THE KING'S BLOG

Now we've been going a few months with the Azor, we're starting to get an idea of how much people are liking it. For example, check this blog posting out here. Now we're Number 2 in men's shaving (according to TGI anyway) we're going to be trying harder. A lot harder. After all although we're 2nd biggest, we're never content with second best.

With King of Shaves Azor just a few thousand handles behind Mach3, we believe you deserve to know about the 'change you deserve' switching from 'Wilkinette' to King of Shaves Azor, ie a closer, longer lasting shave for less of your hard earned cash! King of Shaves Azor is Change YOU Deserve!

Being invited onto a BBC Radio 4 business programme was a real privilege, and I greatly enjoyed taking part. If you missed the broadcast yesterday, courtesy the BBC's website, you can here it here. My main piece is about 10 minutes from the end, but I hope the overall programme was useful listening.

I was also pleased to receive the email below today from a 77 year old chap, see his comments below on the King of Shaves Azor:

First Name: T
Last Name: M
Country: United Kingdom
Email: xx@aol.com

Enquiry Type: Message for Will King

a simple message to say, your new shaver ( to me at least ) is just magnificent, an absolute transformation to my shaving routine, I am ancient and shave daily, but had accepted "the" shaver as we knew it had reached its peak performance and the manufacturers produced graded down versions from depending on the price one wished to pay.

Your revolutionary design is so easy, safe and efficient, I would go so far as to say, shaving is almost a pleasure again after all these years.

For the record I'm 77yrs old.

I was delighted to be one of four panellists on 'The Bottom Line', the BBC R4 programme being broadcast this Saturday, 15th November at 5.30pm. See details about the show here, I hope it makes for interesting listening...the other panellists were Keith Clarke, CEO of Engineering & Design Firm, Atkins Global, Julie Meyer, CEO of Ariadne Capital & Leo McKee, CEO of Brighthouse.

Before I went in to do the recording, I asked Pudsey Bear to pose for me with the King of Shaves Azor & Gel, thanks Pudsey, and as part of this, helped in bidding up £2,500 for 8 songs to be played on Danny Baker's radio show in a couple of week's time...

We'll also see how many hits I have on this blog post (and my personal one at BrandRoyalty.com) and will donate to Children in Need a further amount.

With the week starting off at BBC TV Centre for 'Working Lunch' and ending at Broadcasting House for Radio 4, it's been an unusual week to say the least!

Read about Gillette's latest (expensive, overbladed, overpriced) iteration of the Fusion Family here.

Buy the Apple iPhone 3G of razors here

I often pop into Sainsbury's in Beaconsfield to see what the stock position of the Azor and King of Shaves software is, and grab a Starbucks. On Saturday, I happened to see a chap looking at razors, and (me being me I guess) introduced myself, and suggested he give our Azor a try. I then left to enjoy my Americano.

Lo and behold, he not only bought one, but delightfully, commented on it via email - he's given me permission to show this below. He's an innovation engineer within a Formula 1 team (I had no idea, obviously) so I was doubly delighted to receive his considered review.

Read on...

----------------
Hi Will,

After your efforts of personally advertising the King of Shaves brand in Sainsburys Beaconsfield on Saturday I thought it would only be polite to respond by giving you some personal feedback.

On your advice I purchased the new 'AZOR' and furthermore more also tried the new 'MagnaGel MME Shaving Gel'. Having been both a champion and user of the King of Shaves gel for many years it came as no surprise that this latest evolution of the product delivered yet again. However; as a former design consultant, the most exciting trial was of the AZOR. For many years I have been an avid user of the Gillette M3 Power and many razors, including the Gillette Fusion and Wilkinson Sword Quattro, have failed to convert me.

By way of a step by step critique of the AZOR I thought the following would of use:

Aesthetics - intriguing, innovative and pleasing to the eye

Blade Removal - hesitant in resorting to the instructions, a generic male trait I'm sure, the removal proved both tricky and fiddly but once I finally read the clear and concise manual the blade came off with ease and fired straight across the room, this can be avoided if re-ejected directly into the replacement blade holder.

Blade Replacement - even after reading the instructions it was not entirely obvious which way round the replacement blade should be fitted but after several attempts and consideration the blade finally fitted effortlessly

Ergonomics - the design of the product is such that it can be held in many different ways and as such it is likely there is a grip position to suit all users

Performance - not being of the 'power' variety the shave was better than expected and certainty comparable to the halo'd M3 Power

Storage - the afore mentioned Gillette razors all have useful packaging for storage of both replacement razor blades and the handle, this feature is missing on the AZOR (for a green packing reasons I'm sure). The majority of the issues above could quite easily be resolved with a design tweak and an annotated product. The lack of storage has been resolved by simply storing the attached blade in the replacement cartridge holder.

