raze, on a razor's edge or on a razor-edge/ “razor-and-blades” model

P&G公司新買的刮鬍刀品牌，真的吉利嗎？ 上周讀：
書名：Davis Dyer, Frederick Dalzell, Rowena Olegario『P&G品牌行銷密碼』 （Rising Tide : Lessons from 165 Years of Brand Building at Procter & Gamble ），
陳琇玲譯 ，台北：時報，2004
寫篇『自行刪剪、報喜不報憂的『P&G品牌行銷密碼』』
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上周，hc提商業周刊的商業併購新聞分析：
P&G: Razing Rivals with Gillette?
The merger boosts P&G's heft with powerful retailers and helps to firm margins while other competitors struggle with pricing pressure【NEWS ANALYSIS By Robert Berner 】
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小讀者讀後留言：「razing rivals with Gillette--如此文字趣味真是妙啊！」

--本周The Economist有分析全球超強的品牌之文章：進一步探討 Procter & Gamble 花$54 billion 併Gillette公司之舉，能不能振奮消費品(

consumer goods )
市場的後市活洛：（Can Procter & Gamble's $54 billion merger with Gillette kick-start growth in the consumer-goods industry?）
它基本上的想法是：大型化自然有其「經濟規模」之優勢，然而也有「經濟不規模」之劣勢。

參考
The rise of the superbrands
Feb 3rd 2005 |
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3623265
Mr Lafley's latest deal is aimed at capturing the benefits of both scale and focus, creating a business that is both larger and more reliant on a smaller portfolio of stronger brands. Barring objections from American or European competition authorities, P&G's acquisition of Gillette should achieve this. Whether the new merged firm will then be able to rekindle the consumer-goods industry's dreams of youth remains to be seen.

The same disintermediation has long been happening to music, as consumers download single tracks direct from iTunes, Apple’s online store, for 99 cents a pop, rather than buy whole CD albums from record shops for $10 or more. In the process, Apple has flipped the “razor-and-blades” model of doing business on its head. Instead of subsidising the cost of media players like the iPod and iPad (the razor in the metaphor) and making tons of money out of downloads from iTunes (the blades), it has done the reverse. Thus, the device makers are joining online aggregators and distributors to capture an increasing share of the disposable income consumers spend on information and entertainment—all at old media’s expense.

raze

Syllabification: raze

Pronunciation: /rāz

 

/

verb

[with object] (usually be razed)

• Completely destroy (a building, town, or other site): villages were razed to the ground

  More example sentences

  • Next it was the turn of armoured bulldozers to raze building after building.
  • A frenzy of hotel building razed old neighbourhoods and transformed city centres.
  • Military bulldozers yesterday knocked down all the structures in Kadim, and were razing buildings in Ganim.
  • Get more examples

  Synonyms

Origin

Middle English (in the sense 'scratch, incise'): from Old French raser 'shave closely', from Latin ras- 'scraped', from the verb radere.

razor
n.

1. A sharp-edged cutting instrument used especially for shaving the face or other body parts.
2. A device for holding a razorblade, with guards to prevent cutting of the skin. Also called safety razor.
3. An electric instrument with vibrating or rotating blades used for shaving.

tr.v., -zored, -zor·ing, -zors.
To shave, cut, or remove with or as with a razor: razored off the mustache; razored pages from a rare book.

[Middle English rasor, from Old French, from raser, to scrape. See raze.]

[名]かみそり, （特に）電気かみそり

a razor blade
かみそりの刃

an electric razor
電気かみそり

(as) sharp as a razor
かみそりのように鋭い；目から鼻に抜けるような.

━━[動](他)…をかみそりでそる［切る］.

［古フランス語rasor （razer取り去る＋-OR²＝取り去るもの）. △RAZE］

on a razor's edge or on a razor-edge

in an acute dilemma

See razor (sense 2)