THE KING'S BLOG

Many thanks to Mr. G F for the comment emailed to us on Friday:
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Just to let you know the Azor and gel arrived this week. After using a Gillette razor for about 15 years the whole way of shaving and holding a razor had to change.

I'm glad to say that the original shape and set-up of the blades made it easier and so much quicker to shave with not one worry of "will I nick like usual".

I have used your gel for a while and it looks like you have married the best gel available with, what is technically, a high performance shaving machine!

Thanks again and here's to future innovations for facial hair :-)
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If you haven't yet tried our new Azor, you can buy it online here

I was delighted to pick up this blog post just as I was about to go off to bed on Sunday. Many thanks to 'MR' - there is a brief excerpt below, and if you want to read the full blog post, click here

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"Now you know me by now. I like to promote things I feel proud of and the King of Shaves AZOR razor is the latest to catch my eye. The English designed and constructed piece of equipment does exactly what it says on the pack and is two fingers to the big corporate Wlikinson Gillette duopoly. KoS has gone from strength to strength and it is superb to see that they are not pathetic sad greedy loosers..." (sic).
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I was delighted to receive these two emails yesterday, the first from Richard Stone of Swanscombe in Kent, the second from Mr J. M. (name withheld at his request) of Welwyn Garden City, Herts.

Richard writes:

Enquiry Type: Message for Will King

Hello Will King and the King of Shaves team.

I visited the Battle bus when it attended Bluewater in Kent. I was keen to see the Azor razor as i had been seeing on the website.

Not only did i get a free razor and some alpha shave gel, but also a free shave (i had not shaved for two days to really see how good it was). What rounded the experience of nicely was a nice neck and face massage by a young American lady who was so polite and friendly.

What can i say about the Azor, it's the best razor i have ever used in over 20 years. I can now shave every other day due to the fact it shaves really close and thus last longer but my skin is left nice and smooth. The razor does not clog with hair and it follows the skin contours superbly. It is so good the wife borrowed it to do her legs !!!

All i need to do now is get some KOS moisturiser to finish the shave off properly.

So congratulations to all of the King of Shaves team for the excellent Azor razor. It really is the "King of Shaves" for me and shaving is now a pleasure not a chore.

Regards

Richard Stone

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'J M' writes:

Enquiry Type: Message for Will King

Will,

I have been using your new Azor for about a week now - and to say I am happy with my purchase is an understatement. I am coming from a Gilette Mach 3 something (really I have no idea what it's called because the name is about a paragraph long), which despite it's claim of having a billion blades so you only need to go over an area once, I found myself having to attack my face from all angles, and then having to go back to my now irritated face to finish off the bits that it didn't want to cut the first time round.

I bought the Azor because I like trying new things, and the first time I used it I wasn't too impressed. However, I gave my face a few more days to recover from being "Gilletted" and the difference was night and day.

Now with the Azor I really only need to go over each area once, and it's pretty much perfect every time. The fact that the blades aren't a complete rip-off is just the icing on the cake as far as I'm concerned.

Congratulations and thank-you.

Sometimes the emails into KoS exceed my expectations. This is one. Thanks, Chris!

Enquiry Type: Message for Will King

I realise that the majority of messages sent to manufacturers are of a complaining nature. This one, however, is the complete opposite. I am new to your products, and have recently purchased a Azor razor, and am amazed at the quality of shave. Just shows, it's not always about the gimmicks in a product, it's the basic design and simplicity that make this product really stand out. Over the years, I have used countless Gillette's, and several Wilkinson Sword's, but this razor completely buries the competition. A job well done! I am yet to try your shave gel's and moisturising products, but am definately looking forward to trying them.

Kind Regards,

Chris (Cardiff, Wales)

Hi there, for those of you (loads!!!) who read my blog, and have been commenting on me not updating it, sorry about that, but even the 'King' needs a bit of R&B time (that's Relax & Beach, not Razor & Blade) and I've just returned from two weeks on the lovely Caribbean island of Grenada. I've got a lot to update you all on, but that can wait until tomorrow, when I'm (hopefully) over my jetlag, and can settle back into my mission of shaving the world "closer, for longer, for less" (and, according to Wallpaper*, in considerable style too, eat your heart out 'Wilkinette"!)