On the whole the function of this razor is good and compares favourably and I'm quite sure that an innovative company such as yours will be trialling the 'powered AZOR' soon and I look forward to its debut.

I hope this information helps and goes part way to rewarding your personal advertising campaign.

Kind regards,

Mr. R.
--------------
So, I think you'll agree - a favourable review, with room for improvement (which I assure you, Mr. R, we're working on...as I'm sure you're well immersed in your 2009 F1 car!)

You read it here first, and with Mach3 just 6,000 handles per month ahead, we're pushing for the Number 2 slot hard.

Each month, we pull our retail sales data on the Azor, to see how we're faring against 'Wilkinette'.

The Azor is currently only in 62% of available distribution (for example, it's not yet in Asda, Waitrose, etc.) and I'm therefore delighted that last month (the 4 weeks to the end of October) it was ranked Number 5 by value, and Number 3 by volume.

That's right! In just 4 months, the Azor has gone from zero to challenging for a top three slot!

Last month, Azor handles outsold each Wilkinson Sword variant (including their Lawnmower - sorry - Precision Trimmer) and has ahead of it only the eternally popular Mach3 and Fusion Manual (it sold 15,000 more pieces than Quattro Precision Trimmer, 11,000 more pieces than Fusion Power Stealth & 5,000 more pieces than Mach3 Turbo).

More importantly, the key handle to cartridge ratio is exactly where we hoped it would be, meaning that people aren't just trying the Azor and then reverting back, they're buying it and enjoying the 'King of Shaves without the Ransom' on a daily basis.

I'm delighted that King of Shaves is making good on its intent to become the Number 1 Challenger brand to Gillette, we have a ton of exciting 'stuff' planned as 2008 draws to a close and 2009 begins.

In addition, we also saw some data today that puts King of Shaves as the second most popular brand (by consumer usage) to Gillette, despite the Azor only having launched this year.

If you haven't tried the Azor yet - why not? I promise it will shave you closer, longer, for less and in these times of crisis and downturn, surely it makes great sense to spend just £1.25 per replacement cartridge, rather than a whole lot more on our competitors! After all, you have to shave if you don't want a beard, and at King of Shaves we are intent on this not costing you any more than it needs to.

Earlier this year, we were asked to supply an Azor to Channel Five's 'The Gadget Show' for possible inclusion in a feature on the best razors. Sadly, the Azor didn't make it to the 'final 5' as it wasn't viewed as a 'Gadget'.

In top spot was Gillette's (battery powered, micro-pulsing) Fusion (no surprises there, then) and in 3rd place, Wilkinson Sword's (battery powered vibrating) Quattro Titanium (complete with cut skin and an on-screen inability to trim).

I'm glad, in a way, the Azor didn't feature. The other three razors were electric, and showed no new 'cutting edge' technology at all. Our Azor is hopefully 'shaving simplified, without the cost'.

Maybe when the 'gadget' piece is omitted from the razor test, we'll be in with a shot, next time..

PS - both Braun (with 'Gillette Blade Technology) & Wilkinson Sword ran ads in the break. I'll be watching this 'GBT' - Gillette Blade Technology bit with Braun with interest...

I was delighted to be the main guest on BBC TV's 'Working Lunch' business TV programme, aired at 12.30pm.

It was great fun, and I spoke (hopefully usefully) about setting up King of Shaves during the last recession (early 1990's) and a bit about the brand, and why it's become succesful.

The presenters, Declan Curry & Naga Munchetty were great fun, and the entire production team had entered into the spirit of things, with almost everyone sporting a beard! See them here.

When asked how I would help 'jump start' the economy (a lot of the discussion centered around possible tax cuts) I suggested a tactical 7.5% cut in the rate of VAT for a year, this will mean that the cost of buying stuff from stores will be less, and as we are all consumers, 'every little helps'. If I'd been asked how to 'pay for it', I was prepared to say that the entire VAT regime should be overhauled, with no VAT payable between businesses (VAT is not a cost - it gets reclaimed between businesses) and through a simplification of HMCE then there would be cost shavings, sorry savings!

I was also able to briefly mention our Azor, when asked why I was going into space (on Virgin Galactic). I hope I came across well - I've had quite a few emails and voicemails saying it went well!

Thanks BBC2, Declan & Naga. Hope to see you again, sometime.