Cheap razor made after P&G watches Indians shave
news.yahoo.com
news.yahoo.com
This is one of the hard things about being a tiny startup like P&G with very little capital to spare: you sometimes have to cut costs on little things that turn out to be more important than you thought. A few thousand dollars to fly your employees to India might not seem like much, but when you've only got $140B in assets, you have to make some tough calls, and you can't be right 100% of the time.
I mean seriously, they brought a product to market and didn't fly over to India until after the product flopped? And now that they have, they're talking about basic run-of-the-mill user testing like it's this brand new concept that they're just now discovering.
How are these people still in business?
Also, once you break into a market, it become's a perpetual money machine. P&G could do six such flops and still come out on top, eventually, when they finally break in.
This was during the Vector's R&D circa 2002, Gillette was only bought by P&G in 2005. It's got nothing to do with P&G.
What I really like about this method of shaving is that it made me view this activity differently. It's no longer a chore and it isn't something that I mindlessly rush through. The shaving brush, razor, blades, and cream are my tools; I don't just toss them into garbage (the blades being the exception) once I've had a few shaves. I prepare everything and commit to being present while I shave. It's a ritual now and as lame as it might sound my life is richer as a result. I wish someone had taught me to shave this way when I first started.
But I can't help feeling disappointed that we have yet another disposable thing, instead of a better handle for double blades.
> The takeaway: In the U.S., razor makers spent decades on marketing centered on a close shave, adding blade after blade to achieve a smoother cheek.
Haha! My bathroom looks like something from a Tarantino movie after I finish shaving. Blood everywhere. Honestly, I'm surprised I still have both ears. Some days I just stop half way through if I haven't cut myself, quit while I'm ahead. And they keep adding blades - you might as well just give me a cheesegrater and get it over with. At the moment I'm using a double blade and Merkur handle, and I really really like it. Initial investment, but much cheaper over time. The ritual of shaving is nice.
That's why I use an electrical shaver.
MAJOR improvement for me over the blades.
Back to blades. Fast, clean, very close to the skin and I have absolute control on the shave. And I like the smell of the cream, too.
I noticed that in the article, it talks about the price of the handle and the price of the blades[0]. I looked it up and it's not a disposable razor, it's a replaceable cartridge head[1]. Which isn't as bad from my perspective. Same source for [1] also says that the razor's made in India[2], so it's going to have a much shorter maker-to-market chain.
[0] - http://news.yahoo.com/cheap-razor-made-p-g-watches-indians-s... "Gillette sells the Guard for 15 rupees, or 34 cents, and each razor blade is 5 rupees, or 12 cents"
[1] - http://www.westcoastshaving.com/Gillette-Guard-Cartridge-Raz... "Description Newly released Gillette Guard Cartridge Razor with pivoting head."
[2] - http://www.westcoastshaving.com/Gillette-Guard-Cartridge-Raz... "Made in India."
The problem that Gillette was looking at (expensive reusable blades and handles) is solved for a lot on lower income men in Indian by delegating the task to service industry professionals (a.k.a. street vendors, single-chair barbers). It would have been amazing if Gillette had figured out a way to make money by effectively supplying, training and endorsing that legion of individual vendors with higher grade reusable blades and disinfectants, thus keeping those micro-transactions flowing, rather than training the next generation of men that disposable is the only way to go.
The most important is to understand that the hairs on your face act like spaghetti - they are so much softer when they have absorbed some water. So the key is, shave after you get out of the shower, or make sure your face has been wet for a few minutes before you apply lotion or gel and start to shave.
Second, go slower!
Third, either move your face muscles around or actually use the fingers on your other hand, to pull your skin taut in the area you shave, this will minimize the chance of a cut.
Using a small amount of shaving oil helped too.
But now I just use a double edged blade and a brush and some nice soap (Joe's Mug Soap, dirt cheap, or other stuff which is not so cheap) and follow up with a moisturiser.
Email me if you're an HN reader and you sell any of this stuff, because I'm interested. Especially if it smells like Bulldog Face Scrub. (http://meetthebulldog.com/product/view/43)
Do the math for how much a razor "should" cost, and ask why you can't buy one for remotely that much at your local Walgreens. Ask why stuff like Dollar Shave Club exists, and then look at their prices and figure out what their margins are.
A lot of thought goes into anything that is mass-market and is still competitively priced. The article says, "each razor blade is 5 rupees, or 12 cents". Stuff like Dollar Shave club is way too expensive for most Indians, and that what this article is about.
If you still find it contemptible, fine, you make cheaper razors. If they work, I'll buy them.
> To do that, P&G executives would have to attract the nearly 500 million Indians who use double-edged razors, an old fashioned T-shaped razor that has no protective piece of plastic that goes between the blade and the skin when shaving.
...such razors are generally called "safety razors", and unless there's a radically different design in use in India, they're pretty hard to cut yourself with.
But a resurgence in their popularity would be pretty terrible for Gillette, given how much cheaper their blades are, so their PR can't say anything positive about them.
I am honestly never going back to a mass manufactured multi-blade type razor again. I get a much better, closer shave and way less rash and burn. It takes longer, but i feel the trade off is well worth it. There is the obvious financial benefit that will more that pay for itself within a couple of years as well. I forget how much a gilette mach whatever blade was, something like £3-5.
I've thought about going the safety razor route but there was a span of time where I was travelling almost constantly and, from what I understand, you're not allowed to bring them in your carry on (I don't usually check luggage).
Might give it a shot now that I don't really travel anymore.
