King of Shaves entrepreneur Will King has come up with a genius way of raising a £5m war chest for his unreasoningly popular shaving and skincare brand.

King is giving his customers the chance to buy bonds in his business – or “shaving bonds”, as he calls them. The bonds are going at six per cent interest a year, which is 12 times the current Bank of England base rate.

As of yesterday, 5,000 bonds are up for grabs at £1,000 apiece. The scheme has been approved by BDO Stoy Hayward and is regulated by the United Kingdom’s Financial Services Authority (FSA).

“I actually had the idea about four years ago, while I was sitting in a meeting,” says King. “I was thinking about plays on words with ‘shaving’ and ‘saving’. Shavingbond.com sounded pretty cool so I bought the domain. Fast forward to 2009, and our Azor razor is heading towards a ten per cent handle share and we’re selling 40,000 to 50,000 cartridges a week. We’re running a huge press and poster campaign across the country. Now’s the time to invest in brand awareness and give our customers the chance to share in the success of the company.”

Wow! Listen to that!! “Now is the time to invest in brand awareness”. Who was it that said or suggested that branding is a waste of time or that domains and branding don’t go hand-in-hand? Well here is proof from someone who knows how to do it, successfully!

If you wish to invest in the bonds, adults aged over 18 and resident in the UK can apply for up to £5,000 worth of “shaving bonds” each. The interest rate is fixed for three years and investors will be paid in the 37th month.

Speaking about the £5m to be raised, King says, “It will be used explicitly on clever marketing. The vast majority will be spent in the UK – I’d like to reach a 20 per cent handle share within the next 18 months – but we’ll also be using the funds to grow the business internationally. We launched in Japan last week and we’re on sale there from mid-July. I gave a fifth of my speech in Japanese! We launch in New York City in early July, and then I’m heading to Brazil and South Africa.”

A King of Shaves product is sold every three seconds. Retail sales this year hit £20m. To buy a “shaving bond” visit www.shavingbond.com.

This is a story that has been hitting the UK news media over the past few days. For me, it is really inspiring to see how this savvy investor is using domain names as a central part of his marketing strategy.

Will King is the proud owner of the category killer, niche-busting and ultra premium domain name Shave.com.

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