Although it's not on sale until September 3rd 2009, Amazon have quietly uploaded my book onto their server, and it's available to pre-order. Details here.
To read the post, click here
Quite a few years ago now, I discovered Lovemarks - a website that rated brands that were 'loved'. The first book 'Lovemarks: the future beyond brands' was a great read, as is the new book 'The Lovemarks Effect'. King of Shaves has featured on the Lovemarks website since 2005 (currently ranking #83 out of 200), and I'm delighted that we warrant a mention on p114 of their latest book.
Love it!
Last year, pundits pointed out in articles about our upcoming launch of the King of Shaves Azor that we'd "be happy with a couple of percentage points" of the £300m+ system razor market. Well, I beg to differ. Having stated our aim was to be a genuine challenger brand to Gillette (displacing Wilkinson Sword) how are we doing?
Very well.
We had a meeting with a buyer yesterday, who is A) pleased with our performance and B) pointed out to us that the fact our competitors are talking about us (to him) means we must be doing something right. And we are. In just over a year, we've sold (not had to give away) just shy of half a million Azor handles worth approximately £1.6m. Not bad going, bearing in mind we were only in Boots & Sainsbury for the first three months of our launch, and only got into 80% distribution with retailers like Asda & Morrisons a couple of months ago.
And that our consumer advertising only started to kick in in April 2009.
So, how's our 'closest competitor' fared? Wilkinson Sword's (manual) Quattro Titanium razor handle? It sold £1.43m worth of handles at retail, £170k less. than Azor. And, down year on year. And this, despite WS being very regularly on promotion.
And, to add insult to injury, our £4.88 Azor includes 3 Endurium cartridges. Theirs ship with a measly 2. Great value for the shaver at the get-go. Now, we've got a long way to go. We have 2 Azor handles, and about 12 months in the market-place. Wilkinson Sword have a number of handle variants, and have been in the market a lot longer). But with our Azor retaining a stunning handle to cartridge replenishment ratio, and continuing to get excellent feedback from consumers, well - we think we've got a great future ahead of us...with Wilkinson having a great one behind them.
And when we've got to #2, we'll be starting to work our strategy to get to #1... (this may take a little longer!)
Helping Shave & Save People with King of Shaves in the City of London. Shaving Bonds a Hit! (original blog post)
We've had our King of Shaves Azor Tourbus parked in Finsbury Avenue today (in the square, behind Broadgate) all day giving people the King of Shaves, and offering the opportunity to save, with our unique King of Shaves Shaving Bond.
Tim
& Jenny, along with Simon Vingoe and our new marketing intern, Joe
Asserton were here (very) early doors - from 7am, and as well as plenty
of shaves, we've had a lot of interest in
our bonds, with many people passing by having seen it advertised, or
heard about it. Indeed, as soon as I arrived, I met a very nice Indian
gentleman, who'd used our shaving oil for years, was fed up with
NatWest, and 'signed up' for £3,000 worth. As I have said before, and
I'll say again, our Shaving Bond issue is a way for us to connect with
our King of Shaves consumers on many different levels, and them earning
money whilst they shave, is just one of those.
I'm delighted to announce that anyone who applies for a Shaving Bond will also receive free my book about the King of Shaves story, being published by Headline Business Plus in September, likely to be 'Business Book of the Month' at a leading UK retailer, and it's called 'Building a Great Business in Tough Times: The King of Shaves Story'.
So, where there's King of Shaves, there's money to be earned, great shaves to be had, and a good read to boot (well, I've had a few journalist friends of mine read it - and they seem to rate it).
The opportunity to subscribe for a King of Shaves Shaving Bond
expires on 31st July 2009, applications MUST have been received by our
registrars, Equiniti by then.
Don't just shave - King of Shaves (& Save).
I'm always intrigued to see the results of monthly sales data as to how we're faring against "Wilkinette", by the end of next month we'll have had 12 months sales data from our King of Shaves Azor being in the market, and I'll report then (as sales over the last few weeks of the Azor have been phenomenal).
However, I know for a fact our presence in the market is starting to really bite, as in the past 4 weeks, Gillette unleashed their most violent handle price promotion on Fusion yet, with the average handle price falling to just £2.70 (normal RSP £7.99-£9.99). The price of handles in the preceeding 4 week period was £7.03. A drop of £4.33 (almost the entire price of our Azor handle & 3 cartridges). As I write this, Wilkinson Sword are (once again) promotiong their Quattro Precision Trimmer, at 50% off.
Ouch.
The reason for this, is that sales of Mach3 cartridges, which had been inexorably declining, from approximately 590,000 packs (sold in August 2007) to 367,000 packs (sold in April 2009) have started climbing...386,000 packs sold in the 4 weeks to June 13th 2009. This decline (now, seemingly reversing) dragged overall sales of Gillette system blades down from £155m to £147.8m - a 4.6% decrease. During the same period - 4 weeks to June 14 08 v same period, June 09, sales of Gillette system handles also decreased. This is a bit like your 11 year old CD player outselling your newly launched MP3 player, and looking at the trends, I don't see it stopping anytime soon. Hence the violent Fusion handle price promotion.
