Unilever just bought Dollar Shave Club for a billion dollars. A billion dollars.
When I first wrote about Dollar Shave Club in the book Subscription Marketing, it was still a scrappy startup. That was early last year. Now, it’s part of Unilever. How did it get there, with a $1 billion price tag?
Hint: It’s not about the blades.
Without knowing the details of the deal or the financials, I suspect that the value of Dollar Shave Club lies in its subscription base, and its relationships with its subscribers.
Dollar Shave Club is a great example of a company that practices value nurturing, adding value beyond the sale of the box or the blades. Dollar Shave Club works on building customer relationship in everything from the hilarious videos to the packaging of its boxes and the entertaining bathroom magazine (The Bathroom Minutes) that comes with the monthly box.
In an interview on emarketer, Adam Weber of Dollar Shave Club describes the importance of building the relationship beyond the blades, using content (the magazine) to build community:
It helps transcend a transaction relationship and makes our members feel like they’re part of a bigger community—part of something more than just buying razors.”
The Value of Value Nurturing
Today’s news serves as a strong rebuttal to those who feel that “value nurturing” is somehow a luxury extra, and that marketing should be spending all of its time getting new leads and sales, leaving the rest to chance.
In nurturing value for the customer, you are building value into your own business. Just ask Dollar Shave Club.
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