The Strategy Battle of 2011 - David’s kid brother versus Goliath

A terrific article about Will King and his business King of Shaves in the Telegraph which I highly recommend to all business teachers.

Will King is trying to compete in what is effectively an monopoly market. One global brand dominates the worldwide shaving habits of men and women - Gillette. How can King of Shaves possibly compete against the might of such a business. To put things in perspective, Gillette is launching a new razor in the UK in late January 2011 and is expected to spend almost £50m on launch promotion alone. King of Shaves also has a new razor launching on the same day - but the firm has had just £4m of external investment since it was formed. Gillette has over 80% of the UK market.

The article is rich in business studies material. Lots of good data on market share (note how the use of volume data is mainly used). The shareholding structure of King of Shaves is described, as is King’s growth strategy into the huge US market (perfect Ansoff Matrix material). The references to pricing strategy are also really useful - lots of scope here to ask students to conduct some basic market research on pricing by the main brands in the UK shaving market.

You can follow Will King on Twitter here - something I also recommend