So, where have the past two months gone to? I have never known a period of time fly as fast as from June 23rd, when we launched the Azor at Sainsbury, to today, the 26th August.

An absolute ton of stuff has happened, and for those of you lucky enough to get our in-house news letter, 'The Knowledge' you'll be able to find out more what's been happening at KMI, not just with the Azor, but other exciting news too.

Based on sales out of our twin launch retailers, Boots and Sainsbury, we're tracking growth bang in line with our expectations, and that's before we truly 'get stuck in' with promoting the Azor, our genuinely great razor, that shaves closer, longer for less.

Obviously, I'm not going to be letting 'Wilkinette' know what they're in for, but with them having both spent a combined £5m in trying to thwart our plans via half price promotions and increased advertising, well I think they'll be realsing that simply throwing cash at 'The King' isn't going to make one jot of difference...

So, with over (in our estimations) 2m Azor shaves under our belt in just eight weeks, we're looking forward to ensuring this figure 'multiplies strongly' to the benefit of shavers in the UK, and elsewhere...

...watch this space:-)

If you were an Azor, where would you like to live in the world? Well, one happy Azor is used regularly on the beautiful island of Mauritius! Thanks Ritesh for letting me have this great picture, the Kinexium shave gel must be pretty damn happy too!

Please click here to 'c my pitch' - an interview I did with cmypitch.com, an Entrepreneur Community web-based business, which also has really rather good interviews with a range of entrepreneurs. Although I don't really describe myself as an entrepreneur (Mike Clare, founder of Dreams, the beds company says he was almost born one) I hope what I talk about for 15 or so minutes gives people an insight into why I launched King of Shaves back in 1993, why the Azor is a great product, and why shaving in space is a must!

Enjoy!

Back in November 2005, when house prices were going up 10% each month and we still had Blair in charge, we launched KingofSkeleton.com - a flash based 'viral' style game, as part of our marketing support package for Olympic bobskeleton riders, Kristan Bromley and (silver medalling) Shelley Rudman. This A) allowed people to interact with the KoS brand in a fun, engaging and relevant (performance) way, and B) started to be picked up on by people outside the UK...

In June 2006 we launched KingofDefenders.com (featuring John Terry) to tie in with the 2006 World Cup and in July 2006, KingofPower.com (featuring the Class 1 Powerboat we sponsored that year).

All of these games had great gameplay, and offered great prizes.

And they've had nearly 90,000,000 players, and, amazingly getting even MORE popular! You can find them at the landing page KingofGames.co.uk.

So, it's nice to see Gillette doing their (multi-hundred million dollar) version by teaming up with EA Sports, and giving people the opportunity to play against their friends (or Tiger Woods).

Where King of Shaves leads, others follow... See the link to the Gillette announcement here.

King of Shaves (and Games?) That'll be us, then. And, Gillette, by the way, "music, brings the people, together...bookmark here...

Well, one of our 'Loyal Subjects' snapped this pic at Harrow Boots this morning. All of our King of Shaves Azors reversed (so you can't see the branding) and all the price tags (£4.99 - half the price of Fusion) removed...

...I was also in Marlow (Boots) yesterday, and found that both the Azors (Pola & Warp) had been reversed there, and, a 'Mach3' was hanging in the front of one.

I leave people to draw their own conclusion... The Azor's certainly got somebody worried...

I guess you might think you have a successful product on your hands when they're posted on eBay, and get higher bids, than if you could buy one in a 'bricks & mortar' retailer like Tesco. This (promotional, not for retail...!), '1 up' Azor c/w small tube of AlphaGel is currently being bidded at £3.20 PLUS £1.50 p&p. See the proof here

amAzoring.