2. The Situation
Since when are perpetuities fast-moving? Never. One-hundred and thirty-three years ago, in 1895, the safety razor was
commercialized in the United States by Gillette. It had one blade. As the “blade & razor” business model grew becoming a self-
sharpening $2B business model over three generations, men now have five-bladed horsepower in their hands yet their shaving
habits, routines, and attitudes haven’t changed a great deal. We smell a rat.
If you think about it, really, the premise of FMCGs in a world where human behavior lags informed consumer attitude, is
oxymoronic; how can innovation inspire ‘appropriate’ functional requirements while satisfying a higher, and perhaps latent human
element? Can you guess which one gets marginalized, literally?
If an aerosol can can dispense paint and shaving cream equally, just how inspired can a man become when he is performing man’s
primal enhancing act of shaving? A can is a vessel, a dispenser, not a calibrated tool. Shaving is the core of man’s hygienic and
grooming activities - shaving is a self-actualizing performance using “hand-to-eye” coordination. It requires skill, intuition, and
alertness.
“Grooming”, the all-purpose umbrella for categorizing pre-shave-post activities and products, has become complex for something so
basic as “shit, shower, and shave.” Well-established brands with their own or borrowed equities are innovating their portfolios by
systematizing steps, procedures, routines of cosmetics practices and transferring them to men. “For Men” infers there is another
constituency; men are confused by the paradox of choice, selection by de-selection, and the effemination of their rituals. And
consumer choices are more polarized than the male behavior it seeks to influence.
Isn’t the best a man can get what he does naturally? How he instinctively and intuitively recognizes and relates to great design -
form and function, how he incorporates and improvises to achieve his objective. If that is what man does then why isn’t the
category delivering an optimally designed experience for one of man’s most important and defining occasions?
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3. The Evolution of Grooming
100,000 BC 3,000 BC 2,800 BC 1900 1901 1928 1950 1965 1971 1974 1975 1990 1997 1998 2004
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4. A man who lives to be eighty will spend some 2,965
hours shaving
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5. In 2006, men’s skin care became the
single-fastest growing category in
the global cosmetics and toiletries
industry, growing at 11% annually.
Kline Europe, 2006 Men’s Study
2X faster than women’s
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6. The Resolution
Restore manhood, logic, and dignity to the modern man’s shaving
and grooming experience.
Distill the complex and ambiguous category of male grooming, by
creating premium tools designed for man to achieve his hygienic and
grooming objectives. Anti-regimen and process oriented.
Transform and elevate utilitarian male and ‘for men’ shaving and
grooming products from functional dispensers to innovative,
purposeful, and crafted objects designed for what man does.
Design intuitive forms that inspire man to craft his own image.
VS
All-Purpose Specialized
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7. The Mood
Men look better today than they have in a while, for practical reasons - they have more options and choices, their influences are
more global, and confidence can be expressed in more innovative ways. But despite the acceptance of men’s grooming as a behavior
or custom, each individual man defines his own masculinity by his attitude. Shaving is the unifying masculine act - it is democratic,
but it is an independent quest for self actualization.
Today’s man living and working in and between urban and suburban environments is exposed and compared to more types of men
than previous generations. And men are competing on an unprecedented matrix-like level, from Internet-based video gaming to the
traditional corporate rat race, from electronic dating to reality television. Three generations of men with slightly different
perspectives, values, and practices are stretching the original archetypes of man. It’s a primary reason why most marketers attempts
to resonate with the traditional 18-34 male demographic are unsuccessful.
In fact, beyond more options and availability to select from at mass retail formats, men are actually growing the category because
they are becoming the primary household grocery shopper. Shifts in traditional and accustomed gender roles, responsibilities, and
demonstrative behaviors have, and are, impacting man’s essence. The category offers products he doesn’t need, solutions to
problems he doesn’t experience, women’s skin care and cosmetics products blatantly re-packaged and re-formulated disguised as
“for men”, and a growing neo-culture of groomingnista’s whose main objectives appears to be the feminization of man.
