MIRROR, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?? This question is no longer the prerogative of the wicked queen in Snowhite and the Seven Dwarfs. And not even of women either, with whom the concept of fairness has hitherto been associated. Today’s men can definitely play this little game with their vanity mirrors as they have now come to accept that they need grooming products such as fairness creams and more as much as women do. Male grooming products such as fairness creams have opened up a new stream of revenue for fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies in India and the sector is continuously evolving. It has indeed become one of the fastest growing categories with various products such as deodorants, fairness creams, anti-marks creams, shower gels, shaving products and more.
Men?s skin care products currently account for 5.3% of the total skin care products market and is growing at 43% year-on-year, according to market research firm Nielsen. Some of the major companies operating in the male grooming products segment are Nivea, Garnier, Gillette, Emami, ITC, Hindustan Unilever Ltd and Paras Pharmaceuticals. Abheek Singhi, partner, Boston Consulting Group, a global management consulting firm, pegs the male deodorant market at Rs 800-1000 crore, the entire male skin care products market at about Rs 1500 crore and the shaving products market at Rs 500-600 crore. The market for hair care and wash products for men such as shower gels, soaps, etc., is about Rs 400 crore.
Mohan Goenka, director, Emami Ltd, which had the first-mover advantage in the male fairness category, says the male fairness cream market is worth Rs 300 crore currently. One of the first brands in this category, Emami Fair And Handsome fairness cream, unleashed a deluge of me-too skin care brands after its launch in 2005. He feels that the profile of the target audience hasn’t changed much over the years but the segment has become bigger due to the entry of other players in the market. ?A lot of players have entered into the high-end segment. We don’t deal with the high-end segment but our brand is more or less an urban brand as we get 70% of consumers from urban India. The main target audience for us is SEC (socioeconomic category) B and C, in the 16-35 years age group, but SEC A has come into the picture due to the various other players.?
The phenomenon that effortlessly gets linked to the rise of grooming products is the rise of the ?metrosexual? male. Says Pranesh Misra, chairman and managing director of Brandscapes Worldwide, a marketing and strategy consulting company, ?The metrosexual man, as contrasted against the traditional masculine archetype, is more balanced, sensitive and open-minded. The metrosexual man is not only about muscles and strength but also about looking and feeling good ? especially to the opposite sex. He realises that there is a dilution in the masculine power in society.?
According to him, Bollywood reflected this change, when the aspirational ?angry young man? hero of the 1980s and 1990s was replaced by the ?romantic? hero of the new millennium.
?This change in the male stereotype opened opportunities for a number of ?look good ? feel good? products specifically designed for men,? he says.
?Earlier men were closet-users of some beauty products; they just picked up the products their wives or sisters used. Now they were ready to buy their own grooming products. This saw the emergence of a masculine segment in the looking good product categories such as skin creams,? he says.
ITC personal care products chief executive Sandeep Kaul agrees that the segment is expanding mainly because the Indian male today is more discerning and understands the need to look presentable. ?Today, a large number of Indian men are looking for a premium grooming experience. This trend is evident in the increasing repertoire of personal grooming products and the lifestyle choices that the Indian male consumer is making,? he says. ITC offers brands such as Fiama Di Wills Aqua Pulse Shower Gel and bathing bar for men and fragrances and deodorants under the brand Essenza Di Wills.
?Men?s grooming has undergone a sea change in the last decade in India. Male grooming services are a part of contemporary life today. Being aware of their personal appearances, men are spending significantly on personal grooming products,? agrees the HUL spokesman, who did not want to be named. HUL’s portfolio includes Axe and Sure deodorants targeted at men. For skincare, HUL has Fair & Lovely Max Fairness and Vaseline Men Anti Spot Whitening Face Cream Range, which also includes face washes, while for haircare it has Clear Men shampoo.
Another interesting factor that has led to the boom in this segment is social media as Josy Paul, chairman and chief creative officer of BBDO India, the creative agency which handles shaving products brand Gillette, points out. ?Social media and technology have created a greater need for men to look and feel good. Men’s Facebook profiles change every week, more photographs are being posted everyday. With camera phones, you have more men taking more photographs more often. This has increased the spotlight and time spent on the face. Vanity is on the rise. There are mirrors everywhere, specially in malls and stores and lifts and public places,? he says.
