APSOTWA (cultural) strategy for ʻKing of Shavesʼ.

Thomas Wagner (@thomas_wagner)wagner.thomas1@gmail.com

Vienna, Austria

Mapping the Cultural Orthodoxy of Shaving.

Men always had facial hair.We know that culture has celebrated beards and also removed them for millennia. This was and is for various reasons. Of the more practical ones: to avoid being grabbed at the beard by an enemy during a battle. A shaved Alexander the Great is supposedly responsible for the widespread adoption of shaving among his soldiers.Beards have always served as a signal to distinguish men and women. Beards have also distinguished farmers from lords and blue- from white-collar workers. Beards have therefore always been a rich symbolic territory.

Some History

Before the 20th century men largely used single razors. And if they didnʼt do it themselves, barbers offered a professional shave for the men who could afford it.“The 1880′s to the 1940′s were the golden age for barbershops. During this time, men socialized in all male hangouts, and barbershops rivaled saloons in popularity. Visiting the barbershop was a weekly, and sometimes daily habit. Men would stop in not only for a haircut and a shave, but also to fraternize with friends and chew the fat.”

Then came Mr. Gillette and invented the safety razor and after the wars, almost everybody used safety razors. Barbershops on the other hand were mostly wiped off the urban landscape.

How-To

Even with the threat of being grabbed in a battle gone, more than 1.7 billion men worldwide age 15 years and older remove hair. 1.3 billion men shave with a blade and razor.The routine depicted to the left happens again and again and again without much thinking - most of the time with a Gillette razor, in front of a mirror or in the shower.The clean-shaved men is now established mainstream. As are the billion dollar business-model that he supports and the values the category is built upon. Both are worth exploring.

The status-quo.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/28177041@N03/3001229803/sizes/z/in/photostream/

“The market? Listen, we make the market. All we have to do is put her out there with a little jingle. It's as easy as, 'Hey, shaving with anything less than five blades is like scraping your beard off with a dull hatchet.' Or 'You'll be so smooth, I could snort lines off of your chin.' Try 'Your neck is going to be so friggin' soft, someone's gonna walk up and tie a goddamn Cub Scout kerchief under it.'”

This is a category that poured $750 million into R&D for a razor with three blades. Shortly after the satirical Onion piece, five blades were a profitable reality. This is a category that buys into the sciency, modern promise of progress, as in more is always better. And it also buys into the power of making people believe that.

A Business Model Culture of “Fuck everything. We're doing five blades.”

http://www.theonion.com/articles/fuck-everything-were-doing-five-blades,11056/

“Sharp practice? The razor heads that

cost just 5p to make, but sell for £2.43

each”http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1191456/Sharp-practice-The-razor-heads-cost-

just-5p-make-sell-2-43-each.html#ixzz1KcuMaodT

“Do men really need the new five-bladed Fusion, especially considering that Gillette is planning to sell Fusion blades at a stiff 30% premium over what it now charges for "the best a man can get?"http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/sep2005/nf20050915_1654_db035.htm

“Some dermatologists say the five-blade design smacks of overkill, because more blades mean more friction, and friction irritates the skin. ''When you add more blades, there's a greater chance of nicks and razor burn,'' said Dr. Ezra Kest, a dermatologist in Beverly Hills. 'I always tell my patients not to use more than two blades.'”

“ONCE upon a time, razors with multiple blades were a joke. The first

broadcast of ''Saturday Night Live'' included a mock commercial for the ''Triple

Track,'' a three-bladed razor, featuring the slogan: 'Because you'll believe

anything.'”http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9903E2DB153FF93AA25752C0A9609C8B63

So what values does the category reinforce?The modern men myth.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0_CQ4I5T8k

In ʻ93 we see the ʻmodernʼ man. Modern, as in thriving and giving everything in business, married, being a part-time father, athletic, nice and shaved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfARjG6wARY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE0fCWH7FJ0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uY2xaeWdDVs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIPT6vhGmk8

In ’11 we again see the ‘modern’ man. And he is still thriving and giving everything in business, married, athletic, nice and shaved. He might be full-body shaved, own an iPhone and he might not work at Wall Street anymore, but not that much has changed on a deeper level. This is in accordance with the male mainstream that - in surveys - associates ʻmodernʼ with cosmopolitan, career-minded and athletic while women say they regard men as modern if they are empathetic and treat them on equal terms.

http://diestandard.at/1282979025078/Deutschland-Der-moderne-Mann-ist-nur-ein-Mythos

To sum it up: the Gillette-shaved man isn't exactly a realistic, interesting or multilayered guy. And once he does 'interesting' things, he gets axed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/dec/24/tiger-woods-dropped-by-gillette

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuSBCIV1zuQ

Is all of this really 'The Best a Man Can Get'?This is a market that made a joke and billions of dollars out of a once proud ʻmanlyʼ activity. Of a territory that was once regarded noble, even sacred maybe.The shaved man in the norms of the category could be seen as a symbol of men's submission. Submission to a corporate lifestyle and norms that regards facial hair as unprofessional and to an advertising and marketing machinery that treats them as dumb and needy.

