Tricks are for kids and makeup is for women, right? Nope. Men need a little pampering, too, according to Datamonitor: 88 makeup products made for men were launched globally in 2009, compared with just three in 2005. Marketing Week.com recently reported on men’s personal care products, stating specific marketing tactics, e.g., using celebrities to promote men’s beauty products isn’t as successful as it used to be, as companies such as Dove and Bulldog are pulling away from this form of marketing and using new angles to approach male consumers.
A 2009 survey conducted by Dove Men+Care (an Unilever brand) on 7,500 men, aged 30 to 55, revealed, “68 percent of men feel they aren’t realistically portrayed in advertising, while 71 percent find it difficult to relate to men of their age who are shown in commercials," according to MarketingWeek.com. So instead, the company took a different approach, and rather than using unrealistic celebrity men to fuel their marketing campaign, the company used humor and everyday men to show the stages life.
In the same way, Bulldog is pushing the male market envelope by suggesting products that are typically geared toward women—an anti-aging moisturizer—are also OK for men. So maybe it’s time to spice up your marketing campaign and take a different approach. Possibly something similar to Dove’s everyday male, or maybe your company’s own take on “men." Apparently, men (and women) are exhausted by celebrity-, model-driven ads and are looking for something they can relate to. Be fresh and innovative and persistent with your efforts and they will pay off, as you can see.