Re-thinking Marketing Strategies for Anti-Aging Skin Care For Men
Masculine Mens Anti-Aging Face Skin Care Products Series - Dilemma of Shopping for High Quality Men's Skin Care Products
A fundamental question can be asked to tell whether or not a business has the necessary force to survive on the challenging market today: Are you easy to do business with?
At first, the question seems rather unnecessary, because every business leader will answer affirmatively on the spot:”of course we are easy to do business with. This is one of our main focuses”. You may actually feel silly for asking such a redundant question.
Well, the reason we can ask such a 'silly question' is because a staggering number of businesses in the Beauty Industry aren't easy to do business with. Not if you're among the millions of men who are in search of high quality masculine men's anti-aging face care products (or commonly known as men's skin care and face care products for men by the beauty industry) and a buying experience that is aligned with a man's basic, masculine nature.
The advice given by these beauty industry leaders is meant to comfort men looking to take care of their skin and it goes like this:” If you want a perfect skin, free from all impurities, if you are interested in preventing the signs of premature aging and keeping your face healthy and clean for all the environmental influences, then you can easily use lady’s products, that are also meant to do all that”.
Go Directly to Female-Centric Department Store Beauty Counters: Do Not Pass GO
Just as unlucky Monopoly(r) players are told to "Go directly to Jail, do not pass GO," millions of masculine men stuck playing the Beauty Industry's strange game are given the same ruthless ultimatum: "If you want to take care of your face, minimize or prevent the visible signs of aging, or just keep your skin healthy, clean and safe from the environment, and you want high quality products to do it - then go
Many of them refuse to let their masculinity go on the drain, while others do it as a compromise and go shopping for feminine products. They do it out of the desire to look good and to feel OK with themselves, not out of vanity, but out of necessity, as we all know how important is appearance nowadays and how people base their judgments and first impressions on the physical aspect of a person. Men need to impress their date partners, but they also need to feel good and comfortable about themselves.
Men deserve to get the chance to enjoy all the benefits of technology and progress their female counterparts enjoy and they need to find reliable anti-aging solutions specially created for men. Having no other alternative, men are forced to march into the feminine beauty stands and pick something that doesn’t smell like roses that much. They are forced to hide this practice from their girlfriends and wives, out of shame and embarrassment. Sadly, this is a very common situation and it’s done by millions of men who have no other alternative but to put women’s products on their stubbles.
Men, just like their female counterparts, deserve just as much to enjoy the benefits and innovations of the beauty industry and, from lack of alternatives, they are forced to sneak into department stores female sections instead of looking for Male Face Skin Care Products For Men specifically and to purchase products that seem more efficient than others, in order to help them prevent the signs of premature aging, as well as fighting against other natural damaging influences.
Another example of how much consideration are men offered by the beauty industry producers is the Free Gift with Purchase incentives, promoted all year long in beauty departments. Now, let’s not even pretend that these offers are meant for the male clients that purchase same brands of skin care products as their female counterparts. No, lipsticks and make-up bags are not men gifts and this is another evident proof that this industry is not easy to do business with, when referring to the male point of view.
The explanation to all this is simple. Men are not the key customers when it comes to purchasing creams and skin care products. Therefore, even if some of their products are labeled “for men”, they are pretty much aware that their main target doesn’t wear a beard. Statistics say that more than 70% of all skin care products are purchased by women, therefore the industry leaders are interested in enticing the female buyers into purchasing products for you, not enticing you directly to shop from them.
These incentives are meant to entice more and more women into buying expensive men’s anti-aging skin care products and they will do everything to convince you it’s worth spending the money on them.
So, we can call the beauty industry strategies many ways, but easy buying experience is not one of them.
into a Shoe Box.
Surely, there is another place where you can shop for cosmetic products and that’s the drugstores. Men can purchase their masculine men’s anti-aging face care products and solve their skin issues.
