Branding the man: why men are the next frontier in fashion retail

There is a growing interest in what the men’s cosmetics industry has come to cautiously describe as “self-care”. A spa in Utah, for instance, reports that 35 percent of their clients are men. But the hard numbers are proving that the market for men’s grooming isn’t just a hunch. The men’s market for bath and shower products has increased exponentially with profits well over twenty million dollars a year. A December 2007 report from Packaged Facts (a market research firm) revealed that teenagers and tweens are potentially one of the most lucrative demographics for grooming products, with projected worldwide sales of nearly $1.9 billion.

Manufacturers are carefully testing the waters as men explore the benefits (real or imagined) of beauty and grooming products. A walk down the aisles of pharmacies and department store cosmetics departments reveals a host of new products geared towards men’s skincare, along with aftershaves, deodorants, and depilatories. Speaking of… er, hair removal,  more and more men are indeed shaving, trimming, and waxing away body hair, such that Nair — the hair removal lotion for women — recently launched a silver-bottled version for men. When Procter and Gamble decided to reposition its Old Spice brand as “Old Spice High Endurance” (like so many men’s grooming products, names are vaguely sexual), it did so with a website featuring a woman in a bikini with the tagline: “when she sweats it’s sexy. When you sweat, you stink.”

For the post-pubescent male that’s something they worry about, according to a recent story in the New York Times (“For Tween Boys, Masculinity in a Spray Can”, 01/31/10).  Unless you’ve been living under a rock, drugstore brands like Axe and Swagger (by Old Spice) you already know that young men have become keenly aware that to get the girl, you better smell like a (clean) man — and definitely not like a girl. Most of these products are riots of musk, lime, and insistently “soapy” fragrances. Axe’s new AxeVice, a body fragrance, comes with the tagline, “Turns Nice Girls Naughty.” Now There’s incentive.

But the ball — so to speak — is still in the girls’ court. According to research firm NPD, 41-percent of boys 8 – 18 say a girl is their best friend. And as we all know, women continue to be very influential when it comes to how men shop.

To a point.

Because I still find it interesting to see just how many young boys and men are shopping together, and more often than not, the leader of the pack calls the shots about what’s cool and what’s not. Unlike men even twice their age, young men are vain out of necessity: to “fit in,” and more importantly, get the girl.

Meanwhile their adult counterparts are partaking in not-so-typically manly spa treatments like facials and pedicures — but they’re doing it privately, and in places that don’t feature candles and flowers. The International Spa Association recently estimated that 31 percent of spa-goers are men — not too shabby, considering how relatively recent the trend.  Some provide screens in-between chairs so men don’t actually have to look at each other. The “man spa” offers plenty of privacy and things like flat-screen TV’s with plenty of sports channels. Bikini Cuts in Salt Lake City borders on a Hooter’s with a bevy of young women providing manicures — while wearing a bikini. But most importantly, the name of the treatment should sound “manly.” Said one spa owner, “Men are results oriented. Call it a foot repair and guys know what the result will be.”

Of course, anyone who’s used a gym lately has probably noticed that men are grooming a lot more than just their toes and feet. Suddenly grown men of 35 have the body hair equivalent of a 15-year old boy. “Manscaping” has become increasingly common with straight men — where previously it was an almost exclusive preoccupation of gay men, drag queens, and the occasional ballet dancer.

So much so that in 2007 Philips, Inc. launched the “Bodygroom” and became the first to officially target male hair “…beneath the chin, including those sensitive spots below the belt.” One can only imagine the terrible accidents that happened for the men who chose a wet razor to groom themselves in places that demand the deft use of a hand mirror.

Philips launched a wildly successful web campaign that featured a man in a white bathrobe extolling the virtues of his newly smooth, er, groin. But rather than show his groin they flashed images of nuts, carrots, and so on, with the claim that all that hair removal from the southern region adds an extra “optical inch” to that… carrot.

Meanwhile online shopping sites like Beauty.com and Drugstore.com are quickly researching the best way to position themselves with men — especially since so many men are increasingly buying their grooming products online. The question is: can they speak to their customer simply and effectively, without the silly puns and false machismo?

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In the not-so-old days, the expedition to find the perfect Christmas tree involved getting into a station wagon with ropes and blankets and a very sharp ax.

In A Christmas Memory, Truman Capote writes of his boyhood memory of picking a tree that is “a brave handsome brute that survives thirty hatchet strokes before it keels with a creaking rending cry…Lugging it like a kill…”

Despite our nostalgia for Christmas past, the truth is, Live Christmas trees are perhaps one of the most wasteful aspects of the holiday — not including the exchange of gifts nobody wants or needs.

In 2008 U.S. consumers bought 28.2 million Christmas trees — a ten-percent decline from the previous year. 2009 looked to be a full 35-percent up, and from the number that showed up on curbs around my neighborhood, it certainly looked like the spirit of Christmas came alive for many. Perhaps it was just their way of saying goodbye to a truly awful year.

And so in these early days of 2010, I snapped some pictures of trees once loved, now chucked unceremoniously to the sidewalk. Some appear to be waiting for a bus. Others are shrouded in embarassment. Some lean against one another for support while others have been horribly mutilated – one burned, another clipped of its branches that were then neatly stuffed into knotted bags. Others were allowed to keep their tinsel or lights. A festive farewell.

These are the ghosts of a Christmas past.

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It’s part of our DNA to shop — or at least that’s what we’ve always been told. There was nothing more lustful than American consumerism, the wanton disregard for tomorrow when the urge (and ease) allowed them to have what they want today.

But that seems to have changed.

A recent New York Times/CBS News poll reveals that almost half of the Americans surveyed said they were spending less time buying “nonessentials” and more than half were spending less money in stores and online.

Not exactly music to the ears of economists. But it certainly begs the question: why have we been so hopelessly dependent on a consumer economy for so long?

Not since the Great Depression have we seen Americans returning to “the simple life” — or life where shopping and mass consumption is not such a singular focus.

Perhaps that’s why art supply stores, libraries, and even museums are showing better than usual foot traffic. According to the New York Times, attendance at many museums and cultural events dropped from 2002 to 2008, but in 2009 showed a measurable increase (although they don’t tell us by what percent.)

Meanwhile, movie attendance increased 5-percent — not enough to make up for the dramatic losses over the past ten years but it has to mean something, especially if you’re a studio that isn’t producing movies like Avatar.

Hobbies, sports, and simple home improvements have become the new way of spending leisure time, and it’s made an impact on the idea of family togetherness. Rather than going and maxxing out daddy’s credit card, families are re-discovering the simple life.  In a January 3 Times article, “In Recession, Americans Doing More, Buying Less,” Barbara Koricanek, a retired nurse said she realized “we don’t need half of what we got,” and began getting rid of excess clothes in her closet and even baking her own bread. Another family bought a used canoe on Craigslist and took to weekends paddling the waters of the Florida coast.

The Queen of DIY perfection, Martha Stewart, has rebranded her daily television show as “Hands On Television.” In the past few months, she has increased the number of segments on home crafts, recycling everyday materials into a variety of useful objects. It’s hard to believe that in this day and age, anyone would watch an entire segment about the many uses of Mason jars.

While Americans may not be shopping for yet another pair of jeans or designer shoes, they are looking for ways to interact in a meaningful way, and the neighborhood craft center or organized activity clubs may just be the next consumer market.

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