Male vanity comes of age (2)
16 Jun 2009 Leave a Comment
in Finer Points, Good Looking, High-end Brands, Movable Counter, Regular Beauty Products, Well Stocked Shelves Tags: Beauty Product, Counter, Male Makeup, My Beauty Hub. Nickel, Phytomer Homme, Shiseido, Stocked Shelves, Zirh
Aside from Shiseido and Zirh, My Beauty Hub also exclusively carries Nickel, Phytomer Homme and “male” makeup by Jean Paul Gaultier and Terry de Gunzburg.
Of course, beauty products for women still dominate My Beauty Hub’s neat, well-stocked shelves and movable counters. But close to 40 percent of the merchandise is now devoted to men, including lipsticks, concealers, bronzers and eyeliners.
Just like the Singapore store it was patterned after, My Beauty Hub conducts regular beauty clinics to educate consumers and, of course, fuel sales. One of its most recent workshops tackled skin care for men.
“Most women read up on beauty and know the science behind the brand,” says Leona Ilagan, Luxasia’s retail manager. “That isn’t always the case among men. They need to be educated and encouraged, as most of them don’t feel the need to pay close attention to their skin.”
That’s starting to change, and not just because of the growing number of vain, openly gay men, but also thanks partly to metrosexual icons like David Beckham. High-end brands such as Zirh and Shiseido, and more affordable ones like Nivea for Men, are now enjoying brisk sales.
Recent trend
“Metrosexuals have been around, but the trend started to become more pronounced around two years ago,” says Rica King, marketing manager of Beiersdorf Singapore Pte. Ltd., regional distributor of Nivea products. “In fact, we were among the last countries in the region to ride on the trend.”
Ninety percent of 400 Filipino men Nivea interviewed still prefer soap and water to other forms of facial cleansers. But such a result goes beyond economics, as men the world over are mostly oblivious to the finer points of looking good.
This has prompted Nivea, which introduced its men’s skin-care line in the Philippines several months ago, to repackage certain products to make them more appealing to men. Products for women, for instance, come in white boxes, while those for men come in cobalt blue.
What could, for instance, pass as an anti-wrinkle cream for women had to be called “revitalizing” cream for men. Never mind if both products have basically similar formulations and promise the same effects.
“Based on our studies,” says King, “men in general don’t want to be perceived as vain. That’s why we had to repackage our products and come up with a line exclusively for them.”
Men are also particular about a product’s scent. They prefer a mild and “soothing” smell to one with a sweet floral one. While women dislike skin-care products that are “mentholated,” most men welcome it. – Alex Vergara avergara@inquirer.com.ph
