Part I — The story
The story
King Camp Gillette invented the disposable safety razor — a cheap blade thrown away when dull, instead of an expensive one laboriously sharpened — and in doing so gave the world not just a product but one of the most enduring business models in commerce. A travelling salesman who had long searched for a product people would buy, use up, and buy again, he found it in the razor blade: a consumable that generates repeat purchases forever.
The model that bears his name — 'razor-and-blades' — is to sell the durable device cheaply, even at a loss, to lock customers into buying the profitable consumable repeatedly. It underpins printers and ink, consoles and games, coffee pods, and countless other businesses today. Gillette is a study in designing for recurring revenue, in the power of the consumable over the one-off sale, and in finding the product that customers must keep buying rather than buy once.
Part II — The playbook
The playbook
Sell the consumable, not the device
Gillette made money on blades bought forever, not the razor bought once.
Give away the device to lock in the stream
He sold razors cheaply to capture profitable repeat blade sales.
Find what customers must rebuy
He searched deliberately for a product people use up and buy again.
In their words
There is no new thing under the sun, but there are new ways of looking at things.
Make the razor cheap and sell the blades.
Find the product people use once and throw away — then sell it to them forever.
What to read next
- King Camp Gillette (business histories) —
Why this matters
The thinking behind these decisions connects to models you can study directly:
Frequently asked questions
What is the 'razor-and-blades' model?
Selling a durable device cheaply, even at a loss, to lock customers into repeatedly buying a profitable consumable — named for Gillette, who sold razors cheaply to sell blades forever. It underpins printers/ink, consoles/games and more.
What did King Gillette invent?
The disposable safety razor — a cheap blade thrown away when dull — and, with it, the razor-and-blades business model built on recurring consumable sales.