James Charles, a seventeen year old boy became the first male CoverGirl last week. Janine in his beautygeek blog argued that the reaction to that event is mostly positive. “So Lushy” mascara is the brand behind the cover and has thus been associated with the idea that men should not be stigmatised for wearing makeup. The make up he wears in the cover is heavy but natural and accentuates his facial features – the main purpose of make up.

Women do not wear make up just to look good for others. Most of them enjoy the whole process of improving their appearance and playing with colours and looks. They wear make up to feel more confident about themselves, and their appearance and it is a way to boost their self esteem. So women often wear makeup for themselves and society allows them and encourages them to do so.

There are men on the other hand who would like to wear make up but society tends to stigmatise them when doing so. I think that one of the most influential means to change society’s perception is advertisement as not much more than a century ago advertisement persuaded a proportion of the entire world to brush its teeth first thing in the morning.

Thinking from a rational objective business perspective I think that the marketing strategy of “So Lushy” mascara is very smart. Both men and women have eye lashes and both men and women want to look good when interacting with other people or when looking themselves in the mirror. However, mascara brands have been only targeting the female population for so long ignoring such a large proportion of the population.

Reconsidering and expanding the target audience of a firm is called market development and is a very common technique firms use to extend the life span of a saturated product. “So Lushy brings that technique that to a totally different level as it opens a whole market to a huge market segment. I honestly believe that men’s makeup will become almost as common as women’s makeup in less than a century away and that can generate huge amounts of profits for all mascara and makeup brands. However, if “So Lushy” grabs the opportunity smartly enough, it could gain loyalty from all the men who admire James Charles’s, as seen by Janine’s blog,  and it could gain women’s loyalty who feel that makeup should have been for everyone since ever anyway as is also illustrated by Janin’s blog.