In the world of consumer goods, few brands have successfully captured as bold and daring a brand voice as MANSCAPED. What started as a disruptor in the men’s grooming space has evolved into a global personal care powerhouse selling to the modern man who values precision, hygiene, and a brand that isn't afraid to speak his language.
But as any high-growth brand knows, moving from a "niche disruptor" to a "household name" requires more than just clever marketing — it requires a deep, scientific understanding of why and when consumers actually think of you.
In a recent webinar, Scott Jensen, Executive Director of Strategy and Insights at MANSCAPED, joined quantilope’s Gianna Saladino to discuss how they moved beyond traditional tracking to dominate a new brand category using Better Brand Health Tracking (an evidence-based approach developed by the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute).
Turning a hairy situation into a pivotal brand shift
For years, many brands (MANSCAPED included) have relied on the "brand funnel" (Awareness > Consideration > Purchase). MANSCAPED recognized that traditional tracking may have helped them understand some of their challenges, but it still left them with a lot of gaps — specifically, where they can go next for growth, and what was getting in the way?
Our traditional tracking research confirmed we're seen as the "ball guys"... but it didn't show us where our challenges or gaps were.
- Scott Jensen, Executive Director of Strategy and Insights at MANSCAPED
To break into a new category, improve KPIs, and fuel long-term growth with the right customers, the MANSCAPED team switched gears from a traditional approach to quantilope's Better Brand Health Tracking solution. They started by identifying Category Entry Points (CEPs) — the specific internal cues and external situations that cause a consumer to buy a grooming product (e.g., "getting ready for a date" or "preparing for a vacation").
CEPs are key to disrupting your category and emerging as a leader in your space. It's not just about being known, but about being the brand that comes to mind when it matters the most (i.e. when consumers are actively shopping in your category). In tracking their CEPS, MANSCAPED gained actionable insights into what they could start doing differently.
Measuring what matters: Mental Availability and Mental Advantages
By leveraging quantilope’s automated tracking solution, MANSCAPED was able to quantify their Mental Availability — how often their brand came to mind across their tracked CEPs. Mental Availability goes beyond physical availability (if/where your products are available on the shelves). Generally, the more Mental Availability your brand has, the more growth your brand will experience.
One key Mental Availability metric, Mental Market Share, is validated against real world market share and usage data so brands can feel more confident and proactive in their business decisions. Increasing Mental Market Share is a combined effort of increasing the number of 'brains' you reach with your marketing efforts (Mental Penetration) plus increasing the diversity of brand associations (Network Size). Through their tracking efforts, MANSCAPED discovered their Mental Market Share and Mental Penetration were already quite strong, but they didn't stop there. They looked for their true Mental Advantages.
Turning insights to impact
Consumers knew them as the brand for "keeping the boys tidy" but in order to grow, MANSCAPED needed to tap into a new area. By analyzing which buying occasions MANSCAPED dominated and where competitors were vulnerable, the team could see exactly where the "white space" was in the market.
Through quantilope's Mental Advantage analysis, MANSCAPED discovered they exceed category expectations for "removing groin hair" and "removing body hair", but not so much for "removing facial hair"...despite their beard and face products being on the shelves at major retailers like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, and Costco.
Quantifying these insights gave their executive team confidence to invest in a brand growth strategy, alongside their work with the O-Lab to understand how people react to explicit photos. They discovered that a face pic is 9x more likely to a get a response than pictures "downstairs".
Hence, MANSCAPED's "Send Face Pics Instead" was born, becoming the brand's most viral campaign ever.
This data-driven clarity allowed them to launch a new brand campaign that didn't just look good — it was crafted to win specific consumer moments. Now, they needed to connect their product to this new use case, making their brand the go-to choice for "privates" and "publics".
Why Better Brand Health Tracking with quantilope?
Traditional tracking is often slow, backwards-looking, and disconnected from commercial outcomes. By translating BBHT insights into high-impact creative, MANSCAPED ensured their marketing spend was laser-focused on the situations that actually drive penetration (no pun intended). Their success story proves that when you combine the speed of quantilope’s platform with the rigor of Mental Availability metrics, you get a blueprint for category domination.
As Scott puts it:
quantilope is a great partner for us because we can do Better Brand Health tracking with them, but we can also run advanced methodologies like Conjoint and other surveys to keep a good pulse on our consumer base.
Key takeaways for marketers:
- Identify your CEPs: Stop focusing on the funnel and start focusing on the buying situations that drive sales.
- Build Mental Availability: It’s a more reliable predictor of long-term health than traditional equity scores.
- Own your Advantages: Use Mental Advantage data to find out where your competitors are weak, and double down on those occasions.
🚀 Ready to sharpen your brand’s growth strategy? Book a demo with our team to learn how quantilope can help you master your category!
