Its Quiet Out There....Too Quiet?

I have spoken directly with one other artisan who regards mass marketing as the key.

My naive take is that the winner will be whoever reaches the masses first with ads that show the cool guy is the one who does a great “traditional” prep with affordable products, and he gets the girl because of it. He will be the guy people want to be around and be like. Thanks to China I think, brush prices in real dollar terms have come way down. I now own great badger and synthetic brushes for $30 and under (some on sale). These brushes and good soaps will be pitched first. Razors will come later; so will boars IMHO. You want the newbie to succeed (with his cart) first, and from day one.

Just my two cents.

Ezlovan: Awesome assessment of the situation. I've got a lot of your products (being one of the 10,000 crazies). Wish I knew how to get it off the ground and into the millions mark. What I know from my circle of influence is that more than half of the traditional Gillette customers (80s to recent) are not thrilled with carts and cans of foam but change seems difficult for many of us. There's a market aching for something but figuring out how to get the message to them in an manner that they will act seems more than word-of-mouth. Shaving is not so acceptable a topic for chit chat as are other hobbies.

Thanks for your assessment ezlovan , I agree with you that something has to give if this whole thing is to go to the next level otherwise it will be more of the same with a regular changing of the players competing for the same small market.

One of the problems I see with getting people to make the jump is that if you're a guy using banned foam and a cartridge razor, you really have no way of knowing how much better your shave can actually be. You know that you don't like shaving and you think you're already putting in as much time as your prepared to so you keep on doing it that way.

I think a lot of guys try wet shaving because a friend or family member or someone whose opinion they respect introduced it to them. Maybe they even gave them some decent gear to get started with and some instruction or good youtube references. To wait for something like this to happen to millions of men might take some time, however, if some highly respected public figure / influencer (dare I say, trendsetter) went public with their wet shaving practice, it could reach millions of potential converts. I'm thinking perhaps one of the young British Royals, or someone like Tom Brady or Lebron James. It would be cool if James Harden became a wet shaving convert. (has anybody ever seen his chin?) I don't mean shilling for a wet shaving company but rather, sincerely practiced wet shaving.

I know lots of young guys are going to "traditional" barbershops or at least chains that give the appearance of such and I'm sure they got the idea from movies - part of the retro is cool thing, maybe it was Mad Men I don't know but they like retro and whats more retro than wet shaving?

Just some thoughts

"banned" foam, Marko ?  You really are serious about your soap!

Thanks for your assessment ezlovan , I agree with you that something has to give if this whole thing is to go to the next level otherwise it will be more of the same with a regular changing of the players competing for the same small market.

One of the problems I see with getting people to make the jump is that if you're a guy using banned foam and a cartridge razor, you really have no way of knowing how much better your shave can actually be. You know that you don't like shaving and you think you're already putting in as much time as your prepared to so you keep on doing it that way.

I think a lot of guys try wet shaving because a friend or family member or someone whose opinion they respect introduced it to them. Maybe they even gave them some decent gear to get started with and some instruction or good youtube references. To wait for something like this to happen to millions of men might take some time, however, if some highly respected public figure / influencer (dare I say, trendsetter) went public with their wet shaving practice, it could reach millions of potential converts. I'm thinking perhaps one of the young British Royals, or someone like Tom Brady or Lebron James. It would be cool if James Harden became a wet shaving convert. (has anybody ever seen his chin?) I don't mean shilling for a wet shaving company but rather, sincerely practiced wet shaving.

I know lots of young guys are going to "traditional" barbershops or at least chains that give the appearance of such and I'm sure they got the idea from movies - part of the retro is cool thing, maybe it was Mad Men I don't know but they like retro and whats more retro than wet shaving?

Just some thoughts

I think you are correct that one or more key spokespeople would likely be a critical ingredient for success.

"banned" foam, Marko ?  You really are serious about your soap!  

Sometimes the typo is brilliant. Wouldn't it be great? Banned by reason of just not being any good.

Seriously, my favourite canned shaving foam is... said no one ever.

The younger market is hard to sell this whole thing to. They want instant gratification and they want it NOW. This way, "Takes too much time," is what I have heard from trying to get younger converts into it. Anecdotal I know, but it is going to be a tough sell.

I don't care if it takes longer. There is no other way now. I make time for it.

The younger market is hard to sell this whole thing to. They want instant gratification and they want it NOW. This way, "Takes too much time," is what I have heard from trying to get younger converts into it. Anecdotal I know, but it is going to be a tough sell.

More anecdotal "evidence" from my experiences recently. I have had to drastically reduce my bathroom time recently, super quick shower and shave. I debated looking for a cartridge, but decided to just do a one pass DE shave with soap and brush as quickly as possible without being careless! I have had great success with fast load and lather, and one pass with a Karve razor B plate. I shave in multiple directions, but don't strive for even DFS. I have gotten very nice daily shaves. Sure I am seeing stubble by the 8 hr mark, but that wasn't as bad as what I remember from a cart shave. I was surprised I could do a decent shave in 5 minutes, no fancy stuff, just lather, shave, shower, like cart days. And maybe like they used to back when Dad shaved with a Fatboy.

Anyway, my point is you can spend the same amount of time, initially. As I have been doing this, I find myself looking forward to longer shaves. I would bet a new convert would wonder what it would be like to lather up again and try that extra pass. If the first is luxurious, about the same amount of time, and a better shave, imagine what another pass would be like?!

The younger market is hard to sell this whole thing to.  They want instant gratification and they want it NOW.  This way, "Takes too much time," is what I have heard from trying to get younger converts into it.  Anecdotal I know, but it is going to be a tough sell.

I certainly agree that there are instant-gratify junkies I our midst but I also think that there are many looking for something with roots too. I feel the issue might be the lack of awareness that there is a better way. I don't know how to get the message out except in my immediate circle of influence where my conversion rate is higher than 50%. I feel you on the "instant" statement as I even find myself wanting to get my news and communications in several sentences rather than several paragraphs. But in my town it's been the millennial Hipsters that have rejuvenated the barbering community and two here in town that I was afraid would quit have in fact become the bastion of mandom and have waiting lists to get cleaned up.