But can they really? Well, drugstores are pretty much like department stores when it comes to attending to men’s problems. Whereas the beauty industry is all about image and prestige, there is a well-defined hierarchy between products found in department stores and those sold in drugstores. The brands you can purchase in department stores are considered high-quality, prestigious brands, with prices that match their labels, of course, but not necessarily direct proportionally with the quality.
Products that fight the signs of premature aging, cleansers and other cosmetic face care products sold at the drugstores are typically considered to be of lower quality. While some customers are enticed by the word ‘quality’ found on their label, others are well-aware that they get their money’s worth and no more. Putting the brands aside, the truth is that, if women have an endless and generous offer to choose from, men’s products can easily fit in a shoe box. Unless you don’t mind shopping for girl stuff and smelling of roses. Men couldn’t acquire the products they need even if they are willing to pay big bucks for them- there is no offer for this public.
A fundamental question can be asked to tell whether or not a business has the necessary force to survive on the challenging market today: Are you easy to do business with?
At first, the question seems rather unnecessary, because every business leader will answer affirmatively on the spot:”of course we are easy to do business with. This is one of our main focuses”. You may actually feel silly for asking such a redundant question.
Well, the reason we can ask such a 'silly question' is because a staggering number of businesses in the Beauty Industry aren't easy to do business with. Not if you're among the millions of men who are in search of high quality masculine men's anti-aging face care products (or commonly known as men's skin care and face care products for men by the beauty industry) and a buying experience that is aligned with a man's basic, masculine nature.
The advice given by these beauty industry leaders is meant to comfort men looking to take care of their skin and it goes like this:” If you want a perfect skin, free from all impurities, if you are interested in preventing the signs of premature aging and keeping your face healthy and clean for all the environmental influences, then you can easily use lady’s products, that are also meant to do all that”.
Go Directly to Female-Centric Department Store Beauty Counters: Do Not Pass GO
Just as unlucky Monopoly(r) players are told to "Go directly to Jail, do not pass GO," millions of masculine men stuck playing the Beauty Industry's strange game are given the same ruthless ultimatum: "If you want to take care of your face, minimize or prevent the visible signs of aging, or just keep your skin healthy, clean and safe from the environment, and you want high quality products to do it - then go
Many of them refuse to let their masculinity go on the drain, while others do it as a compromise and go shopping for feminine products. They do it out of the desire to look good and to feel OK with themselves, not out of vanity, but out of necessity, as we all know how important is appearance nowadays and how people base their judgments and first impressions on the physical aspect of a person. Men need to impress their date partners, but they also need to feel good and comfortable about themselves.
Men deserve to get the chance to enjoy all the benefits of technology and progress their female counterparts enjoy and they need to find reliable anti-aging solutions specially created for men. Having no other alternative, men are forced to march into the feminine beauty stands and pick something that doesn’t smell like roses that much. They are forced to hide this practice from their girlfriends and wives, out of shame and embarrassment. Sadly, this is a very common situation and it’s done by millions of men who have no other alternative but to put women’s products on their stubbles.
Men, just like their female counterparts, deserve just as much to enjoy the benefits and innovations of the beauty industry and, from lack of alternatives, they are forced to sneak into department stores female sections instead of looking for Male Face Skin Care Products For Men specifically and to purchase products that seem more efficient than others, in order to help them prevent the signs of premature aging, as well as fighting against other natural damaging influences.
Another example of how much consideration are men offered by the beauty industry producers is the Free Gift with Purchase incentives, promoted all year long in beauty departments. Now, let’s not even pretend that these offers are meant for the male clients that purchase same brands of skin care products as their female counterparts. No, lipsticks and make-up bags are not men gifts and this is another evident proof that this industry is not easy to do business with, when referring to the male point of view.
The explanation to all this is simple. Men are not the key customers when it comes to purchasing creams and skin care products. Therefore, even if some of their products are labeled “for men”, they are pretty much aware that their main target doesn’t wear a beard. Statistics say that more than 70% of all skin care products are purchased by women, therefore the industry leaders are interested in enticing the female buyers into purchasing products for you, not enticing you directly to shop from them.