It's much easier to cut yourself with a safety razor than with a cartridge razor. All it takes is being tired and in a hurry, or being clumsy when replacing the blade.
I've found the benefits (closer shave, cheap enough to replace regularly) worth the costs in time and (occasional) blood. But don't pretend that they're as idiot-proof as the cartridge razors, because unfortunately, they're not.
All that said--yeah, this was pretty transparently a PR piece with the moral of the story being "watch how people do what they do to make products that will appeal to them."
Um, duh?
I agree that the article is PR puff piece.
As an american audience member, my takeaway was around "knowing your customer". I also thought that they were focused on cost savings.
I am not sure what exactly you think is contemptible about this. That there is PR involved? That the price of razors is too high?
If I decided to produce my own razor blades, I suppose I would need to buy an iron mine, a factory to melt the ore to iron, and a factory to turn the iron into razor blades. And presumably hire a few industrial designers or engineers to ensure that I got a nice razor rather than a lousy one.
I've no idea what any of these things cost, so I'll pick a random number and estimate a few hundred million USD.
And say I did all that just to get razor blades for myself, because I thought the market offerings were too expensive.
So my math is: Say $500m to aquire the means of production, an unknown yearly cost to keep them running (so I'll just ignore that part), and a consumption of one razor blade per week or slightly more than 3,000 blades in a lifetime (assuming 60 years, age 17-77, of shaving). According to my calculations, razor blades "should" cost in the neighbourhood of $160,000 per blade.
That's my math. What's yours?
The marketing effort by Gillette is to upsell Indian consumers from a generic double-edged razor to a proprietary cartridge system, opening the path for continual upselling to multi-blade cartridge systems as those consumers and their offspring enter the middle class.
"Indian men have thicker hair and a higher hair density than their American counterparts. Adding to that, they often shave less frequently than American men, so they wind up shaving longer beards." .. "
"... observed men using a cup of water to shave. All the MIT students had running water. Without that, the razor stayed clogged."
I live in a first world country now, and still use a bowl of water when shaving: it's the environmentally kind thing to do. People who keep the water running all the time while they brush their teeth or shave drive me nuts. Ditto people who pull out three to four paper napkins from public restrooms after washing their hands. Take them one by one: one or two is probably enough.
End rant.
And on topic, I've found that the quality of the blade makes a huge difference. I think they intentionally put bad blades in the cheap razors. I wonder how good the blade on this one is.
Or carry and use a handkerchief.
Haven't thought of simply turning the water off between rinses instead of using a cup?
Oh I think the likes of Gillette do far more devious things when it comes to the life of razors. For instance, I can almost swear that the blades on my Fusion razor seem to wear out much faster than the blades on my Mach 3, Sensor, Presto etc. (I've been nearly a lifelong Gillette razor user)
I think what Gillette does is to ensure that the lubricating strip wears out faster, thus causing discomfort while shaving and making one feel as though the razor itself has worn out.
http://gliddofglood.typepad.com/the_glidd_of_glood_blog/2012...
It is also somewhat more difficult to get a good lather with harder water.
Mixing valves have existed for a few decades now (unless you're in the UK, which is still waiting to discover plumbing I believe). There no reason to leave water running.
Now that we have my financial background clear, to avoid ad hominem attacks, I would easily vouch for this razor. Not only it's really smooth to shave (very good ergonomics), it also lasts longer. Believe me, I have used a single blade for about 6 months (max), with no deterioration and any sort of skin irritations/side effects, on the condition that I take care of preserving my blades by placing them into the air tight bottles to avoid rusting.
However, my average with a single blade of this razor is usually 3 months. It's also really cheap. You can get 5 blades for an equivalent of $1.5 bucks USD (80 Indian rupees). The razor itself is cheap too. So, it's a good product that get's the job done for most of us. It's much better than what my father has - A three blade motorized, vibration enabled Gillete razor whose blades alone would set you back for $10 minimum for a set of 3 or 5.
I hate it when people automatically go into this "if it's cheap in price, it's cheap in quality" mode without giving the product a fair chance.
Just to be clear, my other HN account has 2000+ karma and I'm not a troll/marketer for this product. I'm a genuine customer who just would like to share my experience with it.
Interesting. My brief sojourn as a representative of Her Majesty's Government also taught me to shave from a bowl of water, simply because running water was an inefficient use of resources. It did require agitating the razor quite abruptly to clean it, and shaving was a little more jarring than when using warm water, but it worked.
And the bowl could be tipped-out after shaving to be filled with tasty porridge for brekkies. :)
P&G should promote this design to various militaries around the World. The use-case seems to match perfectly ( right down to the lack of a proper mirror ).
It might be because I have really dense hair but I always hated shaving. Maybe if I had this razor allegedly designed for thicker hair I might shave more often. Maybe I'm part Indian and didn't know it? (Although I doubt any of my ancestors ever set foot in India let alone came from there.)
I'm a fan of the beard as much as anyone, but this is the wrong evangelism point.
As far as using Indian students from MIT - thats a neat way of trying to lower development costs, while still targeting the specific needs to the ethnic group targeted. It didn't work perfectly, because it couldnt test for local use cases, but its still a neat start.
http://www.amazon.com/Astra-Superior-Premium-Platinum-Double...
More importantly to Gillette, however, is that they control the patents on each new cartridge design they come up with. The patents on DE razors are long expired. As such you must use OEM or licensed blades in your Gillette Fusion but I can use any blade in my Gillette Super Speed.
Is this really necessary?