Ms. Clarke

Spas, Health & Fitness

Men and Spas - Finding Opportunities in the Male Grooming Market

By Jacqueline Clarke, Research Director, Diagonal Reports

The grooming businesses that cater to men rank sales of services in the following order: hair care services, facial skin care treatments, and hair removal (depilation). These top services are trailed at a considerable distance by a mixed bag of other grooming services

However, although male interest in grooming is growing the performance of businesses that cater to men is uneven. Uneven because not all businesses (and this is something of an understatement) benefited as they had expected to when they entered the male grooming market. According to one UK company, a mere 4% of its male clients avail of its expanded menu of grooming services. A London salon was forced to cut its recently introduced body massages due to lack of demand. Others were able to sell massages, but only after they were rebranded and camouflaged as "sports therapies." A US nationwide barber/salon company found that demand for some services, such as pedicures, is regionally fragmented. Strong sales on the coasts, contrast with non-existent sales in other regions. This experience made the company reluctant to invest in a national roll out of a diverse package of grooming services for men.

It may be useful to learn why returns can fall short of business expectations, and why the much proclaimed male interest in appearances does not automatically translate into sales. A commonality in different countries of "uneven performance" is not knowing what men want. Companies note grooming services for men is a relatively new market category, and is at an experimental stage in terms of the packages of services, of product line-ups, and of marketing. As a well known company said: "We are not yet fine tuned to the exact grooming needs of the men of today."

The problem is how to find out what men want. This is not easy to determine, there are few places to study the issue because there are relatively few businesses that focus on men. There are (inbuilt) information limitations. They are as follows:

• Most men's grooming is the at home use of products from the mass market retail channel - which is why most brands are concentrated in retail. But the retail channel is not very informative about emerging needs, or service demands. Market data does not distinguish the gender of final consumer. In the UK less than 1% of the lines carried by product suppliers are for men.

• Salons and spas that catered to women now attract more men -they can account for up to half of all clients. But men's patronage can be "forced." That is they may have no choice, and must use a salon because of the closure of barbers in many countries.

Business formulas may not be reproducible. Many pioneers of new male grooming concepts attribute their success to their focus on a niche consumer segment, typically affluent, trend setting, urban professionals. This niche is not always an accurate guide to the needs of a broader population. Also the success of niche businesses can flow from celebrity status of individual owner/stylist.

One of the few environments available to observers of male grooming is the barber shop. Not only is barbering the only market segment exclusively devoted to men,

• it is the only service regularly used, that is, every four to six weeks, by very large numbers of men (this allows for changes to be tracked, and for behaviour of different consumers segments, e.g. age, social status, geography to be compared);

• the staff members have long experience of this business (so can assess validity of trends), and

• staff operate across different geographies (allowing for transnational comparisons). This makes barbering a useful reference point for any business, among which are hotel spas, that serves a diverse range of consumer segments, and nationalities.

A quick trip into the barbering world shows that men's grooming behaviour is quite different from women's beautycare, as is the composition of the male market by product and service category. The striking contrasts between how men and women approach the most ordinary of acts, a hair cut, should surely alert us not to assume that men's needs are the same as women's ("pile them high and hope they'll buy").

In the barber shop most men walk in (no appointment) for a "dry cut" (no washing), this is the reason why 70% of these hair cuts are "product-free" (e.g. no shampoo). Shampoos, and conditioners are not the only almost untouched product category; though usage of colourants (and perms) is rising, sales are negligible compared to women's salons. This usage patterns illustrates why it is difficult to draw conclusions about male products from current behaviour.

Businesses in different markets (USA, UK and a lesser extent in China) that want to grow male grooming sales consistently stress much the same points: although men are increasingly appearance conscious and attitudes are different than in the past, most men continue to be cautious about the grooming services they are willing to avail themselves of (and even willing to be seen to avail themselves of).

Men are in short picky eaters not just from grooming menus but of the grooming venues. The reason for men's reluctance is because large number (if not the majority) are uncomfortable with (at best), or actively dislike the traditional beauty world, which they see as "feminine." Male inhibitions means that strategies developed to sell grooming to women do not work with men - indeed they may actually alienate men.

Overcoming men's discomfort means that grooming business must be committed to "male proofing" -- that is gendering each and every aspect of the business "as male." A list of what makes men comfortable and uncomfortable is set out below. Many successful businesses undertake a vocabulary make over because (to paraphrase) one spa manager "some terms are 'inappropriate' to male grooming, such as 'beauty'." This attitude explains the enthusiast adoption of sports vocabulary. For example, describing a massage as a "sports therapy."

Male proofing the beautycare market

Factor - Comfortable / Uncomfortable

Enter store - Immediate greeting / Left standing around

Time hair cut - < 20 minutes / > 20 minutes

Booking - Walk in / Appointment

D'ecor and furniture - Neutral (bar) / Feminine (boudoir)

Magazines - Sport, cars / Beauty, fashion

Male Grooming Market 2008(c)- Diagonal Reports

When men move beyond the barbershop category to salons they carry the behaviour learned in barbershops with them. Businesses insist that men behave quite differently to women. They hate to be left standing around in a salon. Men's dislike is more than the aversion of a client to such a salon experience, men find it deeply embarrassing.

When men first visit a salon/spa, they are acutely time conscious. Diagonal Reports research in Europe and the US shows that men usually allocate a mere 20 minutes to the moment they walk into the barber shop to when they leave. In very different countries, eg, UK and USA, men work on same time clock. Stylists report "men become impatient if the service visit takes more than 20 minutes."

In a number of different countries (e.g. US, UK, France, Spain, Italy) businesses were surprised by strong male demand for hair removal. This is largely younger men who want influenced by sporting heros and by the beach lifestyles featured on their favourite TV programmes. Men bring different body parts to the hair removal market than women, for example, their backs.

A specifically male attitude towards the consumption of grooming services should be noted. In very different markets (such as the USA, France, China) professionals consistently identify a male-specific self-image. To summarize, men see themselves as rational consumers. Men prefer rapid, tangible results - they do not want to wait for gradual improvements or spend on services that may be relaxing but do not produce a result.

Men more likely to buy if products are sold as "evidence of outcome." That is, where products' claims are backed by trusted science, or medicine. The male demand for performance is linked to their view of themselves as rational consumers, that is, they buy products that serve a useful function. In effect, this self-view would seem to provide men with the excuse they need to spend on a personal care product, and differentiate themselves from consumers who buy because they are "vain" or "easily duped by marketing."

As research director of Diagonal Reports (www.diagonalreports.com), Jacqueline Clarke has designed and developed the company's professional beauty market research programme. She directs its flagship publication, the Global Salon Panel (GSP) series, which tracks and analyses developments in medicalised beauty, spa and wellness markets worldwide.

Research director of Diagonal Reports, Jacqueline Clarke has designed and developed the company’s professional beauty market research programme. She directs the Global Salon Panel (GSP) series which analyses and synthesises intelligence on the beauty and well-being markets. Ms. Clarke knows the global market and identifies and tracks key sector trends globally. Ms. Clarke's global expertise covers the largest beautycare/wellness markets worldwide, including the US, Latin America, Europe and Asia. She has worked with some of the largest beauty companies in the US and Europe. Ms. Clarke can be contacted at +353-4695-49027 or dreditor@eircom.net Extended Bio...

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