Various shaving articles from the Economist magazine

[julian0808]

Following up on the recent post in the Calgary Herald, there are several posts in the Economist magazine which discuss the shaving business.
www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/08/male-grooming
www.economist.com/node/5624861
www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2012/11/james-bond-and-male-grooming
www.economist.com/node/21551497


some of these May only be available by subscription whilst others may be freely available. It repeats itself often that the dominant factor in male grooming ( or shaving) is Gilette.

 

[Brauntex]

Interesting ... The take on the 1st article is that Gillette sees the future as shaving below the neck and will market based on the suggestion that body hair (manliness) is undesirable.

The 2nd article suggests that men are returning to traditional shaving with DE or Straights to emphasize their manliness (see comments on not appearing metrosexual).

I hope the 2nd view represents the future as society is way overdue for trending back towards letting boys be boys and men be men rather than advancing the feminist dream of metrosexualizing all males.


Shave on

 

[BarbaGnosa]

Economist.com seems to be experiencing technical difficulties. I finnnnnally opened these. In case others have been having the same trouble, here they are, with my analysis. Do go to the articles on Economist.com so you can see the lively discussions, and The Economist can earn a living by serving you ads and selling you subscriptions.

Shaving trends:

• 
  [*=1]Manscaping & Metrosexuality
  is on the rise. Men will be... androgynously manscaped and clean shaven below the neck. This is the major, long-term trend onto which Gillette has jumped with their men's body grooming products.
  [*=1]Trading-Up Trending Down
  Gillette and Schick's long term strategy -- keep trading up to more blades -- appears to be petering out, particularly challenged during this deep, extended global recession. More blades for more money not only no longer seems to provide better shaving experience, it's decreasingly affordable and cost effective for more of the market.
  [*=1]Shaving as a service
  Dollar Shave club and a growing number of other start-ups are now selling shaving as a subscription service, more convenient and economical. For a substantial discount from the cost of Gillette multi-blade, subscribers get a free handle with a monthly supply of razorblades, so you'll always be shaving with a fresh blade -- typically cartridges, although some are adding DE to their lines (eg. RazWar).
  [*=1]DIY Retro rising
  The Great Recession has given a huge boost to traditional crafts. Consumers’ need to economize has merged with hand-made, DIY, naturally healthy and retro chics. Further, in response to modern androgyny, some men are reaching back to historic masculinities, including the DE, SR and kit. Another factor is history: traditional shaving brushes, DEs and SRs have been gone long enough (2+ generations) to have retro'd into steampunking cool. In our industrialized, automated, anodyne age, brush lathering, DE and SR shaving utilize steampunk tech and cool kit many have only seen (if at all) in old movies and photos, and require skill and a touch of daring (or there will be blood) -- all of which are cool and masculine, and the sign of an individualist. For others, retro means luxury -- thus the growth of the Art of Shaving and other deluxe personal grooming brands with rising sales of traditional shaving wet and hardware for prices ranging from premium to lavish, $1000 custom razors, and bidding wars for antique shaving kit on eBay.

www.economist.com/node/5624861

Shaving technology

The cutting edge

A Moore's law for razor blades?

Mar 16th 2006 |

IT TOOK a leisurely 70 years after King Gillette invented the safety razor for someone to come up with the idea that twin blades might be—or, at least sell—better. Since then, the pace of change has accelerated, as blade after blade has been added to razors in an attempt to tech-up the “shaving experience”.
For the most cynical shavers, this evolution is mere marketing. Twin blades seemed plausible. Three were a bit unlikely. Four, ridiculous. And five seems beyond the pale. Few people, though, seem willing to bet that Gillette's five-bladed Fusion is the end of the road for razor-blade escalation. More blades may seem impossible for the moment—though strictly speaking the Fusion has six, because it has a single blade on its flip-side for tricky areas—but anyone of a gambling persuasion might want to examine the relationship between how many blades a razor has, and the date each new design was introduced.
This relationship (see chart) suggests shavers are going to get more blades whether they need them or not. However, just like Moore's law—the observation that computer chips double in power every 18 months or so—it seems that technology as well as marketing determines the rate at which new blades are introduced.

It is simply not possible to add a new blade whenever the marketing department wants one. Every additional blade, explains Michele Szynal, a spokeswoman at Gillette, adds weight and size to a razor. Firms must therefore find ways of making both razor and blades lighter, which means thinner blades, more closely spaced, made of special materials, with new coatings.
So what does the future hold? With only five data-points, it is hard to be sure exactly which mathematical curve is being followed. If it is what is known as a power law, then the 14-bladed razor should arrive in 2100. The spate of recent innovation, however, suggests it may be a hyperbola. In that case, blade hyperdrive will be reached in the next few years and those who choose not to sport beards might be advised to start exercising their shaving arms now.


http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpeter/2013/08/male-grooming

Male grooming

Razing prices

Aug 13th 2013, 13:14 by W.B.

