"Getting 'Dollar Shave Clubbed'" Study Released

CINCINNATI, April 19, 2019 (Newswire.com) - ​​​Mobile Agent Now, a leader in leveraging insights from online consumer reviews and comments to drive business action, today released a report titled: “Getting ‘Dollar Shave Clubbed’: How Natural Brands’ Search Dominance Is a Trojan Horse for Mass brands”.

Every brand knows the cautionary tale of Dollar Shave Club and its impact on the iconic brand of Gillette. Dollar Shave Club was founded in 2011. Four years after their launch, Gillette still had not responded even when Dollar Shave Club had over a million users. While brands across categories are now paying closer attention to smaller players in part as a result of the lessons from this very visible example, the “Getting ‘Dollar Shave Clubbed’” study reveals the significant threat posed to mass consumer goods brands in one of the fastest growing segments:  Naturals.

That threat from these niche ‘naturals’ brands is emerging in search, which is often under the radar of mass brands. Based on research across 21 consumer goods categories on Amazon, the top 10 non-paid search results of ‘natural’ (e.g. natural laundry detergent, natural pet food, etc.) reveals compelling insights:

·       Emerging ‘natural’ brands have just over 90 percent of organic search results vs <10 percent share for mass ‘natural’ brands;

·       Emerging ‘natural’ brands have 3x the number of median reviews over their Mass Natural brand counterparts;

·       Emerging ‘natural’ brands have a higher average star rating than Mass Natural Brands: 4.18 compared to 3.97.

“With 62 percent of consumers going to Amazon first to search on products, and online searches for all things natural increasing, the dominant search position of emerging ‘naturals’ brands should be a wake-up call for mass brands,” said Mark Jeffreys, CEO Mobile Agent Now. “Add on top of that that these emerging brands have more reviews and higher ratings than mass ‘natural’ brands on the largest eCommerce platform in the U.S. makes the threat even more compelling. Mass brands cannot afford to let these smaller emerging natural brands get a beachhead,” added Mr. Jeffreys.

The report drills down into each category to identify trends. There are some higher involvement categories – for example, those offering products for children – where Mass ‘natural’ brands fair better but still below their ‘fair share’ of search. There are other categories where mass brands do not even show up. In fact, 43 percent of the categories did not have one mass natural brand appear in the top 10 search results.

The results of this study are important for a number of reasons:

·       Consumer interest in ‘naturals’ is exploding across all categories, providing opportunities for mass brands, but also posing a threat for brands that are not positioned to win in that segment;

·       Mass brands cannot afford to have these emerging ‘natural’ brands get a beachhead;

·       With an average of 1,082 reviews across these emerging ‘natural’ brands, mass brands have an opportunity to mine those reviews for insights. Each of these reviews is a gold mine that can help identify competitive vulnerability of these emerging brands and power innovation by providing a roadmap for claims, product differentiation opportunities and marketing innovation.

Given limited data on sales rates and consumer feedback, it’s often not until emerging competitors start to achieve critical mass until they are noticed and then it can be too late – ala Dollar Shave Club. “Getting Dollar Shave Clubbed” reveals the by-category data that enables mass brands in these categories to better compete.

To further explore the study, visit Mobile Agent Now’s website: https://mobileagentnow.com

About Mobile Agent Now                                                                                                       

Mobile Agent Now exists to help brands drive sales by leveraging reviews. Its proprietary Insights Miner capabilities enable reviews to be extracted from wherever your customers are leaving them, harness that unstructured data for insights and recommend actionable business-building solutions – not another dashboard, but custom analytics to solve some of a brand’s biggest business challenges. Mobile Agent Now also helps brands engage with those customer reviews either by responding on your behalf or providing brands a One Tap Response Portal where your team can more efficiently respond. Learn more at https://mobileagentnow.com

Media Contact
Jennifer Adamson
Phone: 419-654-2175
Email: jennifer@mobileagentnow.com

Source: Mobile Agent Now