More men are buying female-targeted skincare, beauty products and treatments, according to Forbes and Brandweek. These guys are the brave ones.
They need to be bold enough to stand at the department store make-up counter or peruse the night creams in the drugstore aisles – both very female environments.
So, what’s a guy to do?
Stay under the radar, by having his wife or girlfriend buy it for him? Or head online – to the sanctuary of anonymity?
Because most men likely do feel they have to hide this sort of purchase, this trend may be slow to build (whether men are buying/using such products will be hard to verify, if nothing else).
Lately I’ve been exploring how traditionally female-oriented industries (skincare/apparel, for example) tend to unnecessarily alienate a lot of male prospects by, well…being too “pink” in their approach. The interest from men is there, but the barriers and affronts to society’s expectations for masculinity are a lot to ignore.
Now, those expectations are slowly evolving (there’s a great comment in a discussion about this in RetailWire, that mentions something called “situational masculinity”), but the as yet default marketing to women approach (known here as “Pink Thinking”) isn’t helping. And, I’m guessing women themselves may be wondering how long brands will continue using this type of cutesy/pink approach.
Take the recently launched campaign for the Today Sponge, for instance. According to an article by Jane L. Levere in the New York Times, the packaging – and web site – has a more “modern look” using, not pink, but “wine” and “fuchsia” as its primary palette.
Hmmm. That doesn’t sound too modern to me. The campaign does have its positives, in terms of interacting with customers and gathering their stories, but in other ways it seems to have made some grand assumptions about women.
But, back to the risks a brand may take in losing prospective male customers while going overboard grasping for the womens’ vote.
These days women may be a lot more comfortable entering a man’s consumer realm than vice versa. Women have simply had to do it to get what they want for a lot of years. Now brands are truly scrambling to meet the needs of women, but are taking the easy way out – by pinkifying. This means they will be more likely to turn off any possible male customers that may come along.
Marketing transparently to women, thus serving perhaps higher standards for customer experience, shouldn’t alienate men – and so should give the brand two or more customers for the price of one. Pink Thinking, on the other hand may attract attention in the short term, but in the long run the approach will be too superficial to keep female customers loyal and it may very likely exclude men altogether. So, the negative far outweighs any potential positive.
Careful what you pink for.
Tags: Andrea_Learned, Marketing, Marketing_to_women, TodaySponge, transparency, trends
Whatever marketing strategies are applied, the answer to this question needs to be at the top: Can someone tell me why I need women’s products?
Dear Lewis,
I man might need some ‘concealer’to hide a “shiner” or dark circles under the eyes when he spent a night out with the boys, rather than spend time with the girlfriend or wife.
I’m sorry, I really couldn’t resist posting that.
Carol Doms
I have a “friend” who thought his skin was too dry. He wanted a good moisturizing lotion for his arms that he could put on when he got out of the shower. My friend wanted the good stuff, like his wife gets. He just didn’t want to have to go to the girly section of the store to read all the backs of packages. He didn’t even want to ask his wife.
What did he do? My friend went online and bought some lotion. Your analysis was spot on.
Carol,
I wear my shiners proudly. Well, I used to. These days and for the past 34 years, my nights out at the bar are spent with my best friend, my wife Kay. (Okay. I admit it. I occasionally use her hand cream.)
Hmm.. I wonder if we might not be hearing from a lot of guys with “a friend” who wants better moisturizer etc. Thanks for sharing, Jay. And – I think the point is also, these days, that there are a lot of products that never should have been considered either a man’s this or a woman’s that, because in lots of cases men and women have similar needs/desires (good night cream AND a good lawn mower…)
Women’s skin care products? Geez. I still cut my hair short enough to wash with a bar of Irish Spring!
I’ll tell you a good marketing ad aimed at men for a women’s product. The pregnancy test commercial which makes the test look like the Starship Enterprise and the stream looks like phaser blasts. They even have the Hollywood action movie voice-over guy narrating.
I think this is a case not of bad ad copy or packaging but bad product definition. Create skin care that guys care about and they’ll buy it. Nail it down with sunscreen or a similarly acceptable hook. We don’t care about silky smooth skin (on us, that is) but we do care about skin cancer, not getting burned when we’re playing, and other manly thoughts.
Remember the campaign for Secret? Strong enough for a man – made for a woman. It attracted women who wanted dryness and confidence, and by saying it was good enough for men, made the product sound effective.
It seems that men are reluctant to purchase anything that appears too girly in its packaging or messaging. Yet, I agree with you, Andrea, that women have had years of experience using men’s products that weren’t produced for women. After all, it was a man’s world until the 60’s and 70’s.
I’d be interested in seeing a blind test of two gendered CPG products – one marketed to women and one to men, but without the packaging or scent. I’d bet in many cases that they wouldn’t be able to tell the difference in effectiveness.
Great idea, Elaine. Blind-trials. I bet it would work both ways – women might be just fine with some “men’s” products and vice versa. And, your Secret example is a good one, using its “manly-ness” as its selling point for women. It really is an interesting thing to be digging around in. I imagine I’ll have future posts about it.
I do care about more than sunscreen- my face is dry for some reason in the mornings, and it looks horrible… I used to not care what other people thought and not have any skincare issues but now I’m a manager and in my 30’s. So I use some stuff my wife gave me- hand-me-down skincare. I would buy something if it were branded for men and not stuck in the women’s section of the drugstore. Sheesh, just to get shampoo you have to quickly duck in and out of that overly feminine area.
I agree with you, Andrea, that women have had years of experience using men’s products that weren’t produced for women.