'It gliiiides … like literally'

'Meine Frau wird's lieben’ – My wife will love this

‘Fight ... for kisses.’

A Shift in Male Culture.

On average, men are still earning more money than their female counterparts. They still hold the majority of senior positions in corporations and still only do a fraction of our worldʼs unpaid work.Numbers tell only so much though: real economic trends, pop culture and media discourse makes many men feel under pressure.After the ʻhe-cessionʼ, there is now a lot of talk about the end or decline of men. Globalization, immigration, highly educated and emancipated women - the ʻmodernʼ man has more things than ever to ʻworryʼ about and less time, money, rights and knowledge to actually do ʻtraditionally manlyʼ things.

Men* Are Under Pressure.

* Here meaning men in ʻWesternʼ countries. Unfortunately I canʼt confidently stretch this assumption to Asia, Africa or South America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RyPamyWotM

They retreat and turn to things that allow them to vent, like voting for right-wing, xenophobic parties in Europe for example, or buying a Dodge.

This path would also be the easy shortcut for King of Shaves: Riding the wave of a destructive male backlash until it breaks. But this would be a mistake, as backlashes are usually more short-lived than media discourses would want us think.As sociologist Kimmel puts it: Men have two options.“Are we going to be dragged into the future, kicking and screaming -- like the men's rights guys -- or are we going to go boldly, fearlessly, and say, ‘What a minute: What's in this for men?’”

So Some Men Are Angry...

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2011/03/29/scott_adams_mens_rights_movement/index.html#

Many men today, like women, take a chance to explore their roles and experiment with them. They can use this to rediscover what it means to be a man in all the different aspects of life. “What the data clearly shows is that the men who embrace gender equality are actually happier, healthier, live better lives, have better relationships with their friends, their wives and their kids. So I don't think it's going to catch on.” (Kimmel)

This doesnʼt mean they arenʼt be interested in traditionally masculine things. On the contrary, men working in office jobs increasingly desire authentic, DIY, real and interesting stuff. But unlike their reactionary gender-mates they acknowledge equality and are not afraid of the future.They can even admit weakness as a hero or increasingly embrace sex toys as a partner or ...

.. and Others Take The Chance

http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/02/19/vibrators_men

... show some countercultural facial hair that says “Iʼm not a suit”, ...

... and maybe even visit a barber shop now and then.

Also nowandnext.com brainmail.

This is the shift that Kind of Shaves should embrace: let the brand perform for men who are conscious about being good men. Men who might feel the pressure, but who take the best of male heritage while embracing a future, which might include cooking, looks and other things traditionally gendered female. King of Shaves should celebrate modern menʼs journey and quest to become better in a world that doesnʼt really welcome them with open arms. Achievement, in this sense, isnʼt a milestone men reach, but the journey they are on. King of Shaves is here during that journey, from the first whisker, to the first date, to the day when the next generation takes over. Because a part of what will make a gentlemen, now or in the future, is a decent shave.

Source Material for the King of Shaves.

We know most interesting man in the world doesn't always drink beer. But apparently he also doesn't needily shave in a fight for kisses.

(Could you overhear him say “I donʼt always shave, but when I shave I donʼt use one of those 5 blade pseudo-tool for kiddies”?)

Would they shave with five super-thin Gillette blades and say “Ohh ... it glides”?

Or would Tom Fordʼs five rules for a modern gentlemen ever include a Gillette razor?

http://www.anothermag.com/exclusives/tom-ford

“1. You should put on the best version of yourself when you go out in the world because that is a show of respect to the other people around you.

2. A gentleman today has to work. People who do not work are so boring and are usually bored. You have to be passionate, you have to be engaged and you have to be contributing to the world.

3. Manners are very important and actually knowing when things are appropriate. I always open doors for women, I carry their coat, I make sure that they're walking on the inside of the street. Stand up when people arrive at and leave the dinner table.

