On May 11th, an insightful article was penned in The New Yorker by Adam Gopnik, entitled 'The Fifth Blade'.
"Failure" he argues, "generates variety", pointing at first to GM
(General Motors) "fiddling with metalwork on the grilles of its cars"
in much the same way as the emperor Nero fiddled, whilst Rome burnt to
the ground. And on the title of the article - The Fifth Blade - he
makes the exquisite point that "in the economy of excess, he collected
razors". I have made this point in previous blog postings too - after
all, if 'More' is always 'Better' then the Gillette Fusion Power Phenom
was a product of its time.
Gopnik goes further, explaining how he "invested in the multi-bladed, fifteen-dollar Dreadnoughts of the shaving world. The Gillette M3 Power, the Gillette Mach3 Turbo Champion, the Gillette Sensor Excel. "Charming as these razors might be" he says, "cool they were not. The only motive for buying the next was to buy the next. The only purpose for possession was to possess. Our generation bought them "because they were there, and we were drawn to their seeming ingenuity".
However, he read the Wall Street Journal recently, and found a new note of pathos. It seemed that the Gillette Company, in an increasingly desperate attempt to support its newly minted five-blade razor, the Fusion, is creating (has created!!!) ads that run down its previously minted three-blade razor (Mach3)
He says "in an ad campaign that Veblen would have rejected as too improbable, Gillette, having sold (and made a huge success of) the Mach3, must now UNSELL it. A Fusion ad argues "You see, five is better than three" and in the well-known (and much derided, ridiculed) spot, Tiger Woods, Derek Jeter and Roger Federer literally knock a Mach3 razor out of men's hands with a golf ball, baseball and tennis ball.
Gopnik continues, "what makes Gillette's panic so touching is that we should have seen it coming. We did see it coming. Saturday Night Live saw it coming over thirty years previously, with the then (imaginary) 3 blade razor and the slogan "Because you'll believe anything".
Where the Gillette Fusion Power Phenom razor is a product of its time (most likely designed in the mid noughties, and launched in 2006 in the UK), our King of Shaves Azor is a product of its time, launched in 2008 and now with just under 10% of the UK handle market share under its belt.
Where Fusion Phenom is fat (or should that be Phat), the Azor is slim. Where the Fusion is over-packaged, the King of Shaves Azor is ecoptimised (using precycled card & plastic). Where the Fusion vibrates unnecessarily (you only had to see a programme on the BBC last week on razors to get this point), the Azor is effortlessly smooth. Where the Fusion employs batteries, which ultimately end up in landfill, the Azor employs Bendology - a flexible hinge that allows a close comfortable shave. Gillette Fusion? More, that costs more. King of Shaves Azor. Mor, with less.
Cynics reading this may argue "it's easy for King to ridicule the competition' but that would be to miss the point. In developing our razor, we could easily have embraced the familiarity of 'grille tweaking', mimicry and complacency. In which case, we'd have had a Chinese manufactured, twin battery powered, ten-blade razor with headlights that came with its own special holder and promised you "the new best a man can get". Instead, we looked at the razor, where it had gone too (Digital Equipment Corporation meets World War I Dreadnought) and decided to dial back to an earlier age of elegance, simplicity and form.
Gillette, we surmised, was "the best your dad can get" whereas the King of Shaves Azor would be a razor for the "next generation". More Pepsi than Coke.
As
the world re-balances after its violent economic projectile vomit of
2007, and its equally disturbing scandal in the UK about our Honourable
(Dishonourable, Surely) Members of Parliament exploiting their
Expenses, so products that are so clearly 'of their time' will lose
their unattractive attractiveness, and fade away. Gillette's sales are
down by double digit percentages in just a year. Ours are up. People
demand honesty in their products, and even I know that there is no way
5 blades on a razor, or 6 shave any closer than 3, or 4.
For sure, there is an advantage to having a wide shaving surface - nicks, cuts and razor burn/rash are a thing of the past for many men - going back to 1 blade simply won't cut it in today's grooming environment for most men. But, the interesting question - in fact the US $60,000,000,000 question is "Where does Gillette go now?". Having made the equivalent of the Philips Laserdisc in the Fusion, whilst we've taken inspiration from Apple and iDesign with our Azor, I simply can't wait to see what Kevin Powell's next 'best your dad can get' razor is going to look like...
Twin batteries, a headlight and £20 for 4 cartridges anyone?
You read it here first.
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Last month (to the 4 weeks ending April 18th) the King of Shaves Azor
was the 4th best selling system handle in the UK, out of 17. Not bad,
given that Gillette have spent c£9m on advertising since year launch,
Wilkinson-Sword £4m, and us - well, it's a low six figure sum. Seems
the word of mouse is spreading about the Azor ever more strongly. And,
with the Azor debuting in Asda and all of Morrison's within a month,
plus market launches in Japan, Brazil, South Africa and in the USA, in
Duane Reade, NYC coming up - we're in growth.
Strong Growth - with a product for our times, that will change to keep pace with its time.
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I love Twitter. People deride it, mainly because it gives the impression
you're '(t)wittering on about irrelevant stuff'. But for King of Shaves,
its a global superhighway connecting us with 10m+ people, where I can
serve up Knowledge (like old fashioned posters on the roadside), not just talking about King of
Shaves, Azor but re-tweeting customer praise, dealing with customer
complaints or comments, and keeping the King of Shaves brand current.
If you're a brand owner, and you're not tweeting out your brand
benefits, in a community centric fashion, you're dead.
