THE KING'S BLOG

I was delighted to be invited on Jeff Randall's business programme on Sky News this evening, to launch my book, 'How to build a great business in tough times - the King of Shaves story'.

The book is on sale at WH Smith from tomorrow (3rd September) as 'Business Book of the Month, and is available to order online from Amazon & Play.com as well as other leading book retailers.

Blog posting on BrandRoyalty.com here

I was delighted to see Diane Wood post a blog about a great write up that Andrew Parks of Time Out magazine gave our King of Shaves Azor - see article here & Di's blog post here.

Thanks Andrew!

I was delighted to address the inaugural EDP Future 50 group of 'companies & individuals to watch' at the stylish, modern Open Centre in Norwich yesterday, courtesy EDP business editor, Paul Hill and EEDA Chairman, Richard Ellis.

The EDP Future 50 highlights fifty growing, successful 'momentum creating' individuals and companies, demonstrating that even in the depths of the world's recession, there is still room to grow if you've founded a great company, be it product or service based.

"From small acorns, do great oaks grow" is a very relevant phrase, the companies featured in the supplement represent in many ways the future of the East Anglian region, and I was delighted that my address was really appreciated by many individuals, as expressed in their tweets, blog posts and comments on Linked In.

I was also delighted that a good number of the audience had read my book, and enjoyed shaving with King of Shaves and our Azor am really looking forward to growing King of Shaves in the future, and delivering on my promise that it will be "A billion dollar brand in my lifetime".

Especial thanks to Paul.

Our first TV ad 'Shaveolution' will debut here on 29th September 2009. Follow us here on twitter.

After months of planning, tomorrow sees us unleash three months of sustained advertising and trade promotion for our Azor system razor.

Tomorrow, both the Azor AND replacement cartridges (4 & 8 pack) are HALF PRICE at Sainsbury's across the UK, with all other major retailers including Asda, Boots, Morrison's, Superdrug, Tesco & Wilkinson's following suit in short order. Please note - our cartridges are HALF PRICE - something neither Gillette nor Wilkinson Sword have ever done, or likely will dare, do. Reason being is the massive profit margin in cartridges like Gillette Fusion Power (94%) funds Gillette's huge ad-spend and other marketing activities, including keeping 3 highly paid sportsmen on their payroll.

We're aiming to make our Azor system handle the Number 1 selling system razor handle by the year end - at just £2.44, it'll be great value (far better value than the 'overpriced at half price Gillette Fusion Gamer handle for example) and even better, with our replacement blades, you'll be able to get the King of Shaves at a fraction of Gillette's ransom.

To bring our great brand to the millions of men who are yet to experience the King of Shaves, on 29th September - this time next Tuesday - our TV advertisement makes its debut on Sky Sports, and then rolls onto other Sky channels as well as ITV 2, ITV4, Dave & Dave Ja Vu. We have over 400 slots lined up, starting off with the Champion's League games next week - we'll be in London to celebrate the ad's debut at a secret location - so looking forward to that.

The King of Shaves Azor is now in 90% (approximate) distribution across all major retailers in the UK - so should be easily available for you to buy, although when news of our promotion hits websites like Martyn Lewis' 'MoneyShavingExpert.com' - well - who knows what will happen - everyone loves a bargain, and we've been building up our stocks for weeks, in order that we won't (hopefully) go out of stock.

This is an incredibly exciting time for the team and I at King of Shaves, a huge amount of hard work has gone into integrating our £1m above the line TV spend with a very substantial offer for the consumer to get you trialling our Azor, and converting to it - the next three months or so are going to be hugely exciting for us as we unleash our 'Perfect Storm' of Great Product, Great Performance & Great Price into the UK market.

Again, we're on promotion at all Sainsbury's across the UK tomorrow - half price on King of Shaves Azor AND King of Shaves replacement cartridges (4's & 8's).

Enjoy.

Our King of Shaves Azor 'Shaveolution' (Bend the Rules) ad went live on YouTube yesterday, see it here. It'll be up on our shave.com homepage shortly too. I also had drawn to my attention a review of Gillette's current Fusion advertising in The Guardian newspaper, published on Saturday. Ouch