Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Harrys Paper-2
Harrys Paper-2
Morgan Smith
Lexcie Lewis
Adam Leblanc
Oleksandr Podgurskyy
HARRY’S RAZORS
2
Problem Identification
Harry’s has recently introduced a new marketing campaign titled “A Man Like You”. In
this ad, a young boy shows a man how to “be a man”. The man claims he is not from here and
asks the child for help. Through this ad, Harry’s is attempting to break through social barriers of
what society counts as a “real” man. while promoting their company. Harry’s is committed to
intensifying what being a man is.(BrandStudio, 2018). The ad is only posted on YouTube,
therefore, it does not have a large reach. Is the “A Man Like You” advertising campaign
Background
“products for all men thoughtfully” (Harry’s, Our Story). Our company was founded in 2013 by
Jeff Raider and Andy Katz-Mayfield after a trip Andy made to a drug store in 2011 that left him
frustrated due to the high prices and locks on razor cases. As a member of the marketing team of
Harry’s, we believe men should not have to settle on the products they use frequently. Our
marketing team has conducted research over the past few months to see if our current advertising
campaign “A Man Like You” is resonating with our target market. Our target market consists of
Our team conducted numerous surveys to gather this data which will be discussed later
on. Our major finding is that the ad is not ultimately resonating with our target market, and many
reasons are playing into this factor such as ad length, lacking the use of social media, and it is
only posted to youtube. Harry’s aims to increase revenue by 10% in 2019. With that being said
there are certain steps that will be taken such as brand expansion, increased utilization of social
media and ultimately creating a new advertising campaign. One of our top competitors, Dollar
Shave Club has increased brand expansion already with lines for both men and women, and also
a dental care line. Dollar Shave Club also takes full advantage of their social media use and has a
very fast response rate when it comes to customers who use social media. Harry’s lacks effective
social media use when you compare the two companies. With our target market being millennial
males social media is a huge factor for us seeing that the majority of this group utilizes this tool.
The problem we are facing is that the ad is not resonating with our target market and our
marketing team has conducted extensive research to confirm this. The next steps we will take are
detrimental for the increase in revenue by 2019. With a new, shorter ad, product line expansion,
and increased use of social media we believe the increase in revenue by 10% is possible if such
steps are taken. Following you will see information on our research design, how the data was
Research Design
We decided to test the effectiveness of the advertisement through primary and secondary
research. Descriptive research was used to examine the market potential that Harry’s could take a
position in. For this research, we used a systematic approach in our design. Our secondary
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research consisted of internet findings to get information about the company and their presence
in their market. Our primary research was used as a research instrument that consisted of surveys
conducted through Google. These emails were sent out to our target market which was millennial
males age eighteen to mid thirties. We decided to target millennial males because we believe
they are more susceptible to a new brand like Harry’s for a more unbiased group. Our survey
consisted of ten questions ranging from their grooming habits to asking direct questions about
feedback on the effectiveness of the ad. The survey contained a link to the ad in case the ad was
not seen before. We also asked their preferred brand of razor and an open-ended question if they
According to our surveys, most of our market has not seen the ad. Lack of media
selection was one the underlying problem of the ad campaign. Harry’s only showing the ad on
YouTube has limited their reach. According to Business Insider, about 80% of millennials still
use Facebook every day. Another significant finding was discovered that more men prefer
Gillette but men that used Dollar Shave Club had more loyalty to the brand than Gillette. This
caters to the customer’s psyche and the way their buying behavior can affect Harry’s. Through
our open-ended portion of our survey, more men used nostalgia as their influence to buy. There
was a recurring pattern that men used products that their fathers used. The reasoning behind this
was that they could trust the product not because it was better but was familiar. Through this
research methodology, we can interpret the data further to get concrete trends and further
Data Interpretation
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Based on the results from the survey, we were able to determine that our primary research
method was effectively reaching our target market of millennial males. Among those who
recorded their age, 70% of respondents were in the age range of 18 through 22 years old.