These incentives are meant to entice more and more women into buying expensive men’s anti-aging skin care products and they will do everything to convince you it’s worth spending the money on them.
So, we can call the beauty industry strategies many ways, but easy buying experience is not one of them.
into a Shoe Box.
Surely, there is another place where you can shop for cosmetic products and that’s the drugstores. Men can purchase their masculine men’s anti-aging face care products and solve their skin issues.
But can they really? Well, drugstores are pretty much like department stores when it comes to attending to men’s problems. Whereas the beauty industry is all about image and prestige, there is a well-defined hierarchy between products found in department stores and those sold in drugstores. The brands you can purchase in department stores are considered high-quality, prestigious brands, with prices that match their labels, of course, but not necessarily direct proportionally with the quality.
Products that fight the signs of premature aging, cleansers and other cosmetic face care products sold at the drugstores are typically considered to be of lower quality. While some customers are enticed by the word ‘quality’ found on their label, others are well-aware that they get their money’s worth and no more. Putting the brands aside, the truth is that, if women have an endless and generous offer to choose from, men’s products can easily fit in a shoe box. Unless you don’t mind shopping for girl stuff and smelling of roses. Men couldn’t acquire the products they need even if they are willing to pay big bucks for them- there is no offer for this public.
Shopping Online Experience –Give the Customer What He Needs
The COOKIE CUTTER Approach - Men are ALL the SAME
Many beauty industry leaders believe that online shopping can easily replace the department store experience, in the sense that men who find it troublesome to search for skin care products are embarrassed by looking through feminine cosmetics can easily go home, sit in their armchair, and carry out the shopping from there. They can access a very generous offer online and can purchase the products they need with little effort.
Beauty industry advocates believe that men can simply shop for men's anti-aging, face and skin care products in the comfort of his home. There's plenty of privacy (even more so if the package is delivered in a plain brown package), plenty of selection - try an on-line search for men's anti-aging, face or skin care, face or skin care for men, and be delighted with literally millions of web results and thousands of brands to sort through - some more prominent than others, and many of which have their own set of
And then you can find tons of contradictory reviews, some people stating how extraordinary they are, other stating how much they hate it, while other simply couldn’t see any results at all. However, you might have noticed that 90% of these reviews are written by women who most certainly bought these products for their partners. However, we can’t help but ask- where are the real users? Or these men trying out these quality products have no idea that their partners have submitted them to some kind of intensive treatment?
Regardless of the quality and claims of some of the men's anti-aging, face care or skin care products available on-line and the credibility of the manufacturers, deciding on the right masculine anti-aging face or skin care products for men is a personal decision. Like kicking the tires before buying a truck, the masculine buyer has every right to inspect the product in his hands, decide for himself whether the brand message resonates with his sense of masculinity and would enhance his competitive edge before he invests in the product.
Actually, online shopping takes a lot of our time and energy, while websites are filled with unknown providers with no credentials or credibility.
There are many in the Beauty Industry who would disagree with this article series. In fact, they would shrug and say: "We don't understand what the fuss is all about. We're easy to do business with - you don't like our retail locations, you can go on-line. You don't use the pretty make-up bag of free lipsticks and mascara, then find a woman to give them to. Of course our products aren't artsy fartsy - they're not all pink and pretty and we've gone out of our way to make them 'man friendly'. What's wrong with recruiting women to do our bidding? What's wrong with marketing campaigns that seek to 'feminize' men? It's working isn't it? The new age, metro-sexual man is in and masculine men are now oh so passé..."
As tempting as it is to shred that viewpoint and reveal its caustic, ethical bankruptcy with an even more in-depth treatment than we've already given in this article series, we'll save it for another day and just take a quick look at one aspect - the Beauty Industry's cookie cutter approach to creating what it considers to be 'male friendly' men's anti-aging, face and skin care products.
