THE KING'S BLOG

Picture: An elated man, finally able to afford to shave later this year!

Backstory: With Gillette havnig over 90% world-wide market share, it's pretty much got a monopoly on close, comfortable shaves. And it charges for them - up to a whopping £2.50 for a Fusion Power replacment cartridge.

The Future of Shaving is Closer: Something called WKoHamat 08 is coming. Something that might take the sting out of the cost of keeping clean shaven. About time, surely - someone to challenge 'the most expensive shave a man can get'.

Pass it on ;-)
WKoHamat 08

Ever wondered why inkjet printers are so cheap to buy? Well, you find out when you come to buy the replacement cartridges. Check out this photo for my HP 450 (a 3 year old, tres simple inkjet printer) - £60 quid!

Think of HP standing for Highly Profitable, and they got all they know from Gillette, the very first company to practise this razor sharp 'our handle only fits our replacement cartridge' business model.

Another brand that follows this is Nespresso, you can only order the replacement capsules online from nespresso.com, at 50-70p each.

Clearly there is a 'fair price' to be paid to enjoy colour printing or full flavoured coffee, but maybe not quite the prices being charged here. Ditto Gillette Fusion cartridges. Retailing at £2 each, how much do YOU think they cost to make...?

And who are you paying for as part of the purchase price? Three sporting champions, already multi-millionaires. You can be a Champion yourself, or even better, a King.

The future of shaving is coming
WKoHamat 08

Gentlemen,

Our aloe rich AlphaGels make shaving with canned foams and gels obsolete. Chemical 'post foaming' shave gels were invented in the late 1960's. - our AlphaGels (launched just 9 years ago) have seen King of Shaves power to be the second largest shaving brand in the UK.

And we want to be Number 1.

So ask yourself - do you want to use shaving software over 40 years old, developed before man set foot on the moon? Or do you deserve the King of Shaves?

King of Shaves is available from all major retailers in the UK and USA, and to see why we're the UK's most innovative men's grooming brand, check out shave.com.

King of Shaves. The Future of Shaving
WkoHamat 08 is coming

PS - from the colour of this orange baked beanz can, you can maybe see where the inspiration for the colour of Fusion Hydragel came from...;-)

Flicking through yesterday's Daily Mail, I spotted a little piece on razors in their 'What's going Up, What's going Down' section. See bottom right of the scan.

Interesting. After all, do you really, REALLY need 5 blades to get a close comfortable shave - where the cost of each blade can be up to 50p (the latest Gillette Fusion Power cartridges are £2.50 apiece, each with 5 blades - or 6 if you count the 'hair trimmer'.

Earlier in the paper there was also an article on savings that could be made by drinking tap water (0.1p per litre) versus bottled (84p per litre - 840 times MORE expensive).

If King of Shaves did water, do you think we'd do Chesham's best Tap, or Expensive Evian?

Watch this space
WKoHamat 08

More than a few people have said to me this week "Hey Will, I heard Johnny Vaughan and Denise van Outen bigging up King of Shaves on Capital Radio this morning - how cool is that!?!"

In fact, I was out for a business dinner this evening at J Sheekey, my absolutely favourite number one London restaurant, and John, the great maitre'd mentioned it as soon as we entered!

So, JV (a long term fan of King of Shaves, and also Fish - the Soho barbershop owned by Paul Burfoot) and DvO (look out for our new 'Queen of Shaves' range - King of Shaves Woman) - a sincere thanks for spreading the word about the King, we've got a lot planned for King of Shaves this year, this is just the beginning, and trust me, you'll be the first to know on London's most listened to, best loved radio show.

And the 'King of Blades' is coming...

I was delighted to be invited to the HBoS & Real Business Entrepreneur Summit yesterday in London.

Lots of interesting discussion - increase of CGT, effect of tax on non doms, and the apparent death of manufacturing in the UK...

Click here to see what some really top people thought about that final statement, put forward by James Caan, and what 'Rob' King had to say...