Open any male lifestyle magazine and you will see editorial and advertisements specifically for grooming, shaving, and fragrance.
Today a man can be any kind of man he wants to be, but he is still a man. Too many grooming brands belittle, challenge, and distort
the modern male; to shop for shaving or grooming products by comparing identical but different colored cans below eye level is
ridiculous. Men shouldn’t have to pay female-indexed prices for products that they may need but use differently.
No two men are alike but all men are the same. Appealing to this human insight is a strategic differentiating factor that will create a
leadership positioning in a fragmented category. Designing the brand experience that inspires each man to evolve into himself is
what the category is in need of.
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10. The Strategic Components
Create a premium-level portfolio of innovative and performance-
grade products designed for man’s pre-shave-post functions.
Ease, convenience, value for repeat and adoption.
Create emotional reason to “trade-up” in the categories.
Ecologically sensitive and responsible.
Simplify and unify the shopping experience with smart adjacencies.
Premium-priced to FDM skin care brands - Neutrogena Razor
Defense, King of Shaves, Nivea for Men; in-line with L’Oreal Men’s
Expert.
Positioning is 3 Prong: functional, technical, emotional benefit-driven.
Use weight of national mass brands’ communications as education
and indoctrination for new and latent category users.
Build a non-traditional, independent DTC network.
Generate awareness, consensus, trial, and cultural vetting of
products.
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12. The Strategy
If we understand what man does as a human we can design an
end-to-end experience for him that is predictable, safe, and
aspiring that he will incorporate into his lifestyle - routines,
habits, rituals, and replenishment behaviors.
Differentiation as a textural application to the Smirk brand ethos
will be evident in three primary areas: (1) Brand experience, (2)
Packaging and design, (3) Simplicity and accessibility in existing
mass retail formats vs specialty store. An acute study of culture
will inform assortment, selection, application, and adoption.
Seventy-five percent of men purchase shave, toiletries, and
personal care products at FDM, so it makes pragmatic sense to
meet and accommodate them in their existing footprint; if they
are likely to trade-up they will most likely do so in FDM than
migrating to department and specialty formats.
The proliferation of niche male skin care and grooming brands in
the last three years is typical of a nascent segment experiencing
growing demand. However, most brands are simply repackaged
yet sold through identical distribution formats, creating clutter
and confusion.
The Smirk brand architecture is a trinity of what man innately
does - clean, shave, and groom. They are necessary human
elements that define and distinguish one man from the next.
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14. Six-Year Vision
“Heightening the experience of What Man Does”
Obtained a 3 share in a $3.5B+ category by creating a definitive
leadership position by designing innovative shave and grooming products
and solutions at mass. Smirk’s eight-product deep portfolio, some PLACEHOLDER IMAGE ONLY
patentable, will be gradually released into the marketplace over a five
year period. This creates a sustainable product pipeline, creating
incremental product adoption by users.
Established a new premium segment by leveraging design,
intuition, and creativity to trade-up consumers in a stagnant category by
creating unique adjacencies.
Defined the role of “sustainability” in men’s grooming by
setting new standards in the use, application, and craftsmanship of
ecologically friendly (B4U) ingredients, materials and recyclables with a
mass appeal cost/value proposition.
Created a national footprint in nationally branded FDM in key
BDI areas; Developed a self-perpetuating independent network of DTC
representatives, creating an organic and ancillary revenue pipeline.
Resuscitated masculinity in male grooming by heightening the
experience of the action of shaving and grooming. Becoming the
perceptual mindshare category leader among alpha and influencer men.
Outmaneuvered the competition by creating a mutual dialogue and
stronger rapport with modern men, while developing new touch points
for the brand and products to interact in non-commercial environments.
Exiting by divesting to strategic and/or financial concerns at a
premium sales multiple; purchase price to exceed $150M.
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