many of us use old, dull and dirty razors to save money.
3. They were able to make every word count toward selling, simply because their brilliantly simple idea needs little explanation. See what I mean at www.dollarshaveclub.com
4. It’s a simple PROCESS: They just chucked the blades in the mail and boom – I was shaving. See, they got out of their own way. They didn’t put barriers to a purchase in front of me. They didn’t make me pause and worry about getting stuck in a long-term commitment, or make me go through three pages of options simply to click “buy.” I didn’t have to worry about paying extra because I don’t live close to a distribution center, or wonder when the UPS or FEDEX guy is going to show up. Great marketing plus great process equals great results.
5. They didn’t lie to me. The blades are great. My face is like a baby’s ass. It only cost me a few bucks. It’s all good!

Sometimes we make our marketing and sales process far more complicated than it has to be. And that’s usually a result of being focused on ourselves and NOT our customers.  BEFORE you contact the professionals (that’s me!), save yourself some time, money and hassle by getting back to basics: Is it simple? What problem does it solve? Are you making it easy to do business with you? Are you living up to your brand’s promise?

Do YOU have a favorite startup we should be watching? Do they have a lot in common with Dollar Shave Club? Let us know about it.