If there were some chance to gather all men’s anti-aging skin care products available in the present on the market and if we were to place them together, we would be stricken by some visible similarities. First of all, you can’t help but notice the colors used for the label’s background – only earth-colors, variations of grey, black, blue and brown. These are colors considered by the beauty industry to define the portrait of the universal man. They actually think all men are alike.
Now take a closer look on the label and you’ll be able to identify many feminine influences and you can guess how all these so called men’s anti-aging skin care products were conceived. There are many other borrowed characteristics, among which we can mention that both branches use the same terminology in defining the content of the jar/bottle , that is serum, moisturizer, cream, etc
These traditional terms and conditions applied so far for feminine products cannot render the same results when trying to describe and define men’s quality anti-aging face care products. In fact, rarely can we see that beauty industry leaders take into account men’s general preference for simplicity and functionality, rather than colored labels and strong fragrances. In fact, we can more often see how men’s standpoint is neglected and not taken into consideration at all.
The moisturizer is still a moisturizer, regardless of the name you give it, but the beauty industry has shown great creativity when it comes to coming up with new definitions and terminology for their products, in order to set them aside from other brands, irrespectively of the customer’s confusion to all that different names for basically the same products. For instance, a moisturizer could become a lotion, balm, replenisher, hydrator, renewer or God knows what other names they can invent for describing their products. Even the names given to masculine products are more confusing than efficient and men have no idea what a rebuilder can do to their skin.
We cannot, however, completely dismiss all efforts of beauty industry leaders to create strong products that are specially addressing the male public. It is, in fact, true that their main target is not the man and investing big money in rebranding or rethinking market strategies so that their products can appeal to men is not, financially speaking, a wise move.
This situation is not caused because they don’t strive enough or because they don’t have sufficient resources- it’s mainly because the beauty industry strategies have been focused for such a long time on the feminine public, that now is too hard and too costly to change that general opinion that cosmetic products are meant for women only. The problem is the difficulty of breaking loose from the general perceptions and finding a way to satisfy the male’s preferences also. As a consequence, the approach towards marketing strategies and launching quality men’s anti-aging face care products is shallow and inefficient.
Finding Solutions: The Right Perspective On Men’s Anti-Aging Face and Skin Care Products
A reliable solution to any problem can be found once you’ve identified the problem. In this sense, beauty industry leaders can come up with solutions once they find out what the problem actually is.
But what does this understanding mean? Well, it’s simply referring to acknowledging that, in order to create products that address only to men and in order to make them spend billions of dollars on cosmetic face care, the beauty industry suppliers should get rid of the old practices and conventional marketing strategies and reach out to the actual problems men face every day, to come closer to their present condition as a powerful and modern human being, whose self-respect and masculinity must be taken into consideration. This is the way to go:
* Give masculine men the credit they deserve and acknowledge them for what they are. Speak your slogans directly to them, rather than convincing their life partners to buy your products.
* Create products and labels that don’t make men ashamed of buying them or having to hide them from their masculine buddies. Make them want to use your products openly, not hiding in the bathroom and moisturizing behind closed doors.
* Design your marketing strategies to appeal to men, rather than making them feel ashamed and overseen.
* Speak to men in their own language, telling them about the advantages and benefits they can enjoy by using quality men’s anti-aging skin care products for their particular situations. Give them all the information they need and let them decide what’s best.
* Accept that masculine men have buying preferences that are categorically different from women, and creating an experience that fits those preferences - Men tend to 'buy', while women 'shop'.
* Free the hoards of men who have spent so much time with their heads down, while roaming the department stores aisles and drugstores in search for the products specially designed for them. Let them feel proud of taking care of their skin health and make them feel responsible of their own choosing, by proving a wide variety of products for them to choose from.
All men would be glad to take their business where they receive the respect and consideration they deserve.
This is the challenge that beauty industry must acknowledge right now, not tomorrow, not next year.
Those who understand the present market’s needs and figure out ways to make their products appealing for men will succeed, no doubt about that.
However, those who are stuck with conventional marketing strategies and perspectives, denying the general tendencies and neglecting the actual needs of men will remain on the outside, shyly looking in.
