The Breakdown of Marketing: My Personal Razor Experience

When I was a young man I, like most young men, began shaving with what my father used: I started on Bic. It was disposable, it had 2 blades, and it was blue.




Then, about the time I started college, I received the newest technology in the mail: The Gillette Mach 3. This one had a metal handle, 3 blades, and you only replaced the top. Slick.



Then, a few year ago I came across Schick's Quattro. As you would imagine, we're now up to 4 blades on a non-interchangeable, proprietary system designed to get you to buy more blades. And the replacements were starting to get pricey, but I stuck to it for a while.



Finally about a year ago I received from a friend or maybe even my father a free sample of Gillette Fusion (Onion article here). I'd heard about it before. It was orange, it was big, and it was 5 blades strong ...+ 1 precision trimmer! And I tried it. And it worked. And then I went to the store and realized exactly how expensive those replacement blades were running and wondered exactly what the difference in shaving was, as I had come so far.

And where have we returned?



To the beginning, of course. The double blades of Bic give me a fine enough shave and I spend 1/5 of what I would replacing all those poly-blade heads. The shaving industry, from my perspective, has run the route of epic fail. Except for those guys making the plastic blue razors. I'm proud to say my father never left them. Wise man.

So do you have a personal marketing experience you'd like to share? What razors do you use? I'd love to hear from you.