How does a startup come on to the scene, take on giant global brands like Gillette, and win?
That’s what Dollar Shave Club did, by harnessing the power of great brand storytelling. This is how they did it.

• By telling the truth, and keeping it simple.
• With an easy to remember brand name and tagline, which reinforces the brand’s value proposition.
• Presenting that clear value proposition right there on the home page.
• Educating the audience and clarifying why they are different from the competition.
• Appealing to the target demographic, with anti-status quo values, design, tone and copy.
• Giving customers plenty of calls to action. All roads on the site lead to customer conversion.
• By showing their audience that other people are excited by this product too. Using social proof; almost 5 million shares on YouTube, and thousands of tweets and Facebook likes.
• With a great affiliate program. Customer incentives are front and centre, (the photographer who took the photo above is earning free razors with an affiliate link on his Flickr!).
• By making their customers feel, enlightened and doing what the big brands were not prepared to do.

You no longer need to own the means of production, to secure a slice of the market. Big companies will try to work out how to avoid being ‘dollar shaved’.

But the truth is, that today, you don’t need $57 million to tell a better brand story.

Iage by Mitchell Bartlett.