TALK of hipster beards and three-day stubble is all well and good. But the shaving market might be seeing a far more significant change than that. Admittedly, it is not so much revolution as evolution, but developed-world consumers are starting to get fed up with trading up.
Last month Energizer, the battery company that owns Schick, announced a 10% fall in men’s razor sales for Q2 2013. Gillette, owned by Proctor & Gamble since a $57 billion deal in 2005, revealed soon after that its razor sales were decreasing in developed markets. Are such brands simply experiencing an unusual blip because recessions and fashion trends have made pricey razors and blades dispensable, or do they need the mother of all makeovers?
Gillette’s business model has long revolved around the concept of trading up. A two-blade razor was first introduced in 1971, and the Mach-3 became the norm in 1998. Ever since, the only way for razors has been up: “If you thought four blades were enough, just look what you could do with five,” runs the marketing spiel. That doesn’t work forever, though—and some consumers are showing the first bristles of discontent.
“There’s a sanity ceiling and it has been reached,” observes Michael Dubin, chief executive and co-founder of Dollar Shave Club (and star of a quite wonderful ad campaign), a company specialising in male grooming products. Nicole Tyrimou, Analyst of Beauty and Personal Care at Euromonitor International, a research firm, confirms that high prices are at least part of the reason why consumers are being deterred.
Cue the alternatives. Disposable razors and supermarkets’ own brands are trimming the margins of heavyweights like Gillette and Schick. In America such private labels amounted to 3.6% of the category in 2012, against just 2.5% five years earlier. In Western Europe their market share has grown by 40% since 2008—largely thanks to countries such as Spain, where own brands have almost doubled in popularity over the period from 9.9% to 17.3%. Expensive razors and blades are easy items for cash-strapped families to cut back on during an economic crisis.
Companies that deliver disposable blades straight to your door every month now offer a cheap and cheerful option. The Dollar Shave Club’s slogan—“Shave Time, Shave Money”—has clearly resonated with frustrated consumers. It boasts more than 280,000 active members and shipped a million blades to American buyers last month. Four four-blade razor heads only cost $6 each month, and the handle comes free in the first delivery. Walmart currently sells five Mach-3 blades for almost $17. The company’s “Not So Hairy” plan allows you to customise your order to minimise wastage and cost. Mr Dubin says that 73% of members now change their blades once a week, compared to 28% prior to joining.
Cyclical factors explain much of the shaving trend. Celebrities from George Michael to George Clooney have sported facial hair in recent years, but there’s no telling when the fashion will abate. The longer it lasts, the more likely it is to become a cause for concern. Ms Tyrimou worries that the arrival of hirsute chic in North America and Western Europe could dent sales in regions like Latin America, whose consumers take their style tips from western celebrities.
Other shifts look as if they are here to stay, though. Across the board, for instance, casual Fridays are eating further into the working week. At the same time, men are more open than ever to the possibility of pampering themselves. Male body shaving is becoming more socially acceptable.
The response to such trends is well under way. Gillette, for instance, is pushing ahead with the marketing of pre- and post-shaving products like gels and creams in North America. The brand also filed a “Gillette Body” trademark in May, and has started to take out related patents. Their Fusion ProGlide Styler is now advertised for whole body use. Men are encouraged to shave below the neck in a series of adverts for a product entitled “What Do Women Really Want?”, featuring Kate Upton, an American model.
Trading down may offer more than one opportunity, as men are not only less inclined to trade up (at least for the moment) but are spending more money on grooming below the neck. P&G figures suggest that 29% of American men and 49% of British men already try to avoid the King-Kong look. It is a market waiting to be tapped into. For the shaving giants, then, down may well be the new up.


http://www.economist.com/blogs/blighty/2012/11/james-bond-and-male-grooming

James Bond and male grooming

Getting stroppy

Nov 8th 2012, 16:44 by E.B.

