Digital Tactics Most Effective in Getting Men to Buy Grooming Products
Men are increasingly buying personal care products, but they dislike the real-life shopping aspect of the process, favoring online purchases, as shown by the latest eMarketer report, “Groomed for Growth: Digital Strategies Reach Men in the Personal Care Aisle.” Retailers and personal care product marketers need to tackle this challenge when targeting men for more than the basic self care products such as body wash, shampoo or shave cream.
While only a small chunk of the personal care product market is targeting men, most of it being dedicated to women and young millennials, this is not a segment that should be overlooked: Global Industry Analysts forecasts the global male grooming products industry will generate revenues of $33 billion by 2015, while consumer market researcher Euromonitor predicts the men’s grooming category will reach $5.8 billion by 2016 in the US alone, with toiletries (bath and shower, haircare and skincare products) going up 10% in 2013. The challenge for US marketers is to expand the market beyond the basics of grooming, such as body wash, shaving tools and shampoo.
Services, just as products, interest men. Research from Mintel on global consumer trends showed younger men played an important role in driving personal care services sales. The report revealed that 25% of men ages 18 to 34 had had a manicure or pedicure and 38% had had a facial or body treatment. Percentages however decrease for older men.
The good news is that an increasing number of men say they buy health and beauty products online, much more so than pet supplies, groceries or baby toys. Men favor online research, from desktops or mobile devices, to visiting in-store grooming aisles. Creating online “man aisles” might prove an effective way for marketer in the consumer packaged goods segment to push their grooming products to their intended target. Another strategy to get men introduced to a new self care product would be to tap into their heavy preference for watching videos online.
Keith Richman, CEO of Break Media explained that “men gravitate toward products that tell a story about them and convince them that they do in fact look good and smell good.”
the eMarketer report also pointed out that men often feel they are not accurately portrayed in the media. Yet exaggerations might work when marketing products to men. As Richman explained, while the ‘doofus’ image fails to convince, laughing at the macho image “is such an open exaggeration of what a macho character is like that it resonated with people.”
