For years, little attention has been paid on packaged-goods for the world of men’s beauty products. The challenge in the men’s beauty segment is to figure out ways to wrap a quintessentially feminine product in masculine hues. By transferring eyeliners to “guyliners”, anti-wrinkle cream to moisturizers and bronzer to “power bronze”, some entrepreneurs have established close ties with the new market for men’s beauty industry.
Brian Lau, the founder of Bread & Butter Skincare, has already stepped into the relatively unfamiliar male beauty territory. With powerful competitors such as Procter & Gamble (Head & Shoulders, Gillette) and Unilever (Dove, Vaseline), Mr. Lau’s small business takes on a big advantage by bypassing the traditional store and selling his product online. This marketing strategy can be very effective as men are more comfortable in cyberspace rather than actual shopping. Also, Mr. Lau focuses on keeping it simple for his consumers by bundling his moisturizers and cleansers into summer and winter kits for various price ranges. Moreover, masculine images and terms such as a shaving – pump container instead of a jar, a dark blue packaging instead of pale blue, and an absolutely simple outline of ultimate benefits of the products all help to improve men’s willingness to purchase beauty products.
Since men tend to be lazy consumers who are not easily pumped to try new products, once hooked, they are more loyal than female consumers and don’t bother to switch products around. Thus, Mr. Lau’s effort yields attractive rewards as the men’s beauty industry enjoys a boom even in the recession times.
According to beauty titan L’Oreal’s estimates, in the high-end domestic beauty sector alone in 2009, men’s skin care sales surged three times the rate of the overall market.