Italy and Germany make things, as do Japan and the USA. And Great Britain was the very first. And as a hybrid engineer aspiring yacht designer who's in the shaving business, I'll be making sure we make plenty of things for many years to come.

James, let me give you the King of Shaves with the King of Blades at our new grooming room at Ted Baker & Friends, and get you to change your mind!

Are you one of the 5.7m?

This is the number of micro-personalised ads I've generated in the past 7 days, targeting people we believe deserve a better, fairer shave via our 'Slingshot' campaign now rolling on Facebook.

Want to better the best, and get the King of Shaves without the Ransom?

Talk to me. WKoHamat 08 & Slingshot

As reported today, inspired by the image below (and a lot more to be revealed) the 'King of Blades' is coming.


Get ready to Shave Different. Sign up here to keep in touch

As seen in one of the UK's leading retailers. Gillette are pushing so much Fusion into the market, that it isn't being sucked out (bought) by consumers. Maybe consumers have twigged that £2.50 per replacement cartridge is more than expensive, it's obscene.
King of Blades is coming

The Aston Martin DB7 is widely credited as the most beautiful GT car built, ever. Designed in Britain by Ian Callum, built in Britain in Newport Pagnell. Powerful. Stylish. Iconic. Just like our 'King of Blades' will be. Be inspired. Shave different. Expect better. Coming soon. King of Blades.

I don't really understand the disposable razor. And I certainly don't rate expensive disposable razors - see one of my earlier blogs on the 'Bic Mach3'.

Why chuck away an otherwise perfectly good plastic handle, just because the blades are blunt. It doesn't make sense - especially from an environmental perspective, the new brand battleground which companies are still in the dark ages about.

I say,"Why not take the best of the system razor (ie Gillette Mach3, Quattro or Fusion - without the cost) and the best of the disposable (lightness, cheapness to manufacture) and bring the two together? Surely that makes sense?"

King of Blades. Coming soon. And, as for giving 2 extra disposable razors away free, I'm sure Mr. Landfill is saying "Thanks a bunch."

Along with the team from Blue Sky PR, Steph and Diane, we launched the newly repackaged and reformulated King of Shaves Woman range in the USA yesterday.

Blue Sky hosted three pamper sessions for beauty editors, providing pedicures and foot massages. Bliss. King of Shaves Woman is on sale at Target now.

Be one of the first to 'Choose different, shave better, save money'.. Get in the know here

This is an interesting blog post. Read it here. The phrase 'shaving simplicity' resonates with us, for we too feel that the cost of modern shaving satisfaction is too much. Shaving with a 1904 Merkur will not be to everyone's taste, as although you can certainly save money, you will certainly have to shave with more care, as the shave safety engineering then was simply not as safe as it is today (no arguing from the DE guys please), but the points the author makes are solid ones.

King of Blades. Shaving simplicity will rule!

Check this posting out. interesting, eh.
You spend all that money (sorry, men, buying Gillette Fusion at £2.50/replacement blade allow Gillette to spend all that money) and it doesn't exactly get traction from the very people you want to buy your proudcts.

The marketers have taken over at Gillette.

And not in a good way.

Arrogance breeds complacency. Complacency delivers broken business models and failure. You read it here first.

Simon has posted an interesting blog piece comparing Apple's recent designs with those of Braun, the German company renowned for its adherence to the 'Form follows Function' philosophy.

I worked with Braun in the early 1990's on a number of product launches (I was involved in business development in conference & event production then) and Braun was a great client, launching innovative products in impactful ways. A Braun brief was a delight to event producers!

I list below ten design 'commandments' that have made Braun (and Apple) successful.

• Good design is innovative.
• Good design makes a product useful.
• Good design is aesthetic.
• Good design helps us to understand a product.
• Good design is unobtrusive.
• Good design is honest.
• Good design is durable.
• Good design is consequent to the last detail.
• Good design is concerned with the environment.
• Good design is as little design as possible.

And I hope that what you see from us with WKoHamat 08 meets these criteria. My design team and I believe it does - shaving simplicity rules.