It comes as little surprise that retailers have warmed to the idea that men do like to shop. It’s not for nothing that I wrote a book on the subject, so some of the recent news of branded men’s offerings is worth closer inspection.

Coach, Hermes, and even department stores like Lord and Taylor have all made major statements with either dedicated men’s stores or departments.

One might wonder if they had perhaps been closely watching brands like Brooks Brothers and its Black Fleece stores (New York and San Francisco), or J. Crew, which has gone from a single prototype in 2009 to now two dedicated shops in New York and a soon-to-be-opened Boston location.

Coach’s store on Bleecker Street is designed to feel distinctly “masculine,” with rich mahogany wood, exposed air ducts, and a broad assortment of both men’s wear and accessories on display.

Coach has been rumored to be toying with a concept for some time, and their choice of the West Village is certainly strategic. Marc Jacobs, Black Fleece, Ralph Lauren, and Tommy Hilfiger are all a stone’s throw away from the store.

Coach is apparently also looking at other locations, and we’ve heard San Francisco and Boston are on their radar.

Hermes opened its opulent men’s store in February. The brand is one of the few to be resilient in these economic times, mostly because their customer base is so affluent. The glamorous space, located on New York’s Madison Avenue (you think they would open anywhere else?) includes custom pieces designed exclusively for that store — such as a baseball glove retailing for $8,500. I’d be so curious to see what that customer looks like, wouldn’t you? The four-storey retail experience includes an entire floor dedicated to suiting (topping out at $20,000 each) and a crocodile jacket for a mere $130,000.

Recession? What recession?

Not far behind Hermes’ (although a decidedly different customer) is Balenciaga, which opened its first free-standing men’s experience in Paris in late June.

The space is hyper-modern, with a sculptural stairway dominating the small, 650-square foot space. Designer Nicholas Ghesquiere collaborated with artist Dominique Gonzalez Foerster. The space is decidedly space-age, with clean, geometric lines and diode lighting.

Meanwhile, department stores continue to shuffle around their men’s offering — as if it makes any difference. We all know that men don’t really care much for department stores unless the entire space is made just for them. Nevertheless, Lord and Taylor put in a substantial overhaul of the flagship’s 37,000 square foot men’s store, which they hope to complete by fall. Currently the brand’s men’s offering accounts for roughly 12 percent of Lord and Taylor’s annual sales (estimated at $1.2 billion) — so it’s no wonder they want bolster their offering. Other department stores, like Saks Fifth Avenue, do far better in total sales, as high as 20 percent.

As I’ve discussed in my book, Branding the Man: Why Men Are the Next Frontier in Fashion Retail (2009, Random House/Allworth Press), department stores can rearrange the deck chairs all they want, but men still need to be able to access what they want as easily as possible. Lord and Taylor does in fact have an express elevator to their 10^th floor department, but it’s way over on the south side of the building, so most guys don’t even know it’s there. That means a slow trek via an all-stops elevator or worse, the escalator. More importantly is the perception of Lord and Taylor, (a) it’s “old”, and (b) it’s a women’s store. The brand will need to do substantial marketing to get men to see the store as a place for them.

(San Francisco) — If you missed out on Man Up last January — the pop up event from our friends at Durable Goods Concern — you now have another chance to meet your maker. Literally.

On Friday, June 11 – Sunday, June 13, DGC has assembled yet another menu of local merchants and artisans who bring a smile to our face (and empty our wallet) every time we see them. This time the pop up concept will land at 19th and Treat, home of OHIO, a covetable line of made-to-order furniture.

Joining them at this modern-day souk will be local veterans such as AB Fits and Esquivel, purveyors of some of our favorite attire, as well as many NKOTB (New Kids On The Block) like Cause and Effect, Xetum, and Outlier. Clothes, accessories, furniture — all for the modern man. Hello, Heaven. We’re going because there’s no better time to support local merchants and to truly meet the people who have invested so much in creating products they believe in.

So let us all now pray, raise a glass of wine (yes, there will be plenty), and meet our maker.

Meet Your Maker: Well Crafted Men’s Goods and the Artisans That Purvey Them begins on Friday, June 11 from 4 – 9 P.M, continues Saturday, June 12 from 11 – 7 P.M. and ends Sunday, June 13 11 – 6 P.M.To learn more about all of the merchants at the event (over a dozen), go to www.durablegoodsconcern.com.

Could they have done things differently?

