Skin Care Products

Re-thinking Marketing Strategies for Anti-Aging Face and 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?

Surely, it may seem absurd to ask such a silly question, at first, because every businessman will answer in a second: “Sure we are”. The question actually offends them.

For millions of men across the United States and the rest of the world, there is nothing easy about doing business with the product providers from the beauty industry. They actually spend a lot of their time and energy to locate quality products that do what the label says.

For millions of men across the United States and the rest of the world, there is nothing easy about doing business with the product providers from the beauty industry. They actually spend a lot of their time and energy to locate quality products that do what the label says.

Go Directly to Female-Centric Department Store Beauty Counters: Do Not pass GO

The advice the beauty industry leaders give them is useless, but some men, out of lack of any other alternative, take it literally:” If you want to take care of your skin problems, if you want to look good and have a fresh and replenished skin, preventing the signs of premature aging and protecting the skin against temperature fluctuations and other environmental factors that damage and destroy the inner balance of any skin, then go ahead and use lady’s products, they work just as well.”

And while most masculine men would refuse to subject themselves to a buying experience that is totally against their nature and preference, there are some who secretly obey this order, because they have no other choice. They need to take care of their appearance, not out of vanity, but to gain an extra edge in an ultra-competitive environment - where first impressions based on how he looks could make or break the deal of a lifetime, or hinder his chances of advancing romantically with she who is the one, before she equates a less than perfect first impression with having no chemistry...

Most men understand the capital importance of preventing the signs of premature aging, of creating a protection shield against environmental factors such as dust, heat, sun, wind or to reestablish their skin’s natural balance after the daily shaving routine. It is extremely important to create a good first impression, because while it takes seconds to make judgments about a person, it takes years to change that first opinion. Great opportunities don’t come around too often and it’s better to seize them when they come.

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 such as Male Face Skin Care Products 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.

Another example of how little consideration men receive from beauty industry leaders is the Free Gift with Purchase offers promoted all year at department stores. Of course, these incentives are not designed for the use of men and everybody knows that. Except for the major holidays and the special occasions, men who buy female skin care brands might receive with their purchase some new generation mascara or make-up bags filled with lipsticks and eye-shadows.

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.

Frankly, there are a lot of choice phrases to describe what the Beauty Industry puts masculine men through - 'easy buying experience' isn't one of them.

The Drugstore Experience

Of course, some might argue: Well, what about drugstores? Masculine Men can go there and easily get the men's anti-aging, face and skin care products they need.

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

There are also those in the Beauty Industry who believe that on-line shopping is the answer to the Beauty Industry's Billion Dollar 'Man Problem'. If masculine men have a problem with department store beauty sections and offers to powder their nose at the beauty counters (where there's never any obligation to buy - just pressure), then they need not come out at all!

The beauty industry is confident about the fact that men who are not comfortable with shopping in a department store can easily not come out at all and shop for masculine men’s anti-aging face care products online. This way, they have all the privacy they need to search for items, to consult the offer, which is by the way, extremely generous. Of course, many of the brands online will highlight their dazzling results with creams and face care products used by an x number of men, during an x number of days who noticed great improvement during the testing period. These researches usually come with a fine print, where they state the number of persons and how the results may vary according to different types of skin and so on.

And then there are the volumes of contradictory reviews - User A loves it, User B hates it, User C can careless and so on. By the way, have you noticed how many of these men's skin care product reviews are written by the women who bought them for their men? Where are the actual users - the men behind some of these reviews? Oh I forget, they'd probably rather people not know about the beauty regiment their women put them on.

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.

On-line shopping is time consuming, confusing and fraught with unsubstantiated claims and unknown suppliers.

Actually, online shopping is not a reliable option, considering that is so time consuming and the products advertised by unknown suppliers with no background and credibility have no guarantee.

Let’s not go ethical about their standpoints and let’s take an in-depth look at what beauty industry claims to be men friendly anti-aging skin care products designed especially for men.

If we were to gather every brand of men's anti-aging, face and skin care products currently on the market and place them side by side, you'll notice a couple of things right away. First, the primary (background) colors - the overwhelming majority are likely variations of black, blue, gray, and earth-tones - colors that the Beauty Industry considers to be 'manly' and applicable to ALL men, while the rest take a 'medicinal' (bare-bone white) approach.

If we were to zoom in on the label, there are many feminine influences you can spot right away and you can see how these men’s anti-aging face care products were actually conceived. Mentioning other feminine characteristics of the male addressing products, you can identify the terminology used by both branches in defining the content of the package- serum, moisturizer, etc.

These traditional female beauty terms are emasculating for men who identify with the masculine ideal and strive to keep up their masculine male image. And there has been very little effort made by the Beauty Industry to address masculine men's general preference for simplicity and functionality by harmonizing the terminology of essential skin or face care products for men. In fact, the Beauty Industry is known for taking the opposite approach.

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.

The 'Easy' Solution: Products and Positioning that Fit a Man's Nature - Masculine Anti-Aging Face and Skin Care Products For Men

A viable solution to an existing problem can be found with one condition: to identify the problem first. The same goes for the beauty industry leaders, who can easily come up with efficient solutions as long as they understand what the problem is.

And what is that knowledge? It's simply the awareness that, to engage masculine men and enable them to spend billions of dollars boosting the Beauty Industry's revenues and profits, it's time to put aside old models and practices, and reach out to masculine men on their terms, in their world, and in a manner that is aligned with their masculine nature. This is how it should be done:

* Respect men as masculine men - have the courage to look your customer in the eye. Take the message directly to men, rather than expecting women to do the Beauty Industry's heavy lifting.

* 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'.

* Liberate the hoards of men walking with their heads down in department stores and drugstores in search for the cosmetic products they need. Let them raise their heads up high and feel confident and proud about shopping for face care cosmetics.

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 all these things and act promptly to solve this problem, will enjoy infinite benefits and will revolutionize the present market.

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.