With the launch of WS's QPT simply taking market sales away from their non-powered variants (rather than substantially growing market share) and their cartridge sales only up just under £1m at retail, then they continue to occupy an interesting place - with Gillette promoting heavily whilst sitting on top, and us spending increasingly offensively as we come up from zero sales, this time last year.
On that note, we had our largest month of Azor handle sales (40,000) in April, and our largest ever sales of cartridges (last week), of approximately 54,000, and with what we have planned during the summer, and in the count-down to Christmas, I don't see this increase in rate of sale letting up anytime soon - indeed, at our current rate of growth, sales of our Azor handle will overtake those of both Quattro & Quattro Titanium within a couple of months, and then start to close in on their next, more established targets...
So, expect to see a lot more marketing, advertising and promotion over the coming months - with the total market in razors & blades being worth (conservatively) £311m at retail, there's a three hundred million pound business to play for.
A note if you're choosing to shave with disposables - both Bic's & Gillette's sales of these (landfilling) products are down (Bic's to £8.9m at retail, Gillette's to £21.9m at retail); Wilkinson Sword's are up (£946k to £9.7m at retail), almost entirely due to them putting their Quattro cartridge on a disposable handle (which makes, to be honest, a bit of a mockery of having a Quattro system).
My final comment, is that from a quality & cost/shave perspective, there has never been a better time to be a wet shaver - and I hold us at least partially responsible for driving up the quality, and down the cost of shaving, especially important noting the continuing economic backdrop.
Like I say, with our Azor, you can enjoy the King of Shaves without the Ransom!
Andrew Stone (whom I met last year at a Sunday Times event) writes an article in today's Sunday Times which explains how funding has dried up for many small companies during this time of economic investment 'drought' and how companies are involving others in their growth. This article neatly captures one of the key reasons behind our issuing our 'Shaving Bond', and although we aren't a cash-strapped start-up, when you're competing with the 'Big Boys', as Tesco would say "Every Little Helps'
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Andrew Stone, Sunday Times: Small firms search for Angel groups.
Where have all the angels gone? That is the question a growing number of ambitious but cash-strapped small firms are asking as they struggle to find investors.
Already hit by a slump in bank lending, they are now suffering as angel investors thin out, forcing them to delay expansion. The absence of angels is being made worse by the retreat of venture capitalists, creating a widening funding gap for firms.
Angel groups, which usually invest about £1 billion in British businesses each year, are expected to invest a third less this year, said Jenny Tooth of the British Business Angels Association, which is trying to recruit new investors.
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Read the full article here
A number of people who have emailed me following applying for our Shaving Bond have pointed out that the actual 'savings' for the bondholders will be considerably higher than the 6% cash per annum - with our provision of free product. Like, between 9-12% per annum, if we supply product to a decent retail value free (which we fully intend on doing).
Which, of course - they will be! Since we launched our innovative 'never done before' 'Shaving Bond', then some of the financial institutions seem to have also started increasing their savings rates - but without many of the benefits ours has (membership of an exclusive club of bondholders, free product, and who knows what other good stuff the team and I will work on offering - all bondholders will certainly receive a complimentary copy of my book out September 3rd on building a great brand in tough times - the King of Shaves Story - for example.
So, by all means read some of the 'negative' comments posted on 'traditional' savings websites, but also take the time to look into our offer - as it really is a great one - it's about involving brand enthusiasts in our brand, in a way that is new, innovative, different and genuinely worthwhile. We're trailblazing, and I'm delighted about that (plus, last week, we had our biggest ever sales of Azors & replacement cartridges ;-)
Following chef Marcus Wareing and advertising supremo, Trevor Beattie, I was delighted to be the final speaker at the 'Monkey Shoulder' Alternative Business Academy, held in partnership with Esquire magazine. Monkey Shoulder is a new blended whisky targeting a 'zag' market - young, knowledgeable professionals - as opposed to the traditional 'zig' market occupied by its competitors, and appears to be going about things cleverly. The ABA gave Marcus, Trevor and I the opportunity to talk about the importance of 'teamwork', 'brand/visibility' & 'entrepreneurship', at separate events hosted in May, June - and last night, July, at the Maddox St. Club in London's W1.
The event was an interview conducted by Henry Farrar-Hockley, of Esquire Magazine with me, then a Q&A session.
I was delighted with the overall feel of the event,the quality of people who'd taken the time to travel from all over the UK to hear me talk about King of Shaves, entrepreneurship in general, the approach to me on behalf of the Apprentice's 'Pantsman' and how we're taking on not monkeys, but gorillas - otherwise known as 'Wilkinette'. Finally, the Monkey Shoulder product itself was great - I'm not just saying that, as I'm not a typical whisky or spirits drinker, but the mix I enjoyed during and after the presentation was great, and I think if the brand continues doing what its doing, it won't be long before the tipple is a firm favourite in hotels, clubs & bars up and down the land. To find out more about Monkey Shoulder, click here. Many thanks to the team that organised the event - "Cheers" (PS - when you enter the Monkey Shoulder site, turn the site volume down quickly!)
