Tapping into the Groundswell with DevaCurl

“No Poo” – The Movement to Go Shampoo-less

Many bloggers have been documenting their experiences going without shampoo and using natural alternatives. I first found out about it while searching through these blogs.

These bloggers share their lifestyles and experiences and experiment with trends for psychic rewards: good feelings, altruism, validation, and belonging to a community. Even if bloggers will only review a product once, devoted users show up on forums where others are asking questions and vouch for it.

Google returned pages and pages of reviews and testimonials! Individuals and salons were talking about DevaCurl.

Embracing Curly Hair Naturally

Niche: Women with curly hair
Selling points: Natural, healthy, uniquely for curly hair

"100% Sulfate, Paraben, Silicone Free"

Brand: Looks clean, simple, natural; Focuses on empowering; Uses puns & catchy names; Uses negative buzzwords to separate itself from other products

You're Blogging It All Wrong

Left: Media page on their website. Right: Devacurl's blog

Their website focuses on big media and hopes it trickles down – should be reverse.

Blog features brand mentions from big media outlets, but not real bloggers (of which there are many).

The brand's own blog is done poorly: bad keywords/SEO, too short/uninformative, sales-y, rarely updated (monthly), un-engaging and impersonal

Devacurl should tap into the communities that already exist!

Reviews are too spread out online and need to be consolidated.

Word of mouth and reviews from real people would inspire more trust from potential new users. If I’m going to spend money to experiment with a product I’ve never used before, I want to know how it works from real people. People trust other people, not corporations.

Featuring individual bloggers would energize them even more.

The Trending Section on their site seems like it’ll be a resource,
but it’s only about their products. And it only has 3 listings.

A+ Engagement 

• Ask fans questions on Facebook and Twitter

• Post fans’ messages

• Responses to commenters are sometimes inconsistent, but they don't seem to ignore anything major.

To Tweet, You Need Something to Say

Their Twitter is boring because they obviously focus their attention on other areas.

• Links to other accounts and requires you to leave Twitter
• Redundant
• Doesn’t use photos or videos to make it interesting
• Lacks personality

This retweet from a salon shows what they should be doing:

A one-size fits all approach doesn't work! DevaCurl should be adapting their posts to the medium.

Turning Fans Into Models & Creating a DevaCulture

• Invite fans over Twitter and Facebook to participate (as models) in workshop for hair stylists. *Added incentive: gift of DevaCurl hair products based on their needs.

• Post photos of hair models and stylists on their Instagram.

• Workshops train stylists in DevaCurl cutting, highlighting, cleansing and styling. 
• The Stylist Finder helps you find a Deva-inspired stylist who is guaranteed to know how to work with curly hair. (Didn’t load on Facebook page)

They're building their brand loyalty by working with salons. They're connecting curly-haired people with important resources - hairdressers they can trust with curly hair needs.

Trends in Popularity 

First of all: Space or no space?
It was hard to use online tracking tools to find the brand, and this could be part of the issue.

Weekly Brand Review of "Deva Curl" from Social Mention

Percentage of All Blog Posts in Last 3 Months (IceRocket)

Search Engine Popularity (from Google Trends)

Conclusion

Devacurl hasn't reached their full potential appeal to people in the "No-Poo" movement. This could be done by reaching out to bloggers reviewing the products, consolidating reviews on their website, and addressing common concerns that it's too pricey/not natural enough. Current strategies could do more to energize producers on social media and bring that into their strategy of gaining trust of potential new users. Their biggest strength is that their current method creates good feelings among product users and creates a sense of community that will keep loyal customers.