According to the Strauss-Howe Generational Theory, a millennial is anyone born between 1982
and 2000 (Strauss & Howe, 2008). According to this definition, 82.4% of respondents fall in
this category, we also had 12% aged between 23 and 30. The large percentage of individuals
taking the survey strengthened the belief that our method of research is a good representation of
the target market. Among the respondents, 83% reported shaving every week and 11% shave
every day. Millennial males shave regularly, creating a high demand for razors in a highly
competitive industry. Since men shave regularly, they will need to purchase razors often, 45%
Harry’s has plenty of opportunities to increase sales, grow their brand, and increase their
revenue. Harry’s can create brand loyalty in new and existing customers by continuing to
provide the consumer with a quality product at a fair price. One of the survey questions asked if
quality or price is more important when purchasing a razor. The majority of men prefer quality
razors over cheap razors, 61% of respondents selected quality, while only 28% said the price is
more important. Harry’s mission is to provide men with an inexpensive, quality razor. This
creates a competitive advantage for Harry’s since they can provide consumers with the quality
they are looking for at a lower price than competitors such as Gillette. Harry’s produces quality
razors for approximately $2, while the typical cost is $4 (Mueller-Soppart). Harry’s has a lot of
opportunity in the shaving industry, among those who responded, 50% preferred Gillette, while
17% prefer Harry’s. On a positive note, more people prefer Harry’s than Dollar Shave Club.
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Harry’s can obtain new customers and increase their market presence since they produce quality
Harry’s certainly needs to increase their market presence, only 50% of those surveyed are
familiar with Harry’s. The company can also benefit tremendously by using different mediums to
promote their brand. The ad that was researched. “A Man Like You” did not have a large reach,
only one-third of the respondents have seen the ad. We provided a video of “ A Man Like You”
so we can get impressions while the ad is fresh on potential customer’s minds. Unfortunately, via
our open comments question, we came to the conclusion that the ad is doing a poor job of
resonating with the consumer. A few people said the ad enticed them to purchase Harry’s but the
majority were not enticed. Several people mentioned that they did not see how the ad was related
to razors. Other complaints about the ad were about the length of it, specifically that the ad is too
long. The ad received negative feedback such as “The ad is irrelevant” and “they did not
mention the razors”. The open comments question also showed that Dollar Shave Club has
created brand loyal customers. The data obtained from the survey as shown that the campaign
Conclusion
In conclusion, our primary research, which was done through the survey, has successfully
reached our target market of millennial males. However, according to our survey findings,
Harry’s advertising campaign “A Man Like You” has not resonated with our target market. Most
people responded that Harry’s ad confused them because it had nothing to do with a product that
Harry’s promotes(razors). In addition, most of the respondents mentioned that they didn’t even
1. Making an ad shorter. Making an ad shorter will provide a lot of convenience for the
consumers since they will not have to spend too much time watching the ad.
2. Be more clear about the purpose of the ad. Making an ad more clear about the purpose
of the ad is the most important step for Harry’s to improve their advertising campaign.
Making an ad simple, short and connected to the product will greatly benefit Harry’s in
3. Increase social media presence. Harry’s is one of the newest firms in the shaving
industry is in a big disadvantage compared to their competitors since they still don’t have
a well-developed brand loyalty among their customers. One of the ways to improve their
brand loyalty and bring new customers is to increase their social media presence.
Enhancing their presence in social platforms like Twitter and Instagram will attract a lot
of new consumers.
4. Expanding their brand and product line. Harry’s has already started expanding their
brand by partnering with a brick and mortar store like Target. However, there are still a
lot of opportunities for Harry’s to expand even further by partnering with the famous
brick and mortar stores like Walmart, CVS, Rouses and Walgreens.
Expanding their product is a very important step for Harry’s. Right now, they are losing
to their competitors in terms of variety of the products they provide. Expanding their
product variety by adding products lines like, Dental Care, beard oils, hair gels, cologne,
will help them attract new customers and create a competitive advantage.
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In conclusion, if Harry’s manages to make these changes, we believe that they will be able to
meet their ultimate goal which is increasing their revenue by 10% by the end of the year 2019.
References
Strauss, W., & Howe, N. (2008). Generations: The history of Americas future, 1584 to 2069.
Tran, K. (2018, March 05). Social platforms are most popular among 18- to 29-year-olds.
Retrieved from
https://www.businessinsider.com/social-platforms-are-most-popular-among-18-to-29-yea
r-olds-2018-3
Mueller-Soppart, L. (n.d.). Harry's Razors Shaves Away Poverty. Retrieved November 15, 2018,
from https://www.northeastern.edu/sei/2013/10/harrys-razors-shaves-away-poverty/
BrandStudio, W. (2018, April 04). A man like you. Retrieved November 15, 2018, from
https://www.washingtonpost.com/brand-studio/harrys/a-man-like-you/
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