Gillette, which has “owned” the men's toiletry market (and a large part of the women's) had confused me with a plethora of razors, all battery powered, muliti-blade, with pro glide, power glide, propower glide, glide power pro, and so on. It's ridiculous, and the razors and the blades (where the real profit is) are not cheap. Yes I've been using these vibrating razors since introduced in the late 90s. But I've heard a lot from Harry's and their razor, which is non-vibrating, multi-blade, and inexpensive. Most importantly, it's not confusing.

So I see an ad offering a sample, and a few days later I get the razor, and Harry's includes a great foaming shave cream AND a hair styling mousse. I hesitated using the razor because I feared a razor burn (you have to hold it with a slightly different angle in  my experience) but it was impressively smooth and, because I'm very into instant gratification, I used the mousse that evening. All the products are great.

Two smart marketing lessons:

1. Keep it simple. I'm tired of investigating displays of the latest and most appropriate Gillette offerings on the shelves. I bought my new iPad in less time.

2. Overdeliver to promote other products. Harry's will ship me stuff periodically.

When I was young, learning to shave, my father taught me to use Shick, which had single and double-edged straight blades. Have you hear of them lately? Don't be afraid to take on entrenched giants. They're like the very obese who can no longer see their own feet.