Brand Royalty

As our Azor continues to develop strongly in the UK, and we are counting down to the launch of our v3 (third generation) Azor next week, we thought we'd serve up a couple of great deals with leading UK retailer, Tesco.

It's February, it's miserable - and post Christmas, cash is tight.  So, as we're determined to offer the "King of Shaves without the Ransom", we have two great promotions running at Tesco - but when they're gone, they're gone!

• Just £2 gets you a new Azor Gel (worth £2.99) PLUS an Azor system razor c/w 1 cartridge (worth £2.99).  Spend £2, get product worth £6.  That's the King of S(h)aving!
  
  
• In addition, we're also selling our multiple award winning AlphaGels and AlphaOils at just £2 each, which is over £1 off RRP.

Remember - When it's Gone, it's Gone!

3rd Generation King of Shaves Azor Launches In One Week, 11th February 2010 (original blog post)

I'm excited...

"Same, but Better".

Back in the day, courtesy King Camp Gillette, the 'razor & blade' business model was invented.  Hugely profitable, it spawned the 'inkjet printer & cartridge' business model and the 'nespresso capsule & machine' business model.  We entered the space with our King of Shaves Azor (give Gillette a bit of long overdue competition) in 2008, and ensuring we succeed in the long run, is my aim.

Interestingly, a great little article was posted today on Apple's 'stealth' business model (although it's not that stealthy - in fact I've been watching it evolve over the past few years with the almost unstoppable growth of iTunes).

In Apple's 'razor & blade' business model, you get the iPad/iPhone for very little (ever wonder why you can get an iPhone free on mobile phone contracts, or why the iPad is a very low US$499?).  Well, it's because Apple are after 'a little bit of recurring income from a lot - like 200,000,000 people...using a lot of apps 130,000 & growing exponentially.

The past was a different place.  They did things differently there...

Read the article here, draw your own conclusions.  Neat.

Courtesy Lovejingles

Many people ask me "are the Lubrastrips on razor cartridges necessary?".

Well, actually, they are!  As long as they last for a decent amount of time...

Lubrastrips came into being in the mid 1990's, initially on Gillette's Sensor, then SensorExcel cartridges.  They basically react with water to leave a 'slippy film' which allows the cartridge to glide over the skin.

However, they wear out.  Of course they do.  Some even 'change colour' to let you know when it's time to 'change your tyres'...  No names, no packdrill.

The key thing for shavers of the world out there, is that as they wear down, then what's called the "razor cartridge blade geometry" changes.  And, as you might expect, not for the better.  The blades (which are sharper than a surgeon's scalpel) start to change their 'angle of attack' on your oh so sensitive skin.  Making your shave feel rougher.  Making you change the cartridge (actually, if you changed the Lubrastrip, then the shave would return to it's previous performance.  But, that's another story).

Because it makes sense to sell replacement cartridges, not replacement Lubrastrips...

One of our competitors latest ad campaigns is built on 'change the cartridge when the lubrastrip tells ya to'.

Mmmm.

So, where do we stand on this point with King of Shaves Azor?  Well, simply put - our Lubrastrips last for ages.  The one in front of the first blade, as well as the (all important) one after the 4th blade.  Plus, our cartridges are coated with 'Endurium'.  Which means they stay sharper, for longer.

And cost you less to shave with.

I'll leave you to ponder on this....

11.02.10. New 'v3' Azor from King of Shaves. Think Apple iPad, watch this space... (original blog post)

I've blogged before about King of Shaves being a 'hurricane brand', where we're in the 'eye' (centre) - all calm and collected, whilst outside, winds are howling, storms are raging.

Well, I have to take my hat off to Steve Jobs and Apple, A) for the great new iPad product introduction, B) for keeping the web free of any leaks and C) for living in the 'i' of the Hurricane.

Awesome.

King of Shaves & Mubaloo announce iPhone app 'rApptor' courtesy Real Business Magazine competition (original blog post)

Last year, I entered us into a competition with top business magazine, Real Business and leading UK app developer, Mubaloo to win an app for King of Shaves.

We won! Yay! It was announced today, it's called Project rApptor, and it's one of two major projects I'm immersed in right now.

I'll be tweeting out details as they evolve, and if you'd like to become a beta 'Twester' (ie a tester sourced/found by following me on Twitter) then follow me here and DM me your request (no one from our competition please - there will be a filtration process put in place).

