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.
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 (apologies to the clients we made climb into an onsen naked) 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 this company to get to a full-day workshop with the brand’s executive and creative teams, bringing everyone through a series of of projective exercises to land on an inspiring, fresh creative north star for the brand — that everyone got a chance to weigh in on.
We found that modern guys don’t have a playbook for success … and that both traditional male stereotypes and Hipstagram 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 (and to take a candlelit bath every evening, if that’s what makes them happy).
We are a global team of explorers, strategists and innovators dedicated to engaging brands with people. We don’t just tell you what is happening… we tell you why it matters and what you should do about it.
