Brand Royalty

Courtesy Geoff Riley, head of economics at Eton College, I was delighted to speak to approximately 200 young shavers as part of a series of talks to their Entrepreneur Society, headed by co-secretary, Thomas Aedy.  Having gone to school at Kirkley High, a comprehensive school in Lowestoft, Eton is probably as far removed from that place of learning as it's possible to be.  It was great!

Eton Entrepreneurship Society

I was met by Thomas, a very assured young man (in his suit & tie - the tie came off shortly afterwards) at Eton landmark, 'the burning bush', and then ushered into one the 25 houses, for fireworks and dinner, kindly hosted by housemaster, Mark Fielker, along with Geoff and a dozen or so of the members of the Entrepreneur Society.

I had about an hour in which to try and impart my enthusiasm for what I do - how King of Shaves has grown, why I founded the business, the challenges, the rewards and the importance of being a 'momentum creator'.  We touched on my 'life at the centre of a hurricane brand', the importance of calm (whilst storms are raging around you), why I think companies of the future should be constructed like a wheel, explained Brannovation, Smarketing, Props & Purdo's, took the audience through my '20 second MBA' course and afterwards, answered a series of intelligently framed questions from audience members (attendees were also from local schools, as well as students from Eton).

It was my first 'after dinner' presentation - normally, I try to carry them out in the morning, or at least during the day, but I got two huge rounds of applause, and at the end, Thomas kindly mentioned "I'd been the best speaker they'd had, so far" (I'm sure they say that to all the speakers).

Attendees departed with King of Shaves product, and assorted cans of Red Bull & Relentless - those who were there, will know why these were handed out.

These guys (and girls) are our future - and I hoped my brief discourse on 'Being the best you can be' enthused them to 'embrace change as a constant' - 'knuckle down and build momentum' and most important of all, to 'enthuse, exceed, enjoy'.

Thanks Geoff, and for your blog post too.

Consumer Communities, Digital Dialogues and Shaving. The King of Shaves View. (original blog posting)

I was pleased to be interviewed by Clark Turner, founding editor of top online marketing site, uTalkMarketing.com a week or so ago, and was delighted to

Azorbytimeout

read the article today, courtesy a tweet from one of our followers. If you're in marketing, and want to start to get ahead of the curve in this space, I believe it's worth a read.

You may also have read that King of Shaves is a founding member of the Consumer Forum, i blogged on the site today about the importance of embracing Twitter to connect with your customers, 25/8. Link to that blog here.

Hope you enjoy!

Movember 002

Back in 1993, a young guy called Brett Wells worked at SIPCO (Shell International Petroleum Company) in IT.  He was a friend of mine (still is!) and was one of the very first (like, the second!) to shave with the original King of Shaves shaving oil, contributing to its stellar first year sales of £300...

Sixteen years on, we've come on a little way, as has he - now Business Development Manager at a company called Ingenico, and along with five colleagues, is heartily embracing the spirit of Movember, growing 'tache's to raise funds for this worthy cause, and in memory of Tim, a work colleague who sadly passed away due to prostrate cancer.

The six guys (Brett is the one in the purple tie) are pictured, and if you wish to donate to this worthy cause (King of Shaves supports it down-under, in the UK, Wilkinson Sword are doing their bit), please go to their donation page here.  They've already raised £880.  Well done bro's.

And, when it comes to removing their no doubt beautifully crafted moustache's, we'll provide the necessary hardware and software, and make a donation ourselves.

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King of Shaves Azor continues to grow in the face of huge competition from 'Wilkinette'.  According to sales numbers we received yesterday (and this is before our integrated TV advertising & trade promotions kicked off early October) here are the highlights:

• King of Shaves Azor handle sales up 309% year on year (to w/e Oct 3rd 2009)
• King of Shaves Azor Endurium replacement cartridges up 1,339% year on year (to w/e Oct 3rd 2009)
• King of Shaves Azor the #5 selling system razor handle by volume (outselling all individual Wilkinson Sword variants, as well as Gillette Mach3 Turbo, Gillette Fusion Power Stealth, Gillettte Fusion Power Phenom & Gillette Fusion Power Gamer).
• Aggressive price promotions by Gillette drove handle sales at the expense of handle cost, the average Gillette system handle (including all power variants) at just £4 (versus RRP's of up to £9.99)
• All Wilkinson Sword products in month-on-month sales decline.

Looking forward to reporting our October sales figures - where our handle market share could easily hit 17% by volume.

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Courtesy Alex Mitchell, Head of Influencer Relations for the IoD (Institute of Directors) I was delighted to speak at their annual Chartered Directors conference on Thursday 29th October, to approximately 80 leading CEO's, Directors & CFO's on what life's like at the heart of a challenger brand.  I was the last speaker (of 6) and took to the stage at about 4.15pm to deliver a session that explained how King of Shaves is thriving by being at the 'heart' of a brand hurricane, how our company is structured (a wheel - always with momentum - always embracing change as a constant) and finally, a brief summary of my SPACE strategy - a blueprint for successful entrepreneurs, or 'momentum creating individuals' - MCI's.

