THE KING'S BLOG

Back in 1993, I had no idea how successful King of Shaves would become in the men's toiletries sector. In fact, I was even hesitant about the choice of brand name - King of Shaves, and the first packs we sold were actually branded KINGS - King of Shaves. But, King of Shaves 'stuck' and for the last 17 years, we've grown up to become a genuine challenger brand to Gillette & Wilkinson Sword in the cut throat shaving market. Along the way, we've been joined by competitors - Nivea for Men in 1999 and L'Oreal Men Expert in 2004. But, since then, there has been little in the way of men's grooming launches in the mass sector.

In early 2010, Boots, with whom we've always enjoyed a close, strategic partnership asked us what we might do in "Men's" that would be genuinely new. There was a huge temptation for me to lead the project, as I had done "back in the day" - BUT - it was time to let the next generation of guys at King of Shaves lead the way. So I stepped back, and they stepped up to the challenge. They vox pop'd young guys, 14-25 asking them what they felt was missing in the sector. Lynx was oft mentioned as a 'staple' brand, but outside of this - they felt there wasn't much for them. Then, they briefed the agency behind our remarkably successful Queen of... range for women, to come up with a range that would build on the King of Shaves tradition - a 'zag' product, which did things differently, quirkily but with the consumer always at the forefront.

Interviews were conducted, fashion stores visited, in the UK and overseas, and within a few short weeks, we had a concept to pitch to the extremely commercial (yet willing to take a risk) team at Boots. Having stepped back from the project, I only saw the creative executions just prior to the presentation.

Wow I thought. I'd have never been able to brief out an agency to come back with these!

And, so tomorrow, in Soho, London our new range KINGS launches. Note it's not King's - it's not "my" range as such. No, the team were insistent it was about making the user of the product be the star of the show, the King. But they did add in it was since 1965, the year I was born...

Nice.

You can find Kings on the web here, facebook here and twitter here. Sadly, I can't even be at the launch, due to a prior overseas commitment, but in a way - I feel glad about that. The King isn't dead - he's just stepped back to take stock of the Kingdom, and its time for "Long Live The Kings".

I was delighted to read this post today by Matt Davies.

If you don't embrace the power of social media - well - you should.

-----------------
Matt's blog post in full below in case you don't click through to read it. Unsolicited. Real.

I had a rather nice customer experience recently on Twitter.

It's a simple thing, giving samples of your products away to attract attention and good press. There's nothing new about freebies, but as people put more and more of their lives online (even the really petty stuff, like how they don't like their new razor), it opens up more and more opportunities to target people with a real need for what you have, rather than those with a penchant for free stuff. These people are far more likely to use and appreciate your product, and may even go on to become evangelists for your brand.

It's Monday July 19th, "Shave Sexy" day! Click here to see our new ad starring NYC Master Barber Diane Wood as Barbarella X. Follow her on twitter here! Become a King of Shaves fan and maybe be "NEXT" here!

Timing, they say, is all. Yesterday saw the social media powered @OldSpice guy phenomenon singlehandedly (well, with a cast of hundreds at W+K Portland) relaunch Old Spice as a #funsexycool brand.

Monday sees the debut of our Shave Sexy viral ad - a campaign which is ENTIRELY social media based (we didn't have the budget to air the debut commercial in the UK equivalent of Superbowl ad break - #imonabudget remember) and based around the key tenets of successful social media, a "Publicity Point" rapidly followed by the accelerant of "Social Media Amplification"

So, most cool and truly awesome @OldSpice guy, watch out for @KingofShaves girl, @Barbarella_X on Monday... That Fusion ProGlide P&G have "sent you" won't be used after you see this.

Over the past few weeks, I've been giving serious thought to why King of Shaves continues to do so well, in the face of extraordinary levels of competition. From a product/brand perspective, I know why it is - King of Shaves is pretty much unique in the FMCG world of toiletries, in that it's logo says what it does, and those who know, and trust us rarely buy out of our brand.

But, given I sit in serious Board Meetings (like today, on the 14th floor of the building where our non-executive Chairman works) where I'm challenged by my serious investors/partners (including my successful Hedge Fund owning brother Doug and my long term business partner, Herbie) about my growth and brand positional strategy for King of Shaves, HOW we can continue growing (without spending mega-millions - not that we have them to spend), in the relentless face of half price handle deals (put there to try to kill us) and huge marketing spends (deployed to keep people buying), what to do, and how to do it is King.

So, it was 'food for thought' as I trained back from London to our Beaconsfield support office, as I mulled over "what to do". This thinking continued into the afternoon, and only came together after collecting my son from school, and driving home tonight,

I worked out the "How".

How?

Well, that would be telling - but "Publicity Point" and the heady "Amplification Accelerant" that is Social Media will be at the heart of our King of Shaves brand hurricane.

If you follow me on twitter, you'll get an early heads up of our plans...

Watch this space...it's all about being the King of Shaves - the sexy shaving brand...

Debuts 19th July 2010. Sign up to be the first to see here

Wow!

