21 posts tagged “wilkinson sword”

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.

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.

So, the 'blade wars' start to ramp up.  I spotted that Superdrug today now have old style Wilkinson Sword (Schick) Quattro cartridges (not Titanium) at 20p off.  Oooh, that's a big shaving, not.  Plus, they've also taken £2 off the cost of their manual Quattro razors (still more expensive than Azor at full price) and £3 off their hedge-trimmer razor (sorry, 'Titanium Precision) - also more expensive.  Plus, they've brought their 'Mo'vember promotion forward...into October.  Bit kneejerk, but as it's for charity, well - I'm not criticising this (we partnered with Movember in Australia a few years back).

In addition to Asda slashing up to £3.30 off Glllette Fusion & Mach3 cartridges, Tesco and Boots have only the sort of (Costco buy in bulk) promotion that P&G could think of, where you have to spend nearly £20 for 13 Fusion blades, saving you £11 off the already over-priced high price.  With the average supermarket basket shop being about £80, Gillette are asking you to part with nearly 25% of this, to try and lock men into overpriced Fusion cartridges.

From a retailer perspective, given they specialise in FMCG - Fast Moving Consumer Goods - well, I can't believe they'll be over the moon about this when the promotion ends.  The FSDU's I saw over the weekend were rammed full with product (we were pretty low on stocks in most retailers) as even at this 'bargain' price, our Azor (when it goes back to 'fair at full price' in a few weeks will still be LESS than Gillette's deal.  Enter SMCG's (Slow Moving Consumer Goods).  Ouch.

Plus, you won't have to drop nearly £20 to enjoy the months of King of Shaves shaving with our Award Winning razor, the Azor.

Interesting times - watch this space - and again, HUGE uplifts for King of Shaves Azor over the weekend, more great reviews for Azor at dooyoo.co.uk and our TV commercial Shaveolution (Bend the Rules) featuring our very own Elvis Stubbles is giving 'Wilkinette' troubles.  People asking after Mat Le Star's soundtrack 'Lust and Charm' too - available on Soundcloud, downloadable MP3 coming soon I suspect.

It's quiet.  I can see blue sky when I look up straight up, and my world is eerily calm.  But everywhere around me, a storm is raging.  Competitor brands which were once viewed as impossible to uproot, disrupt are having their strategies questioned, the instant world we live in is only accelerating the windstrength of change and the only thing that is constant is 'Change is happening Faster'.

My team and I are living in the eye of a brand Hurricane.

Since launching King of Shaves back in 1993, with a single shaving oil sold at Harrods in London, King of Shaves products are now sold internationally, on an ever increasing basis.  Our retail sales have increased 40,000% from our first year sales of just £500 in year 1, and our growth shows no sign of abating.  Indeed, by the end of next year, our 17 year growth should be 72,000% up on our first year.

How has this happened, in a market that isn't growing in size, with competitors worth billions of dollars?

It's the power of a Hurricane brand.  One that changes the rules of the game, one that continually Zags and one that continually reinvents itself to be better, but without an increase in cost to the consumer.  King of Shaves, in my mind, is now a Category 2 Hurricane, and increasing in force.  Since launching our Azor 'hybrid synergy' system razor last year, we've got nigh on 10% handle market share, and sales of replacement cartridges have jumped from just 2,500 per week to nigh on 50,000 per week.

And this is before we unleash an integrated awareness assault in the UK, to show consumers that not only is King of Shaves changing the face of shaving for better, forever, but the brands it competes with are becoming increasingly out of touch with their consumers, despite spending tens of million of pounds to protest their relevance.

Gillette are currently running press advertisements proclaiming (in essence) that the Mach3 is no longer a good razor, that their Fusion is so much better (yet fail to point out the cost or replacement blade cartridges is twice as much) whilst Wilkinson Sword, having launched their combined razor/trimmer product, are finding it is having little impact on increasing the all important replacement blade sales.  Plus, the fact that almost since launch, it's been sold on deal, at half price, in the same way that Gillette have resorted to selling their Fusion range at half price.

