British grooming brand King of Shaves has started accepting bitcoin payments in a marketing push backed by a few clever puns, including the hashtag ‘#cuttingedge’.
The company is a relatively small player in a big industry, which has been dominated by Gillette and Schick (Wilkinson Sword) for decades.
Carving out a small niche in a multibillion dollar duopoly is never easy, so King of Shaves tends to employ clever marketing tactics, ranging from sponsorship deals with athletes and powerboat racers through savings bonds dubbed ‘shaving bonds’ to its über-cool URL: www.shave.com.
Now the company is accepting bitcoin through BitPay, according to a tweet sent out earlier today.
We now accept bitcoin at http://t.co/1WcWt3ziXC :-) #cuttingedge #cryptocurrency via @BitPay /@iAmWilliAmKing :-))) pic.twitter.com/NdLvjTiTRM
— King of Shaves (@KingofShaves) June 18, 2014
It seems it’s always pun time with King of Shaves. The company’s CEO is Will King, which explains the @iAmWilliAmKing handle – a likely swipe at rapper and serial entrepreneur will.i.am, who was last seen promoting a 3D Systems printer that gobbles up PET bottles as filament.
Accepting bitcoin is not just a way of shaving transaction fees, it is clearly yet another clever publicity stunt from the small Buckinghamshire outfit. Since we don’t want to get into an unwinnable pun war with King of Shaves, we’ll leave it at that.
Shaving man image via Shutterstock