Where did those two years disappear to? One moment, I'm rehearsing my speech in London prior to the press launch event of our revolutionary King of Shaves Azor razor (I subsequently binned my 'prepared speech' and gave a passionate delivery about the importance of innovation, competition, zag and fun). The next moment, I'm typing this in our new support office in Beaconsfield (above Waitrose, close to retail) after the world has attempted to financially implode itself, is currently trying to environmentally implode the south coast of the USA, with a hung parliament, about to announce swingeing cuts (you don't get these with our Azor, only close, comfortable cutting of stubble) and the trojan horse of the busted Greek economy threatening to double dip the world into a second recession.

Who knew?

What I do know is this. Launching our Azor has had a huge and permanent effect on the system razor & blade market, in the UK, in other countries and beyond - to the MASSIVE benefit of the man who wishes to shave. Fine, you might be doing the #backthebeard thing with James Corden's World Cup Live programme in support of England in the World Cup, but when you come to go clean shaven - #shavesexy - you won't want to pay an arm and a leg to remove the stubble. Well, until Azor came along, with an system razor handle & 3 cartridges costing just £4.99 and 8 Endurium cartridges costing £9.49, you'd have had to pay for 'the most expensive shave a man can get' approximately £9.99 for a battery powered vibrating handle & just ONE blade and nigh on £19 for 8 replacements.

Let me tell you, those £10 shavings (sic) have mounted up for men who put their wallet ahead of vanity these past two years, men who've chosen to 'Choose Different, Shave Better, Cost Less' with Azor. Our Azor has been commended by Which? magazine, our new Azor S (for sensitive skin) has appealed to men with sensitive skin, a strategy now being aped by one of our competitors (the ad with the 'blemish free' tennis player in it), and our Azor M is shortly to be the star of a brand new #UltimateShave campaign we've been prepping these past few... (well, shhhh - it's been in the planning for a lil while).

We've nearly 2m Azor handles in national & international markets, tens of millions of cartridges, delivered hundreds of millions of close, comfortable (cost effective) shaves and as a result, the sales at King of Shaves have nigh on doubled in just over 2 years.

In addition, we've launched the Azor in Japan, Brazil, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia, as well as the Eastern Seaboard of the USA, and have much planned for the coming 12-24 months.

Sales of our award winning AlphaGels and AlphaOils have also greatly benefitted - from sales of 20-22,000 a week in the UK, to a nigh on 35,000 a week in the UK alone, without taking into account our growth in International markets. In fact, we're now selling the thick end of 100,000 products a week in the UK, one every six seconds. Add in our international sales - well - seems people are enjoying not just shaving, but King of Shaving.

The King of Shaves Company was demerged from original parent (1993-2009) KMI - the company I founded to sell King of Shaves - last June, and a year ago, I announced our innovative Shaving Bond issue, which appealed to so many people (and whom are receiving not only regular interest payments, but also huge product savings on King of Shaves products and free product. My King of Shaves book is in its second imprint, and now published in India as well as the UK - it has inspired dozens of people to say "Impossible is Nothing, I'm just gonna do it" and set up their own companies - indeed, I met and mentored one of them (a lady setting up a recruitment business with a twist) yesterday.

We have our 'BrandPod' office in Heddon Street, London where my 'smarketings' (smart sales & marketing' guys & gals are based), and our nice new open plan office in Beaconsfield.

Finally, and more importantly, we're looking to the future. Since we launched the Azor, there has been HUGE price competition in the sector (to the benefit of the consumer), where we have FORCED our competitors to abandon their 'cosy, never promote pricing model' and to try to stop us gaining market share. Until we launched, the razor & blade category rarely, if ever had any sort of promotion. Since we launched, there have been over 300 'value promotions' whereby handles that would normally sell for £9.99 are selling for as little as £3.99, and currently, there's one 'England Badged' system razor handle selling for as little as £2 when it would normally be £7.99.... So, handle sales are up, but only King of Shaves has delivered increased cartridge sales too - our competitors cartridge sales are flat or slightly up (in one case) and substantially down (across all platforms) with another.

So, it's been quite a ride - things have hotted up competition wise, but now we're about to SUPERHEAT them with the introduction of our new campaign... To be the first to see it, I suggest you become a fan of ours on Facebook, and prepare to watch 'The King Effect' unfold.

Clearly all of what has been achieved has been down to my great team, led by Andy, Tim and Paul and Internationally, by Di, Steph, Paul and Dave. Thanks also to all our supply partners, our retailers of course for believing in (and continuing to believe) in King of Shaves - The Future of Shaving - and finally, to you - our dear hair growing customers, without whom, there'd be no King of Shaves. And that'd be sad.

Here's to the Future. Here's to King of Shaves. The Ultimate Shave.

Having seen James Corden kick off his 'back the beard' (ie grow a beard whilst England remain in, and hopefully win) the World Cup, I'm delighted to announce that King of Shaves will be happy to get involved in 'Busting the Beards' and making a suitable charity donation. I'll be working on the co-ordination of this tomorrow with our PR agency, but you can keep updated on where we are either by following me on Twitter here or via my blog. More details to follow.

Delighted to read this great article by Nick Churchouse of The Dominion Post, which I gave over the phone via an interview on Monday 31st May 2010.

There is one inaccuracy in it I'd like to point out, namely that KoSCo is involved in a patent 'altercation' regarding one of our granted patents, but this is not with Gillette (owned by P&G).