THERE is a moment in “Skyfall”, the new James Bond film, when the stylish cipher we like to call 007 shaves with a straight razor, also known as a “cut-throat” blade. In a perfect advertisement for what is often considered a grooming chore, a bare-chested Daniel Craig, the latest Bond, patiently swicks at the marble block that is his face, only to be interrupted by the near-breathless marvelling of a beautiful woman (Naomie Harris). The scene ends with Ms Harris finishing the job herself, cooing, “sometimes the old ways are the best”.
And so a market is born. The Shaving Shack, an online retailer, claims to have seen a four-fold increase in straight-razor sales. The Executive Shaving Company has sold 50% more cut-throats in the last week. “Men have a hankering to do this,” explains Brian Mulreany, a shaving expert at Executive Shaving. “Real Men use Straight Razors," quips a comment onBadger & Blade, an online forum dedicated to all things shaving, in one of many threads devoted to James Bond.
At a time when the end of manhood is allegedly nigh, gents seem keen to embrace indulgences that are manly without being metrosexual. Bond has long served as an example of what this might look like. As with all of the secret agent’s choices—sartorial and otherwise—shaving with a straight razor is macho, anachronistic and fetishistic. The tool is dangerous, so its bloodless deployment demands enough skill to be a source of pride without seeming fussy.
Yet the latest cut-throat boomlet is part of a growing demand for classic razors and kit. Mr Mulreany notes that sales at his company have risen 240% in three years. He adds that he spends much of his time teaching grooming basics to men of all ages. “It used to be that dad would take his son into the bathroom and show him what to do,” he says. “I now meet men who have never shaved properly in their life.” More barbers are offering cut-throat shaves as well.
In Britain, where the market for men’s grooming gear is outpacing that of women’s, there are gains to be made in selling products and treatments that evoke traditional notions of manhood. Marks & Spencer clearly hopes to cash in with its new line of retro-themed men’s bath and body products, branded in partnership with the Imperial War Museum (strapline: “Every Fit Man Wanted&#8221.
Perhaps this return to fancy razors and wet shaving can be explained by a more generalself-conscious nostalgia for old-fashioned gender tropes at a time when relationships and distinctions between the sexes are increasingly confused. A taste for retro fashion and habits also offers a way to feel connected to the past without having to believe in anything beyond consumerism. But there are more simple reasons. In a water-cooler-like chat with an editor here, I discover that his teenage son is the proud owner of a straight razor, complete with strop and kit. The thing is, he says, it just looks cool.

http://www.economist.com/node/21551497

Shaving start-ups

Blade runners

Tweaking the whiskers of the shaving world’s giants

Mar 31st 2012 | SAN FRANCISCO

Cutting hedge
VENTURE capitalists (VCs) are obsessed with cutting-edge technologies. But the humble razor blade has never been one of them—until now. Dollar Shave Club, a fledgling firm that wants to change the way folk buy shaving gear, has just raised over $1m of seed funding from some of Silicon Valley's best-known VCs, including Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Andreessen Horowitz.
The financiers are working themselves into a lather because personal grooming is a huge business. Euromonitor, a market-research firm, reckons global sales of mens' shaving products hit $15 billion in 2010. Throw in other toiletries and that soars to $29 billion. The industry is dominated by Gillette, which is owned by Procter & Gamble, and Energizer Holdings, which owns the Wilkinson Sword and Schick brands. But sharp entrepreneurs are hoping to nick customers from them with two tactics.

One involves cutting out distributors and retailers to keep prices low. Dollar Shave Club charges users who sign up via its website a monthly fee, ranging from $3 for its “Humble Twin” razor with five cartridge refills to $9 for its six-blade “Executive” model with three refills. The razors, which are made in China and South Korea, are mailed to customers by the firm. Aileen Lee, a partner at Kleiner Perkins, says e-commerce has now matured to a point where specialty online retailers with excellent supply chains can mint money from such targeted offerings.
Shaving start-ups are also hoping to carve out a niche via savvy brand-building. This is not a new technique: decades back America's Burma-Shave touted its brushless shaving cream with witty ditties such as: “No lady likes to dance or dine accompanied by a porcupine.” Its messages had to be plastered on roadside billboards. Dollar Shave Club uses the information superhighway instead to reach a mass market quickly and cheaply. Michael Dubin, the firm's boss, is already the star of an online video that boasts that his firm's razors are “F***ing great”. The ad, which mocks big firms for adding useless features to razors as an excuse to raise prices, has received almost 4m hits on YouTube.
Mr Dubin's firm isn't the only digital David battling the shaving Goliaths. RazWar, a Belgian company backed by angel investors, has spent the past couple of years building an online community of subscribers who dislike paying through the nose for something they use on their chins. “We are providing shaving as a service in the same way firms are providing software as a service these days,” says David Hachez, the firm's co-founder.
Kleiner Perkins and other investors are betting that shaving start-ups may blossom into far bigger personal-grooming brands. But, to put it bluntly, their chances of success look slim. Some people throw away razor blades after a day; others make them last a year. So monthly deliveries will not make sense for everyone. And some industry veterans question the notion that men hate shopping for razors. “In my experience guys don't have a problem going to buy blades,” says Todd Greene of HeadBlade, which sells razors for shaving heads.
Rather than focusing on the mass market, where margins can be, er, razor-thin, Zafirro, another American start-up, is promoting pricey products with long-lasting sapphire blades. A limited edition razor, with a handle made from super-durable iridium moulded at a factory that also makes rocket parts, is on offer for $100,000—just the thing for the bearded billionaire who cannot get a date. Hayden Hamilton, Zafirro's boss, says it is looking for angel funding. Stubble, stubble, toil and—bubble?