Personal-care industry is getting under men’s skin
Manufacturers find clever ways to convince guys to worry about their looks, writes Matthew Boyle
PAUL Bopp is not a metrosexual. The 38-year-old father of four played football in college, loves bourbon and never pays more than $20 for a haircut. Yet every evening, he applies Olay skin cream to battle the crow’s feet around his eyes.
“It’s 25 bucks for a bottle, but it’s worth it,” says Mr Bopp, a wealth manager in Columbia, South Carolina. “My dad looked like he was 60 when he was 42. I don’t want that.
“The days of being a Neanderthal are over,” he says.
Men like Mr Bopp are proof that guys’ grooming products — hair serums, eye rollers, exfoliating scrubs — are reaching a wider audience than ever. Global sales of male toiletries other than razors, blades and shaving cream will rise 5% to $17.5bn this year, surpassing the shaving segment for the first time, according to Euromonitor. Unilever, with its Axe and Dove brands, has 26% of the market, more than Procter & Gamble, Nivea maker Beiersdorf and L’Oreal combined.
That dominance has helped Unilever expand both sales and profit margins at its personal-care unit, which accounts for 36% of revenue and has offset the sluggish growth of its food brands. The segment’s expansion — fuelled by innovation, marketing, and a growing realisation that men want to do more in the morning than just shower, shave and shampoo — has even attracted fashion designer Tom Ford, who has just introduced a line of products including a purifying mud mask.
“The key objective among all the manufacturers is turning a regime that you have to do into a ritual you want to do,” says Geometry Global European planning director Phil White. “They are trying to establish that ritual.”
That has not been easy as 90% of men spend a half-hour or less getting ready in the morning, according to researcher Mintel. Ben Voyer, a social psychologist and marketing professor at ESCP Europe business school, says is due to the perception that men get more attractive as they age, so they do not need to take care of their skin, and because men do not worry as much about their looks.
Women use cosmetics “to signal beauty and youth, which are the attributes men look for”, says Prof Voyer. “Men, on the other hand, have traditionally signalled status and wealth, the attributes women look for.”
Manufacturers have found clever ways to convince guys to worry about their looks, explaining that their skin is different — thicker, tougher, more oily — and requires specialised products. As a L’Oreal ad once warned: “You think you’re ageing well? She thinks you’re letting yourself go.” Half of American men now use skincare products as part of their daily routine, Mintel has found.
“Six years ago, I had one shampoo, a body wash and a toothbrush and that was it,” 29-year-old grant administrator Adam Causgrove says in Pittsburgh. “As I’ve gotten older and more self-aware, I cannot begrudge anyone for wanting to put their best face forward.”
Unilever fell 0.9% to ¤29.24 in Amsterdam yesterday. L’Oreal fell 0.9% to ¤127.65 in Paris.
Male beauty brands are not new — Beiersdorf introduced Nivea for Men back in 1986. These days, niche brands such as the UK’s Bulldog and France’s Nickel are helping to expand the market.
Both lines appeal to men by explaining in simple terms how, when and why to use their products; Nickel’s revitalising serum is called Morning-After Rescue.
Bulldog, now sold in 13 countries, takes a cheeky swipe at Dove’s Men+Care and L’Oreal’s Men Expert ranges, calling them “women’s brands in disguise”.
Most men, though, do not mind using brands geared to women. While 70% of men age 18 to 24 use facial skincare products, only two in 10 buy male-only brands, Mintel found. Mr Causgrove, for one, swears by Crabtree & Evelyn’s alcohol-free aftershave: “I don’t know if it’s only for women, but I get horrible razor burn and this is really good.”
To attract more men, mainstream brands such as Nivea, Dove and L’Oreal have ploughed money into new products and are paying celebrities such as UK actor Hugh Laurie to endorse them. Over the past five years, the share of new personal-care merchandise geared to men rose to 5.6% from 4.6%, Mintel says.
L’Oreal’s Men Expert line will add 15 new products this year, including a “Hydra Energetic Moisturiser” designed for faces with a few days’ stubble, as more men eschew daily shaving. Sun damage, oily skin and acne are other common problems for men.