The Bluebeards Revenge: An Analysis

In my last post I narrowed down the competitors to 'The Bluebeards Revenge', 'Wahl' and 'Parker' as the three most threatening to the new brand gaining a place within the market. It is important to analyse these further so as to understand what the new brand can do in order to compete effectively against them.

The Bluebeards Revenge

The Bluebeard’s Revenge is an example of a brand who markets in a more edgy way but with traditional values and product selection. This is reflected through how they use imagery such as men with tattoos and piercings as well as their dark blue colour palette, skull and cross bones logo and rough font choice which all suggest a younger and edgy target audience. However, within their brand architecture they sell traditional products such as straight and safety razors and within their brand identity emphasise a traditional sense of manhood; as shown by their slogan which states that the brand offers “the ultimate shaving and grooming experience for real men” which showcases how they are using the fact that many men use shaving as an expression of their masculinity, and so men who place importance on this would be drawn in as it makes it feel like a sort of club and they aren’t ‘real men’ if they aren’t in it. They also have a wider product range of styling and hair products which covers all bases and covers the individualisation trend as their consumers can use these products for self expression in addition to the traditional shaving tools. Having their own branded pale ale also sets them apart and makes their brand identity stronger as it shows they really understand their consumer with extra products they will also love, this has the ability to generate brand loyalty and a sense of belonging within the brand. This will all make them tough competition for the new brand who will also be operating an old-school approach in terms of brand architecture and message as they express a masculine identity. The Bluebeards Revenge's product range is very wide and offers more than the new brand currently, it could be an idea to create a range extension which offers more options to our consumer for styling and grooming, however, the new brand will need to differentiate themselves through their more paired back branding for a slightly older consumer.

This brands engagement levels are also fairly strong as their bounce rate is impressively low at 22.7% showing that their website is engaging and consumers are compelled to go beyond just the home page, however conflicting with this is low visit duration and pages per visit. The new brand will need to ensure they have enough tactics in place to encourage engagement from consumers as this is clear indication of how successful a brand is performing.

I then looked further into how The Bluebeards Revenge are currently making efforts to engage their consumer.

Website

• Easy to navigate, with clear sections and easy to find products

• Pop up after around 30 seconds of being on the site encouraging you to sign up to email offers

• Incentives for signing up including free gifts, discounts and unique prizes and events

• Competitions under a 'get involved' tab

• Magazine section featuring articles by the brand on how to achieve different looks, interesting articles about barbershops and recent news from the brand for example.

• Dedicated shaving and grooming tips section

Social media

• Posting culturally relevant content (e.g. a Stephen Hawking quote after he died)

• Giveaways at certain times of the year such as christmas

• Quiz questions such as 'name that iconic mo' for the followers to comment and guess

• Clear themes across channels which is unmistakable to the brand

Offline

• Large number of stockists across the UK, including barber shops and wetherspoons (for their pale ale)

• No physical location of their own store

• Attend barber events

• Has associations with British Master Barbers and FHM Grooming

• Offer shaving courses with top barbers

These all show how The Bluebeards Revenge are using an omnichannel approach to market to their consumers and encourage engagement, particularly impressive is the amount on their website designed to get the consumer involved and fully part of the brand. One thing I noted that could be improved is their social media presence, as they currently aren't achieving ideal engagement as they receive on average only between 100-200 likes per post and 0 comments on the majority. This shows how the new brand will need to do something more than what The Bluebeards Revenge are doing in terms of social media in order to get the consumer involved in conversation. Having associations with barbers and well respected groups in industry, however, has great power within their marketing as it gives believability to the consumer, and so this is something to strive for and consider when putting together a strategy.