With Apple's iSlate announcement coming on Wednesday, it's a good week!

Way back in the 15th Century, William Caxton invented the printing press.  And, as we all know - that changed everything - knowledge was able to be disseminated and read by everyone, rich or poor.  And knowledge, as we know - is King (just look at the values of Google, Telco's, Apple, Microsoft - they do 'knowledge/communication/content'.  In addition, Mr. Caxton's invention led to the widespread use of currencies - bank notes being printed - global powerhouse economies established, trade developed.  Yet, amazingly, in 550 years, this hasn't changed.

But with the upcoming launch of the Apple iPad next week, EVERYTHING will change.  Not instantly of course, not by January 2011 - but by the end of this Decade of the 'One-der' years, we'll all be consuming knowledge via iPad (and its competitors), in the same way we all Google or search Wikipedia for information (rather than rely on reference manuals, dictionaries, encyclopaedias and the like).  CD's (and, increasingly, DVD's) are being consigned to history.  In time, people with Playstations, Wii's & XBox's will download games via broadband directly into the hardware, rather than pop down to a shop and buy them.

And printed newspapers won't be sold anymore at WH Smith, or the Railway station, or be delivered via the paperboy.  They'll be served as eNews, via subscription (at probably much less cost to the consumer than currently - printing ink onto millions of tonnes of paper, and then distributing it costs Big Time).  Simply put, the iPad will launch at a pretty high price point (as it's had undoubtedly hundreds of millions of R&D invested into it), the early adopters and businessmen, knowledge seekers will get hold of it, programmers will start writing a whole new slew of cApps (content apps) for it, Apple will launch a sister to iTunes (iRead?) and as its usage grows - it will become ubiquitous, like teenagers on their BlackBerries, iPhones, Nexus 1's.

Your iPad will be able to hold millions of pages of written content.  The content will be interactive too - as I've blogged a number of times, the era of 'Brand Broadcast' (companies advertising to you to love them, their products) will die, the era of 'Digital Dialogue' (via online interaction) will explode.

It will be a Very Exciting Time Indeed.  'Old Media' businesses (ie publishing houses, newspaper proprietors) will have to compete with new eContent providers - their start-up costs will be minimal (it's taken me about 20 minutes to write and post this) and they can serve their content to the world.

Great news for creative people too - because of the absolutely ginormous amount of information, 'brand clutter' that will become available, the age of the beautifully executed 'creative idea' will make a huge return to our lives; Advertising agencies will rejoice that from an advertising context, Creativity will return to once again rule the roost - exactly as it did in the Halcyon Days of TV advertising in the 1950's-1980's and advertising & marketing agencies will struggle to re-align themselves with working with brands (like us) in helping us engage in a digital dialogue with our millions, tens of millions of customers.

This explosion will create incredibly valuable new Knowledge Based wealth (why else do you think Google is hacked, other than to try to exploit and copy its knowledge serving & content monetisation mechanisms) for a whole new iGeneration.

This knowledge based wealth, along with the upcoming Endustrial Revolution (investment in renewable energy based infrastructure and products - eCars - will further power the economies of countries who put Education and Vision at the forefront of their country's Manifesto.

It's important to me that people in the UK understand we are on the cusp of 'New & Exciting' - a reinvention of the way things work - for the better.

Where King of Shaves is concerned, people will still need to shave - but how they learn and buy what are the best products to shave with, and why - will change forever.  And we're going to be right at the cutting edge of this, embracing change as a constant - always looking to the future through the windscreen, only glancing occasionally through the rear view mirror.

My guess is that Steve Jobs will be viewed as the 21st Century's William Caxton.  Love it.

Bring it on. 

Get your twitter mosaic here.

I hope this is pretty much everyone who is following King of Shaves and I on Twitter (note the cheeky Gillette guys, 5th from RHS, top row...).  I think I'll get it made into a huge wall mural, and put up in our new London brandPod!  It's amazing how quickly the internet has come in just a few years, who remembers Alex Tew's legendary MillionDollarHomePage - click here to go back in time (I'm pleased I bought No. 56 of 100 limited edition prints signed by him a year or so back - there's a King of Shaves story worth telling there one day (with Alex's permission).

PS - I know this isn't all 1,400 - I'm working on getting that done!