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Alex let me know that my talk was particularly well received, with 100% of the attendees rating it 'Good to Excellent' and 65% of the attendees rating it as 'Excellent'.

I was also pleased to make contact with a couple of companies interested in introducing King of Shaves into Russia and India, and was also delighted to make the acquaintance of Mark Swan, a Director at the CAA (Civial Aviation Authority) who gave me his word for 'Money' in my Wheel chart, 'Purdo' (Pounds, eURo's, DOllars).  Thanks Mark!

Hurricane

Many thanks to everyone who came along, I hope you went away with some useful knowledge & insight into life at King of Shaves! 

Awesome King of Shaves Azor Sales in UK. (original blog post)

In the past four weeks, in the UK alone, we've sold a simply stunning 107,000+ Azor system razor handles and an even more unbelievable 602,000+ Azor Endurium cartridges. With each Azor cartridge delivering 3-4 weeks of high performance use, that's over 2,000,000 weeks of King of Shaving.

Words fail me. Many, many thanks to everybody who's turned from 'the Dark side' and have seen the light, who 'get' our ecoptimised, high performance razor with its 'Bendology Technology' and who are shaving closer, longer, for less - and with style too.

King of Shaves Azor also shortlisted for Shortlist Magazine's 2010 Men's Grooming Award for Best Razor - we won 'Best New Shaving Product' last year - will we manage the accolade of 'Top Razor' as we turn our faces towards 2010.

King of Shaves - Truly the Future of Shaving.

King of Shaves - Putting Customers First, Proud to be Founder Member of The Consumer Forum (original blog post)

Late last year, at a business awards ceremony, I first met Simon Calver, CEO of Lovefilm, the UK's leading on-line film & games rental company. Simon has driven impressive growth for the firm and it became clear A) he was a really nice guy and B) put his customers first. As we do exactly that at King of Shaves too, when we met again in 2009 (at another awards ceremony, which we were delighted to win) I was interested to hear of his plans for a 'Consumer Forum' - a group of entrepreneurially minded, customer-centric companies, which put the consumer first. His idea was to get together a group of companies, and launch the Forum, which is dedicated to not being 'confrontational' with consumers, but rather, practice 'best practice'. Given we serve up millions of shaves each day, each which must be the 'King' of shaves, I was more than happy to sign up KoS for the forum, along with other like-minded companies such as Ella's Kitchen, Photobox.com, Chemist Direct and A Suit That Fits (a company I talk about in my book on 'How to Grow a Great business in Tough Times'.

The forum launched today - you can visit it here, see our press release on it here and see early Marketing Week press coverage here.

Nicky Springle (who heads up customer care & interaction for me at King of Shaves) and I will post regularly, with examples of how King of Shaves puts customer care & satisfaction at the heart of what it does, which I hope people find useful.

Well done Simon, for getting The Consumer Forum off the ground, and here's to signing up many more likeminded members.

People who are interested in what TCF is up to can follow us via twitter here which is administered by Surinder Gill.

Cool shavings & savings with King of Shaves Azor & Clicks in South Africa (original blog post)

It's a beautiful sunny day in Cape Town, and with Table Mountain in the background, we showcased our Azor to South Africa's press at the Killarney racetrack, before letting the 20 or so journalists loose on the racetrack in V6 'full on' racing cars.

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Bob Lansdowne, Cape Town's premier barber demonstrated the Azor on half a dozen (unshaven) journalists and was enthusiastic with the product, it being "cool, without the cost". Available exclusively at Clicks across South Africa, and with retail prices of just 75 rand for the Azor & 2 blades, and 70 rand for 4 replacement Endurium cartridges, we are confident that men who previously have bought cheaper disposable razors will welcome the Azor with open arms.

Many thanks to Redline & draftFCB who put on a great brand experience for 'the King' in South Africa, the Azor & Azure (for women) razors are on sale at Clicks now, look out for some great PR and publicity in the forthcoming weeks and months.

King of Shaves Azor & Gels Now Available In South Africa At Clicks (original blog posting)

Clicksazor

I flew into Cape Town via Johannesburg yesterday, for the upcoming press launch of our King of Shaves Azor, exclusively in Clicks - South Africa's leading health & beauty retailer.

Whilst out in beautiful Cape Town today, I was delighted to find the Azor already on shelf (and shopped, according to the young sales assistant I chatted to) at the Clicks store in the shopping mall on the V&A Waterfront.

Excellent news! Really looking forward to the official launch next week, and many thanks to all at Clicks for helping us get King of Shaves & Azor on sale in the African continent, hot on the heels of South America (Brazil) and the USA.