Could you imagine Apple running an ad saying "look, this (old) Mac is no good, buy our (twice as expensive) new one?"  No way.  Yet, because sales of Mach3 cartridges are resurgent, as consumers get the fact they don't have to use an over-bladed, over-packaged, battery powered expensive razor to get a great shave, then Gillette have to do something.  Spend money on a bit of brand in-fighting...  Duh.

Meanwhile, in the eye of the hurricane at King of Shaves, I watch what's going around me with no small amount of 'shock & awe'.  We HAVE to be getting our market share from somewhere with our Azor, because no way are men shaving more, in fact, they're shaving less, with the advent of increased informality at work, and the growth in trimmed beards - goatees and the like.  We have our competitors applying their high performance system razor handles to disposables (the Quattro disposable for example) which is thrown away after use - so wasteful, and we have Bic, which should be thriving in a recession, going backwards as people eschew disposable (landfill) razors despite them costing less.

Our Azor, which is shortly to be joined by the Azor S - the first ever razor optimised for sensitive skin (courtesy of it's unique Bendology Technology reflex hinge - is going great guns, being adopted by Generation Now as opposed to Generation Then, and the look, feel, style, design - the 'DNA' of the Azor is winning people over, young and old, richer or poorer - in the same way iPod and iPhone have.

Plus, we have more 'Same, but Better' (read my King of Shaves book on this) coming.

The internet, and the instant interactiveness of it, is clearly fuelling our growth, without 'trying' our followers on Twitter are over 1,000 now (Gillette have just 32 as of 08/09/09) as well as the increasing lack of satisfaction with Gillette, and it's reputation for being the self styled 'best a man can get'.  The best your dad could buy, is maybe more apt.

When we unleash our TV campaign later this month, I believe we'll move up a notch, from a Category 2 brand hurricane to a Category 3 one and further disrupt and unnerve our competition.  After all, razor advertising has looked pretty much the same since I was a young lad, 35 years ago - whilst almost everything else in the world has changed its look, feel and relevance to today's consumer.

But, where shaving is concerned, Gillette's motivation to move on the status quo, being pretty much a global monopoly has been zero, and Schick Wilkinson-Sword have simply tail-gated Gillette, sometimes running into their bumper (fender) with regard to 'we shave closer' law suits, that are (hopefully) a thing of the past.  With Energizer (who own Wilkinson Sword) having just bought Edge & Skintimate, the shaving can brands from SC Johnson, I'll be interested to see what the 'Schick-Wilkinson-Sword-Edge' brand looks like (we're King of Shaves, The Future of Shaving and Gillette are still the self-styled 'Best a Man can Get') and what innovation SWSE bring to the market.

I like where we're living.

However, I'm no way complacent.  "One thing Will" you might say to me, is "Hurricanes eventually lose their strength and peter out - is this going to happen to King of Shaves?"  Well, my view is this - not any time soon & NOT on my watch.  Gillette have been in business over a hundred years, we're seventeen years young next year, and I believe our Hurricane brand has a long way to track as yet, zagging unexpectedly and keeping its momentum and building strength year after year.

King of Shaves' Hurricane Azor is here to stay.  And if you're competing with us in shaving hardware or software, best you batten down the hatches.

King of Shaves Shaving Bond Issue Closed. SUCCESSFULLY. Plus, only Gillette Fusion Ahead... (original blog post)

Yesterday was the final day for our innovative 'Friend Funded' King of Shaves Shaving Bond. I'm delighted that did we not only achieve the minimum amount (£500,000), but were substantially over the minimum. In due course, I will be blogging about this innovative fund raising project, which garnered c£1m worth of world-wide publicity and had many journalists, investor web-sites, bloggers & the twitterati commenting on it - whether it was 'genius' or 'would fail'.

Well, all I know is that in my personal opinion, it was extremely worthwhile and will, in time, be a way of genuine fund-raising that can be considered by SME's with strong reputations and great products or services.

I also received our latest sales data yesterday for the 4 weeks ending July 11th, which showed that our King of Shaves Azor was only outsold in this period by...Gillette Fusion Manual'. Given that compared to our competitors, Gillette & Wilkinson Sword, we have spent a fraction on marketing they have, and have not had to resort to an almost permanent half price on handle sales, well, I am very pleased.