With a recession comes deep cuts in operational budgets and retailers were no different in the darkest days of 2009. Marketing departments shrank and even mammoth retailers were working with skeleton crews of marketing managers or in some cases, one lone VP doing the lion’s share of work in wrangling vendors and pushing promotions.

Many think marketing is expendable. Some think it’s just hanging a sign in your window that says, “Mother’s Day Gifts, ”or throwing a cocktail party. But marketing is strategic and it doesn’t need to be brain surgery to ensure an impact on your business.

I know many retailers who spend hundreds of thousands (and even millions) of dollars on complicated, long-winded campaigns and in-store drivers with marketing mechanics that are so overblown and unnecessary that the only people who are driven are the marketing assistants who have to put it all in motion. It’s not Las Vegas folks, it’s a department store.

Good marketing is consistent and message-driven. The consumer believes and understands the value proposition — whether it’s a luxury retailer or a discounter.

As a consultant, I often receive queries from clients who, having long ignored the need for a proper marketing plan (or having assassinated their entire marketing team) come seeking a quick fix.  But very often what I discover is that a brand’s marketing (or lack thereof) is a kind of Rorschach for the dysfunctional inner-workings of a company’s vision and corporate strategy.

A well-oiled machine does not lie: a company that is functioning well on the inside is usually running well on the outside too. It is able to spring into action and react to the changes in the market. In order for great marketing to occur, there cannot be a disconnect between corporate and retail: if store employees are not given credit and transparency into the executive suite then you might as well blind-fold them.

As a consultant, my job is not to drink the Kool-Aid.

Often I’m faced with an organization where senior executives are either completely blinded or in denial to their company’s shortcomings. We’ve seen this happen with many big name retailers in 2009 and even in 2010.

376 companies per day sought bankruptcy protection in the first two quarters of 2009. Which ones sacrificed long-term strategic marketing for short-term gain?

Gottschalk’s, Max Factor, Circuit City, the list has grown long of brand’s that were long in the tooth and should have known better. Who was driving? Why didn’t we suspend their license especially with so many employees who had to be the casualties?

Of course, it wasn’t always simply a lack of marketing strategy. But the most successful brands are keenly aware of innovating their product, optimizing their retail experience (both online and bricks and mortar) and making their people — the talented folks who are in the trenches building the brand — their most strategic investment.

In these competitive times, there is no room for mediocrity.

Have you ever examined Google’s job application process? While at times their human resources strategy seems to include the use of Tarot cards and Scientology, it speaks of a company that weighs each hire very carefully, balancing employee development with employee rate of return.

Marketing and brand strategy isn’t so much about the numbers as it is about the alliance of great product, great people, and a vision for how to make the consumer a key part of the equation in building the brand’s ultimate deliverable: satisfaction and allegiance.

Serge Gainsbourg in 1979, in his Paris study.

Serge Gainsbourg’s reputation as a singer, lover, and all-around bad-boy is legendary. As husband to actress Jane Birkin and father to singer-actress Charlotte Gainsbourg, Serge had the je ne sais quoi that most men only dream about.

To top it all off, he was a short little chain-smoking Jewish man and women loved him for it. His Mod, louche style was pure Parisien, from his trim Levi’s jackets  and striped Breton sweaters to his long loopy scarves; bell-bottomed tuxedo pants paired with velvet blazers.

And then there were the shoes.

Gainsbourg allegedly disliked wearing most shoes and if he could have had his way, would walk the streets barefoot. His “69 Années Erotique” duet-partner (in more ways than one) Jane Birkin had just the thing for him: a pair of crisp, white Repetto dance shoes, a model called “Zizi Homme.”

Gainsbourg was smitten and throughout his life had dozens of pairs of the supple shoe, and the Zizi became as much a signature of his look as a cigarette.

Since 1947, Repetto has provided hand-made dance shoes to every major dance company but has also been adopted by the fashion world. In 1999 Jean-Marc Gaucher, a former executive from Reebok, took over the reigns with bold plans to make Repetto a major player in luxury fashion. Limited-edition collections have been created with the likes of Karl Lagerfeld and Veronique Branquinho. Hedi Slimane, Martin Margiela, and countless other designers have designed shoes in homage to the Zizi Homme.

Three years ago, on a trip to Paris, I made a bee-line to the Repetto boutique on the rue de la Paix.  I had become obsessed with pictures I had seen of Gainsbourg, lolling around his apartment in his exquisitely white (and diminuitive) Repetto’s.

