Jeff Gelles: Selling razors with - yes - edgy ads

Michael Dubin can't identify an "aha" moment in his journey from Haverford School grad to advertising guy to - if all goes as he plans - lord of the men's bathroom. But he does recall one exchange, with a friend's father at a 2010 party, that helped him decide he could turn an old pet peeve into a disruptive new business.

The conversation made him realize that guys of all ages shared his gripe. "For years I'd sort of bristled at the price of razors and blades," he says.

Instead, he goes for the edgy, a skill honed working in marketing at places such as SportsIllustrated.com. Fittingly, the video's punch line - which answers the question, "Are the blades any good?" - is more locker room than family newspaper.

But any way he puts it, Dubin's message is simple. He says men spend too much on brand-name razors and blades, paying for needless bells, whistles, and endorsements from sports stars like Roger Federer. And he's offering a fix by sending them timed blade shipments for a few dollars a month - saving them about 50 percent versus the major brands, he says, and also saving them the hassle of shopping, another Dubin pet peeve that many men share.

One irony is that Dubin is trying to turn a classic sales model against the industry typically seen as inventing it.

The basic idea: Give away the razors and gouge 'em with the blades. You'll recognize the strategy if you've gotten a free cellphone lately in return for a two-year contract, or paid more for ink than for a printer.

How well is it working for Dubin? Seventeen months after launching Dollar Shave, the former Philadelphian counts 250,000 members in the United States and 30,000 more in Canada and Australia. And he's followed up razors and blades with two other products, offered only to club members: shave butter and flushable wipes he calls One Wipe Charlies when he's not using other, less-polite terms. "Our goal is to own the men's bathroom - everything from aftershave to body wash to hair care," he says.

Dubin won't provide numbers, but his Venice, Calif., company was successful enough to draw investment late last year from venture-capital firms. If its average customer pays, say, $4 a month, it would be grossing well over $13 million a year.

Wait - why that much for a "Dollar Shave"? Turns out there's a slight catch to Dubin's most bargain-basement of prices.

For $1 a month, members get five twin-blade razors a month - if that's too frequent, they can choose bimonthly. The catch is that they also have to pay $2 each time for shipping and handling.

For twice that amount - $6 a month, shipping included - members get four four-blade razors. For $9 a month, they get four six-blade razors.

Dubin won't say who produces the razors, except to say "they're made overseas." Much like the big-name brands, each blade includes a lubricating strip.

Though the website seems to suggest that even Dollar Shave's quality rises with price - it calls the four-blader "the last razor you'll ever need" - Dubin says the differences are mostly a matter of taste. "I don't like a six-blade razor. It's too much surface area," he says.

So does he mean there's no cutting-edge technology behind the big brands, such as Gillette's Fusion and Schick's Hydro?

"I'm not going to say that. I'm just going to say that the big boys charge you for a lot of superfluous stuff that you really don't need. They give you a vibrating handle and a flashlight, and they call that innovation."

Dollar Shave isn't the only company trying to disrupt the razor-makers. Another online start-up, Harrys.com, promises "a great shave at a fair price." And disposables, which many men swear by for everyday use, also offer an alternative - and often from the big names themselves.

The competition may already be cutting. Last month, the CEO of Schick's parent company said the whole category lost 10 percent of unit sales in the last quarter, the worst "we have ever seen," according to a WSJ.com blog.

True, stubble's popularity may share some of the blame. But for most consumers, saving money is always cutting edge.