4. Don't be pretentious or racist or sexist or judge people by their background.

5. A man should never wear shorts in the city. Flip-flops and shorts in the city are never appropriate. Shorts should only be worn on the tennis court or on the beach.”

- While #5 might be a bit superficial, the other points resonate with what King of Shaves should be.

King of Shaves should base itself on the assumption that certain good things men did in the past are still valid and relevant today and will be tomorrow - a good shave for example, or even a good shave in a barber shop. And it should also be confident about doing supposedly female things, such as taking care of kids or cooking. Therefore, the source material is everything that supports this believe and can give confidence and a guiding light for the many men out there. These can be biographies, books about manners, the current discourse or the stories of the men we want to celebrate.

Milton Glaser once said that not less is more, but ʻJust Enough is Moreʼ. One doesnʼt need less experience to be a good men in a certain situation, but just enough. The King of Shaves uses two blades, which are just enough. It charges less money than Gillette, but ʻenoughʼ to be good quality. It celebrates manliness, but not in an extreme and overdone, but subtle way that communicates understatement and confidence.

The King of Shaves Tactics.

All of the before-mentioned raises a question about doing and merely playing a role.

“The riggers, welders, and boilermakers of generations past weren’t wearing overalls to feel like men, as Susan Faludi, the author of books on both sexes, has pointed out. Instead, ‘their sense of their own manhood flowed out of their utility in a society, not the other way around,’ she writes. ‘Conceiving of masculinity as something to be turns manliness into [something] ornamental, and about as ‘masculine’ as fake eyelashes are inherently ‘feminine.’”

As Tom Ford puts it: “You have to be passionate, you have to be engaged and you have to be contributing to the world“. True ʻmanlinessʼ is something to be done, not something to be played. And doing means experiencing to gain experience. Axe offers an instant solution to manliness, but real man know that there are no shortcuts to interestingness - or becoming a good man.

http://www.newsweek.com/2010/09/20/why-we-need-to-reimagine-masculinity.html#

This suggests two things:1) Men donʼt have the time, talent, guts or money to do all the stuff the Most Interesting Man In The World, the Man Your Man Could Smell Like or Sean Connery do, so the King of Shaves should bring them closer to the alluring world of modern, storied gentlemen. All of this without the irony of the before mentioned, but with dry understatement.2) Gillette demands more than double the price for its high-tech blades. Men donʼt need five blades and they certainly donʼt want to pay a 100% price premium to a billion dollar corporation. There is simply no good reason a Gillette Fusion should be in a manʼs toolkit.

What to do?1) In TV (if possible) and print, celebrate the history of multifaceted, multilayered men who know the rules for a future-oriented modern gentlemen. People like Keith Richards, Sean Connery, Tom Ford and The Most Interesting Man In The World are interesting blueprints for men who have learned and experienced a lot and who could credibly say that paying 12$ for unnecessary, sciency shaving tech isnʼt exactly the smart manʼs choice.2) Associate King of Shaves with an authentic barber shop shave. On the website and maybe packaging confidently stress the heritage, importance and benefits of a great barber shop shave now and then. Provide a barber shop map. Make barber shops Kind of Shavesʼ best friend, so that they suggest King of Shaves as the best non barber shop experience. If necessary and possible produce one original single blade for barbers.3) Combine 1 and 2.4) As for tone and setting: Let the men have a beard. Beards are a rich symbol and eventually have to be shaved or trimmed. King of Shaves doesnʼt have a reason to be afraid of beards or barber shops.5) Consider switching packaging to ʻjust enough is moreʼ style (e.g. wooden-style, minimalistic metal) to distinguish from the tech-design of the category.

In a world that has lost the sense for what 'manliness' and 'masculinity' actually means, King of Shaves celebrates the modern gentlemen.

These are men who are fed up with the old role models and cliches of what it means to be a 'true man' as much as they don't plan to fall into oblivion. Men who know the good manners that being a good man brought with it in the past, as well as the future challenges that lie ahead. Men who seek to navigate through the interesting journeys of life on a quest to become better as a person. Men who know their heritage, but who are not afraid of the future. Or of women, for that matter.

King of Shaves is here to light a light for them, as they are confronted with the many options and traps modern society has laid out for them. We believe that just enough is more and true confidence isn't associated with the riches we carry, but the things that made us. We don't buy into the old masculine mantra of 'failure is not an option' but encourage making experiences, for experience is what really makes the man of the 21st century.

Thank you.