Their legendary comfort is true: the shoes are the closest thing to walking barefoot. Made from the softest of calfskin, Repetto ballet shoes ar not for urban trekking — the soles are wafer thin. But for lounging at your corner watering hole or holding court in a pied-a-terre, there is nothing more chic.

Repetto shoes have limited availability in the U.S. Try www.farfetch.com, or better yet, book a ticket to Paris.

Boutique Repetto

22 rue de la Paix, 2eme. Tel: 01 44 71 83 12.

51 rue du Four, 6eme. Tel: 01 45 44 98 65.

Massimo Bizzocchi is the Chairman of the Kiton Corporation, producer of arguably the finest (and maybe the most expensive) suits in the world.

But Kiton  (pronounced kee-tun) is also one of the most discreet Italian brands you’ll find. There is little to no advertising and no obvious logo. We are seldom told that a celebrity is wearing a Kiton on the red carpet — although if he’s someone like George Clooney, he probably is. Founded in 1968 by Ciro Paone, Kiton is the quintessential example of Neapolitan tailoring: less structured than a Brioni, more svelte and body forming than an Armani.

Of all Italians, Neapolitans are perhaps the most flamboyant and obsessive when it comes to tailoring. A stroll down Via Montanapoleone in Milan is like stepping into a scene from “La Dolce Vita,” with huddles of young men in knife-sharp suits, admiring one another not to mention themselves.

I met with Mr. Bizzocchi one Saturday afternoon after a private party at San Francisco’s Neiman Marcus, and he shared the story of the Italian and his passion for tailoring.

I actually wanted to be a diplomat, but you know, in Italy it is about connections and my family is not of high rank or part of government. We did not know anybody in the Vatican, so I decided to work in international business, with something I know very well: the Italian tailored suit.

You see from the time I was 6 or 7 years old I would spend Saturday afternoons in the wintertime with my father in the tailor shop. My father would be there talking to friends and drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. This is part of the Italian culture: to take time with your tailor and watch him make your suit. It is like the barbershop in the United States. It is the place you learned to be a man.

This is the beauty of what a brand like Kiton continues to represent. Too often you see someone wearing a suit and they look “Tom Ford” — not like themselves.  We don’t want that, we want the man to be himself.

When the consumer is buying the product and putting the product on, he is the architect, he is the designer, he is the mood, he is the mind, he is the evocation; he is all of those things make the man different because of how the suit changes how he feels.

This is where all the Neapolitan heritage of tailoring comes out.  The Neapolitan tailor developed their style based on the desire to make everybody feel very comfortable but making everybody also looking very natural. We are not trying to make a man with a sloped shoulder looking like he has a straight shoulder. We are leaving his shoulder but we will correct other details in order to make him look good.

Ciro is a genius in interpreting that style of life, where people are in love and enjoying themselves with clothing. This is why the Italian people enjoy dressing up a lot, because this is part of expressing how they feel about life. A man walks around in a suit and he is telling people: this is who I am. Now people go in jeans and t-shirt and they are anonymous.

Ciro is such a maniac that he will walk to a suit a touch all the buttonholes to make sure they are not stiff… he wants them soft, and he tells the tailors to use the correct number of threads for the fabric. He can feel with his fingers if there are too many threads in a buttonhole.

Did Ciro know about the American market before he decided to open in the U.S.?

He knew Ralph Lauren was very powerful in U.S. and he met him once when Ralph was in Italy. So when he go to New York for the first time, we go to Ralph’s big office building but we are told we cannot see him and that we must make appointment. Ciro gets very upset and he says to me, “No, tell him we are here! Tell him that we ate mozzarella together in Napoli!”

Finally Ralph Lauren comes out and says hello and Ciro gives him a beautiful jacket to try on. Ralph says, “Oh Ciro, it is very nice!” and Ciro says, ‘Thank you,” and takes the jacket back. He shakes Ralph’s hand and he leaves. And we never saw Ralph again.

Read more about Kiton’s craftmanship and one man’s experience ordering a custom jacket, in a story exclusive to the San Francisco Chronicle. Click here.

(SAN FRANCISCO) — Not one to be left behind when it comes to collaborating with edgy designers, Macy’s has partnered with New York’s dynamic design duo Ruffian to create Threads & Heirs. The exclusive collection is only available at Macy’s and will be followed with future collaborations from a different designer each season.