Headline figures according to industry sources were (based on volume sales of handles):

1. Gillette: Fusion Manual 'standard', 114,000 handles (1 up)*.
2. Gillette: Fusion Manual 'Phenom', 83,300 handles (1 up).
3. King of Shaves Azor: 49,467 handles (3 up)**.
4. Gillette: Fusion Power 'Stealth': 46,630 handles (1 up).
5. Gillette: Mach3 Manual 'standard', 45,775 handles (1 up).
6. Wilkinson Sword Quattro Titanium Manual: 41,239 handles (1 up).
7. Gillette: Fusion Power 'Phenom': 37,220 handles (1 up).
8. Wilkinson Sword Quattro 'Precision Trimmer': 36,414 handles (1 up).
9. Gillette: Mach3 Turbo Manual: 32,893 (1 up).
10. Gillette Fusion Power 'standard': 28,235 handles (1 up) .

*1up means sold with 1 replacement cartridge. **Note, Azor is sold with 3 replacement cartridges, a 3 up. Great Value!

Whilst this is a great result, (after just 1 year in the market and c500,000 handles sold), we clearly have a challenge ahead of us, with all Gillette variants summed together totalling over 400,000 units sold in 1 month (normally it's about 250,000 handles, but this was a heavy month for Gillette & Wilkinson Sword promotions) and all Wilkinson Sword variants selling 110,000 (normally it's about 75,000).

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!)

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!

"Be your best" Gillette exhort - by shaving/shampooing/styling with our products.  Mmm.  See the ad here.  A Momentously expensive ad campaign, no doubt - especially as they seem to have bought up (with the exception of Ronaldo & Lewis Hamilton) a huge swathe of the world's top sporting stars.  To be honest, it looks a bit dated to me.  But hey, I would say that wouldn't I ;-)

Don't get me wrong - I think Roger Federer winning Wimbledon and 15 Grand Slams is an awesome achievement.  But it made me laugh when I read a blog posting about Gillette giving him a 15 bladed Fusion to celebrate!  Tiger Woods is a great golfer - the world's greatest ever in many people's views.  But really, does shaving with Fusion deliver him tournament winning performances, time after time?

I think not.  However, brands like to align themselves with champions, but today's Champion always has a Challenger.

And, as I posted in response to an article on '5 reasons why Gillette is the best a man can get' (here) - Gillette are in an interesting place.  Having dialled the brand into a cul-de-sac (selling the most, charging the most - in true monopolly fashion) they've got to somehow continue this growth.

In the meantime, we're growing inexorably and strongly upwards with our Azor system razor - now launching in Japan, Brazil, the USA (imminently), South Africa, and later this year in another major country.

We're not getting our market share because guys are shaving more.  No, we're getting it because our Azor is appealing to 'Generation Now' - guys who aren't necessarily interested whether shaving with Gillette has made Tiger, Roger, Derek or Thierry 'winners' (they know its their natural or developed talent, not shaving) and are more intelligent.

And, after all - why would you want to be the 'Best' when you can be a 'King' (and save a King's ransom by using our Azor - with 'better' coming soon...)

As to poor old Schick/Wilkinson Sword - stuck between us coming up, and Gillette sitting atop, well - that's another story in itself.

Don't just shave, King of Shaves.  Join our Kingdom!

King of Shaves, Azor (Hardware, Software) Market share - Traction, Reaction & Disruption. Compelling reading... (original blog posting)

Following a June 2008 launch, Will King’s foray into the razor market has already resulted in a market share of almost 10%. This year’s Fast Growth Business Awards winner shares the secrets of his successful challenger brand.

When you first meet Will King, it can be hard to penetrate the soundbites. His tendency to slip into ad-speak with phrases such as “enjoy the King of Shaves without the ransom”, and  “upgrade to the King, your face and finances will thank you for it,” takes some getting used to.

His delivery even verges on the Brent-esque, every so often. “So it became King of Shaves,” he says, when telling me how his dad suggested the name after turning over the king of spades in a poker game.  “Quirky.

Read the full article here...