Challenge

The product is top rated with ~2k five-star reviews, but the brand message was scattered, focusing on a number of different attributes with no core identity or ‘center of gravity’ to bring the marketing communications together. The brand had little recognition or awareness outside of the existing (primarily male) customer base, and depended almost entirely on short-term product marketing and word of mouth to grow sales. Given the product’s long shelf life, the company was spending a fortune marketing to new customers and had already begun to lose ground to competitors with similar products and messaging.

Solution

We led the team through our strategic branding process to define and align on their positioning, determining the monster we were fighting was the broken, self-serving business models of the shaving industry with deceptive product claims and would-be ‘design innovations’ that don’t actually improve shaving results. With our core driving belief and distinct POV established, we fleshed out a new brand personality, tone of voice, and look and feel that signaled the brand’s difference.

We identified content and campaign concepts that would resonate with both male and female audiences with a shared mindset, and platforms to amplify the brand’s message in an unexpected and unconventional way. Our efforts included a new landing page as well as ad creative with an emphasis on the brand’s provocative point-of-view on the shaving industry. In our creative execution service, we designed new brand photography, videography, illustrations, graphic patterns, and a color system that supported the revised strategy.

Results

Just a few short months after our work together, the Henson team has experienced a number of tangible and intangible benefits, including; alignment from the team and external partners on their brand identity; a compelling story and brand voice to streamline marketing efforts; significant increase in interest from brand-centric partnerships; a ‘vetting’ system and lens to internally assess brand opportunities; consistency in brand tone and language across consumer touch points; and a level of maturity and polish across brand communications and visuals.