At last Thursday’s store event, an eager crowd awaited the designer’s arrival, not to mention the chance to see an attractive posse of models wearing the new collection.

While models strutted onto the stage, I chatted with the designers Brian Wolk and Claude Morais, an affable duo who clearly enjoy working together. “This collection was fun for us because we really were able to draw from what we love,” said Wolk. “It’s all about American classics, which I have always been fascinated with,” said Morais, a native frenchman.

The designers — with their own award-winning collection called Ruffian — stayed true to their signature urban aesthetic, but folded in plenty of wearable basics that weren’t so fashion-forward they’d scare away a Macy’s customer. The collection is heavy on plaid shirts, gunmetal-grey tees and v-necks, and  my personal favorite — a wonderfully rumpled cotton utility jacket with a nicely tailored waist.

“Tailoring is one thing we can’t compromise on,” said Wolk.”With this entire collection you’ll notice that everything is slim cut, from the shirt to the jackets.”

The limited-edition collection is priced between $24.99 – 99.99 making this one of the better values when it comes to designer collaboration collections. A second delivery of new items will arrive in stores later in the month.

After the presentation, the designers lingered behind and met with customers, many of whom knew the designers from their Ruffian collections. Those that didn’t were nevertheless pleased with what they saw. “I’m getting the utility jacket for my boyfriend,” said one female customer. “But if he doesn’t wear it, I will.”

With L.L. Bean joining the fray of brand collaborations, I’ve been asked about whether the world really needs any more one-off fashion collections and “updated classics” from another earnest, fashion “collective” or style savant. But it continues, brands and retailers continue to seek out the whiz kids of fashion to help them bring customers back into their stores.

From big box retailers (think Target) to the small heritage brand (think LL Bean), everyone is joining the collaboration club. The majority of the time, though, it’s the fuddy-duddy retail giant who is looking to garner some street cred.

So does it work, and do consumers really respond to it?

Yes and no. The fact is, the goal should not only be to sell product. Most of the time the brands who mate for one night (or one collection) don’t make much profit when it comes to collaborations. But what they gain is consumer insight and awareness. In other words, it’s a relatively cost-effective experiment in brand development.

The aim should be for the major players to gain a different perspective on their business and smaller brands to dip their toe into the waters of mass-market retail.

In the best scenarios, a great collaboration lets both brands share resources and brand equity, and in this economy, who doesn’t need that?

The novelty of say, Sonia Rykiel and H&M, or Thom Browne and Brooks Brothers means customers are inspired to shop, especially when it’s in a store they wouldn’t normally be caught in.

Collaborations also bring a sense of authenticity to a brand because suddenly it isn’t quite so mass-market. It seems special and exclusive. A Goliath like Target gets some boutique brand sincerity and the cachet of “designer” without the sticker-shock.

Of course both brands hope to gain something from the relationship without cannibalizing their audience. There are certainly cases where that’s been true, most notably with sportswear brands.  In the late 1990’s Puma elevated its profile when they collaborated with designer Jil Sander.

And in 2005, Puma opened multi-branded stores where they featured collaborations with Christy Turlington, Philippe Stark, and others. I think the point here is that it spoke of the brand’s stance in terms of innovation: that collaboration is truly collaborative — not dictatorial. Nike kind of missed that bandwagon preferring to be the ne plus ultra of sportswear, “i.e., we don’t need anyone else’s help.” The right move? Well, with so many athletes endorsing their products, I guess they really don’t need any help.

Karl Lagerfeld got to see just how much of a household name he had become when he collaborated with H&M on a capsule collection. Fans lined up around the block (other H&M collaborations weren’t quite so well received, such as the Madonna collection in 2007.)

Brief and copious one offs —  like Levi’s and Opening Ceremony  — are a bit more difficult to quantify, because they are so short term and in the case of Levi’s, they just happen a bit too often. Levi’s has been a bit garrulous about chasing the collaboration train, and it can make some wonder if they’re investing enough in their own heritage and equity. In other words, collaborations shouldn’t replace a company’s ordinary business model. It should be a tool that is used sparingly and carefully to enhance what you already have.

Collaborations are strategic experiments in new business development. That’s already proven itself with Brooks Brothers which has quietly taken Brown’s ideas and integrated silhouette and detailing into its classic label collection.

