King of Shaves Azor? Fair at full price! Gillette, Wilkinson? Over-priced at Half-Price!

I was in Tesco Amersham yesterday and took these series of pictures.  If you're a guy, looking for a great shave, and effective grooming, there's never been a better time to shop.  Gillette Fusion:  Half Price handles.  Wilkinson-Sword: Half Price handles.  Gillette skincare?  Half price.  Then I took at look at our King of Shaves Azor.  Full price.

I thought, either we're expensive and convention tells us to be selling at half price, ie £2.49.  Or, they're over-priced (a Fusion Phenom Power is £9.99 remember, and are having to half price to keep market share up.  Ever since we launched King of Shaves Azor back in June 2008, 'Wilkinette' have adopted a 'promote to compete' strategy on their handles.  Never discounting their over-priced replacement cartridges (£19 for 8 cartridges anyone?) but perpetually discounting their battery powered handles.  My design engineer and I know how much these cost to make, and with the retailer margins demaded by the likes of Tesco and Boots, we know the loss on each sale must be pretty big.

The conventional 'razor and blade' business model dictates that you 'give away' the handle at a loss, and make the all important profit on the replacement cartridge sale, but we've never followed that model.  We simply sell at great looking Azor razor handle, fairly priced, and sell super long lasting, Endurium coated Azor cartridges at a fair price (half that of Gillette Fusion for example) and let the consumer make their mind up.

And the results have been great for us.  Since launch, we've enjoyed a handle market share averaging 8% (from scratch) and cartridge sales growing strongly each and every month.

And this is before what we've planned for 2009 starts unfurling...

Exciting times indeed.  So, make your own mind up.  Buy an over-priced handle at half price and consign yourself to filling it with over-priced cartridges at Full Price, or  Choose Different, Shave Azor and enjoy the King of Shaves - a shave that's closer, with cartridges that last longer, and all importantly in these challenging financial times, cost less.

Shave different with King of Shaves Azor.  You know it makes sense.