|
 Men
would rather buy a fair and lovely than a fair and handsome
At the risk of opening a Pandora’s Box and
inviting critics let me begin my hypothesis by establishing a few ground rules.
Rule
A: Men want to look good.
Rule
B: Men want to keep their facial grooming antics a
secret.
With these rules let us move ahead...
 Male grooming market is coming up in a big
fashion. HUL, Emami, Nivea and all the big names in cosmetics has woken up to
the revolution which was perhaps initiated by a football cum gender bender.
Scores of newspapers, magazines dwelled at length on the football stars metro
sexuality (wonder if he gets royalty)...and then there were followers, everyone
wanting to score... (and we are not talking goals here). The market sprung in
action, big names with their big heads started to roll and out came an array of
cosmetics targeted and marketed for men. The trend is changing they said...no
longer is the Indian male shy of admitting that he wants to look good (he was
never shy in admitting this fact). Soon arrived a sea of products and a slew of
advertising all trying to cash in on the new found phenomenon.
‘Fair’ enough...we, would now concentrate
on our hypothesis and give a point by point account.
The market was right in recognising the trend
that an increasing number of males now want to look good and appeal to the
opposite sex. However the market misread the ground rules. Males are still shy
in admitting that they use enhancers to improve their looks. I haven’t come
across with any male who would proudly show off his latest 'For Men' fairness
cream.
The lack of genuineness in the whole 'Men
fairness cream category', (here I must say that the ad makers have not done a
good job), a typical male psyche says "If it’s a fairness product for females,
it ought to be effective"
Now here comes an interesting thing, Men
would always be reluctant to use a specialised formula, instead they would want
to appear casual and pick up 'any' fairness cream off the shelf. You wouldn’t
find a fairness cream in a men's closet, the place is reserved for aftershaves,
razors and deodorants (for males)...the fairness cream would be safely hidden
in the drawers.
 The advertisements, centred on make
fairness cream show a loser who applies fairness cream to glory. While this
concept has worked well for the female category (where a girl passes by a
hoarding and sees a glowing white face only to come back, stare at the mirror
and disappointingly discover her own dark and absolutely 'doctored' face), it
falls flat when it comes to the male department, simply because Men have ego
issues. No man in his rightful sense would admit of being a loser EVER (not
even when he is dark skinned). Yes, he wants to look good but he doesn’t want
to push hard for it, he is not using the fairness cream in an attempt to look
fair and appealing, he is just 'trying' it for fun.
Notwithstanding the above points the male
grooming market is expanding, however the marketers must tread with caution. It
will be interesting to witness the developments, for now, I would stick with my
hypothesis. Do I use a fairness cream..??...Are you kidding me ... ;)
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