Brands in this segment have unleased high-decibel advertising campaigns to catch the attention of the male customer and convert him into a loyal user. Emami Fair & Handsome got one of the biggest stars of Bollywood, Shah Rukh Khan, to convey the message that men should come out of closet and stop using the creams meant for females as they have their own unique cream now. The trend of mainstream actors as endorsers for male grooming products seems to have caught on since then. John Abraham endorses Garnier Men Powerlight range of skin care products such as creams and deodorants and also Philips male grooming. range. Unilever’s Vaseline roped in Shahid Kapur to target young male consumers. Affirming this trend, Euromonitor’s report says, “The growth of this category is attributable in part to the influence of Bollywood actors like Shahid Kapur and John Abraham, combined with the exposure to international trends.” Gillette India, the leading brand in the shaving products category, interestingly doesn’t use a Bollywood star as an ambassador; however, their campaign W.A.L.S. (Women Against Lazy Stubble) by BBDO India won a gold Lion in the Creative Effectiveness category at Cannes Lions this year and had grabbed a few awards last year too.
In terms of deodorants, most major deo brands (except for Garnier which is endorsed by John Abraham and Sure for Men from theHUL stable endorsed by Akshay Kumar) do not use film actors. However, early this year advertising watchdog Advertising Standards Council of India had raised questions about several deo ads in India being “obscene” and “indecent” and some of the ads, including Wild Stone, Addiction Deo and Axe, were asked to be removed or modified eventually. This was triggered after ASCI had received a letter from the information and broadcasting ministry to look into the matter.
Ad budgets for men’s grooming products have also gone up as brands attempt to educate the consumer and bring him into the fold. Says Emami’s Goenka, ?For Fair And Handsome, we devote about 22-23% of our total budget which is Rs 50 crore. As compared to last year, our ad budgets have gone up by 25-30%.?
Even though the main target group is still the urban male, the FMCG players are gradually trying to penetrate the rural market too. Says Rupika Raman, marketing manager, Garnier India, ?Though traditionally, the market was skewed towards a more urban male, grooming products are no longer restricted to a certain section or SEC. They have penetrated below the metro and Tier 1 markets, into smaller towns, which are contributing to the category growth. With the introduction of sachets and smaller SKUs by most of the bigger contributors in the category ? the range has been extended beyond the urban markets.?
Paul of BBDO agrees. ?There’s enough evidence to prove that grooming cuts across all segments. The rise of Fair & Lovely among men and Emami’s Fair And Handsome in smaller towns are indicators that grooming will become more widespread and grow from being an urban phenomenon to a rural need.?
The male grooming sector is expanding in a big way with more and more product launches. The category is still nascent, say the players and thus potential for more brands. Says Paul of BBDO India, ?What we are seeing now is just the tip of the opportunity. With increased awareness, more brands being launched, more celebrities endorsing and driving the grooming market, things will explode in the next couple of years. The next big boom will also lie in retail, and wellness and grooming centres.?
According to the Euromonitor International report, the prospects for men?s grooming products are very bright as demographics change, men become more comfortable with looking good, and a mass of young men with far greater discretionary income than in any previous generation spend more on presentation. Thus, men?s grooming sales are projected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 11%.
Misra of Brandscapes Worldwide says that in the next three years, the men grooming segment will grow faster ? since it is relatively a new segment. He thinks it could grow around 25% or even faster. Singhi of BCG predicts the growth rate at 15-20% across most categories and he also predicts that deodorant will have the higher growth rates ? closer to 30%.
Goenka gives the example of Fair And Handsome. ?Our sales of Fair And Handsome brand were up by more than 50% in the first quarter of this year. Last year, sales were about Rs 25 crore and this year it’s Rs 40 crore. We are definitely planning more products but cannot talk about it right now. The market is not at all crowded right now.
It is in fact just the beginning and it will still take some time to grow.?