If the cost of producing an additional collection is daunting, consider media budgets and the cost to launch new products on your own. The cost of producing these collaborations can often be off-set by the amount of pro bono buzz as opposed to traditional advertising channels  — buzz from previously, unavailable channels, such as opinion leaders and early adopters. This kind of presence goes a long way in growing a new customer.

Questionable payoffs do exist though. Consider the Gap and Paris’ trend-setting Colette store. What was the latter’s gain in opening a pop up shop at the Gap’s New York flagship (or Paris’ Merci, who also opened a pop up the following year at the Gap)?

Frankly, I’m really not sure either one got what they were looking for. Instead it felt like a charity case on the part of Colette for the Gap; a brand which has been frantically trying to rebuild its image after too many years of self-sabotage. It was a collaboration that felt more like desperation than innovation.

The window of the Levi’s flagship store, San Francisco

(SAN FRANCISCO) – If you’re old enough to remember wearing matching corduroy jackets and pants then the following may be a road to nostalgia you won’t want to follow.

Then again plenty were happy to last Friday night, when roughly 500 people showed up at the Levi’s flagship store in San Francisco to celebrate the collaboration between the world’s preeminent jeans brand and the cultish retailer and design group, Opening Ceremony.

Opening Ceremony, with stores in New York, Los Angeles, and Tokyo has been consistently collaborating with the likes of Chloe Sevigny and Spike Jones and creating limited-edition collections of downtown streetwear that begs the question: are you cool enough?

Plenty were on hand to cop a feel of their collaboration with Levi’s with a collection of 1980’s 505 corduroys in colors described as  teal, fuchsia, lavender, olive, curry, navy, and optical white. I haven’t heard the word “teal” since, oh, about 1987. A bicycle covered in teal corduroy marked the way, guerilla marketing style, in front of the Levi’s store (and supposedly others were placed throughout the downtown area.)

The party hubbub began on the ground floor of the Levi’s store where a special Opening Ceremony boutique/ pop-up installation was created just for the occasion, along with a stunning collection of visuals by photographer Ryan McGinley.

The very Shiny-Happy-People vibe seems just right for these dark days of retail. McGinley’s visuals includes shots of tender young things wearing the vivid corduroys while floating against an endless sky.

Opening Ceremony’s Humberto Leon and Carol Lim were on hand (with what appeared to be their entire families in tow) and were warmly greeted by fans and a retinue of hipsters one usually only sees  at 6AM when H&M is rolling out a limited-edition collection from Comme Des Garçons.

And while we didn’t see anyone wearing cords at this event, we’re pretty sure we’ll be hearing that nostalgic sound of two corduroy-encased thighs walking down the street Zirrh-Zurrh! Zirrh-Zurrh!… ahhh, it’s 1987 all over again.

The entire collection of cords are available at select Opening Ceremony and Levi’s stores as well as globally at specialty retailers such as Barneys, Fred Segal, Joan Shepp in the United States, and at Colette (Paris), Liberty (London), Lane Crawford (Hong Kong), Incu (Australia), Henrik Vibskov (Copenhagen and Oslo) and c2k (Istanbul).

Snickers struck gold with its ad featuring Betty White

By now you’ve heard about fifteen people tell you they loved the Oprah/Letterman/Leno ad on the Superbowl, and heard the morning-after commentators tell you the winner was Snickers with the lovable Betty White and I-didn’t-know-he-was-still-alive Abe Vigoda.

Any guesses on how many ads ran? Sixty-eight, to be precise. So how many did you remember, and more importantly, did any of them really make you feel any differently about the advertised brand?

If you kept track during the three-plus hour event, you noticed the ads went from memorable (Snicker’s, the ETrade babies) to forgettable to just plain awful (Charles Barkley for Taco Bell).

Interestingly, fashion retailers steered clear of the Superbowl — not that they ever had a strong presence — with only Sketchers and Dockers contributing advertising. The latter went big with an ad that encouraged viewers to log onto their website to win a free pair of pants.

Unfortunately, someone forgot to plan for this and the website crashed within seconds of the ad airing. Good job, boys!

It’s clear that the Superbowl continues to be a kind of flexing of the muscles for advertisers with perhaps little to no expectation in translating that two million or more they spent into building the brand or converting customers.

But then you already knew that, and like me, you just sat back and watched the show: the equivalent to a small country’s gross national product being spent on thirty seconds of hot air.

See the full list of all sixty-eight ads here.

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?