A Modern Look at Masculinity

The Challenge

Helping a personal grooming brand stand for something more meaningful.

After a start-up razor company got acquired by a major corporation, it was time for them to grow up a bit, and to move beyond being just a cheap razor company. We were enlisted to help them understand the macro-state of modern masculinity today… and how that could feed into both a brand purpose and a long-term innovation pipeline.

The Approach

To get to a brand north star, and a ten-year product pipeline, we took a deep dive into two different major areas: 1) what it means to be a man in the world today and 2) what caring for yourself truly looks like. Through in-home friendship groups, future-focused beauty trend treks in both the US and Japan, and a series of co-creations with guys, we got to the root of masculinity today… and how it’s quickly starting to evolve.

As a complement to our large innovation project, we did a semiotics dig around language and images associated with masculinity today and a series of stakeholder interviews with the founders of the company. This got us to a full-day workshop with the brand’s executive and creative teams, where we brought everyone through a series of projective exercises to land on an inspiring, fresh and creative north star for the brand — that everyone got a chance to weigh in on.

The Impact

We found that modern guys don’t have a playbook for success… and that both traditional male stereotypes and social media perfection are exhausting and laden with pressure. We came up with a brand purpose around Radical Acceptance… and this company having your back, wherever you are on your journey.

The brand purpose was so well-received (and created in tandem with their internal team) that it was turned almost word-for-word into their big new creative campaign… letting guys know that it’s okay to be themselves.