Dollar Shave Club - Push notifications

E-commerce platform chosen

Dollar Shave Club is a men’s grooming brand best known for disrupting the razor and shaving industry with a subscription-based model and a distinct fun brand personality.

The DSC brand personality traits are:

• Bold
• Witty
• Straight-talking
• Relatable
• Slightly irreverent but never mean

The brand tone of voice should be:

• Confident. Funny. Casual. Smart.
• Speak like the funny friend who tells it like it is.
• Be charming, not salesy.
• Humour should feel effortless, never forced.

What is should not be:

• Overly technical product jargon
• Trying too hard to be funny
• Over-promising or sounding “luxury”
• Talking down to the customer

From this I have created a style that matches the brand - it speaks directly to the individual in all communications. It uses grooming phrases to introduce topics and isn't overly concerned with being super efficient as the messages are always clear and to the point

Push notification messages

Abandoned cart reminder

• Headline: You missed a bit
• Body: Hey Dave, we noticed you left your blades in the cart. Well keep them there for 24 hours in, just in case.

New range promo

• Headline: Something for the weekend?
• Body: Dave, we have you seen our new beard balm range? Tap to see what new

New product promotion

• Headline: A little off the top
• Body: Dave, the blades that you like are now 10% cheaper. Just tap to add some to your basket.

Subscription Reminder

• Headline: Looking sharp Dave
• Body: Lets keep it that way. Your subscription is almost up. Tap to renew.

Cross selling

• Headline: Collars and cuffs
• Body: Dave, fancy trying our skin cleanser? It goes great with the shave gel you like. Tap to take a look

Rationale

The notifications all follow a similar pattern.

An associated title that links the notification to something grooming related.

Friendly and personable. (a joy to read)

The notification reinforced the action in the message and expected outcome.

They are deliberately friendly and NOT pushy or urgent (the brand appreciates that grooming is not life and death. Push notifications that do not align with this risk distancing the brand from the user.

Guidelines

All push notifications were designed to comply with iOS’s character limit of between 100 and 150 characters (max used 100) and aimed to keep all messages to 3 lines of text max.

Titles were deliberately not used to be the core message indicator, but instead link the message to the grooming behaviour or other associated parlance to emphasise the brand