I have just returned from Sao Paulo, where on Monday we launched King of Shaves Azor into the booming Brazilian market. Brazil, largely untouched by the global economic recession, has one of the world's fastest growing economies and a population of approximately 160m, with beauty and style always at the forefront.
Our press launch was held at the impressive 'Unique Hotel' in Sao Paulo, courtesy of Aeger Perfumes e Cosmeticas, one of Brazil's pre-eminent toiletries & fragrance companies. The event was well attended by members of the Brazilian beauty & business press, and on the morning of the event, a large article on our launch appeared in the "Economico Valor' section of top-selling Brazilian newspaper Segundo-feira.
I carried out half a dozen interviews, explaining why I believe Brazilians will enjoy beard removal with our award winning Azor, and our intention to capture 5% of the 'system razor' market within two years. With Gillette being our primary competitor, and yet to introduce Fusion (too expensive...), we are up against redesigns of their Mach3 product, launched 11 years ago in 1998. With our Azor using newer technology, launched just last year in the UK and with sales of our system razor handle now approximately 10%, I believe we have a great opportunity to deliver the 'King of Shaves' to tens of thousands of Brazilian men.
Our brand awareness in Brazil is very high too, courtesy of our top-playing internet games, King of Defenders, King of Power & King of Air Guitar. Brazil is the top-playing nation of King of Defenders, with 4.45m (million!!!) plays, indeed - in the last 30 days, it racked up over 233,000 individual game plays. King of Power, with 597,000 Brazilian plays since launch achieved 16,000 just last week, and King of Air Guitar with 690,000 plays since launch, and 28,000 Brazilians playing it in the last 30 days!
The King of Shaves Azor sold out of its launch drugstore chain, Drog Iguatemi in a matter of hours, and with plenty of publicity planned, including 'Shave Princesses', a mobile shaving van (like our Azor bus) and more, plus advertising and a strong PR campaign, we are confident our brand development team at Aeger will have a strong success on their hands.
The Brazilian King of Shaves website will be available in the next few weeks.
