The market for male grooming is thriving in the Asia Pacific region as cultural acceptance of men’s skin care and other cosmetic products grows. Mark Rowe reports
The cosmetics market for Asian men is thriving where other sectors struggle. “Men’s skin care products appear to exist in a different economic world to much of the rest of the industry,” said Divya Sangam, a Singapore based spokesperson for market researcher Euromonitor.
The strongest sector is skin care, where sales grew by 20% across Asia (east and southeast Asia, excluding India) in the financial year 2011/12 compared to 2010/11. Deodorants accounted for 50% of these sales in 2011/12, followed by hair care, according to Euromonitor.
“Countries such as Japan, South Korea and China have witnessed a huge increase in expenditure on male grooming products particularly in the toiletries and hair care segment,” said Natasha Telles D’Costa, an Asia cosmetics analyst from Frost & Sullivan. These three countries account for over 35% in revenues for the $1.9bn Asia Pacific male grooming market (east, southeast and south Asia). Chinese skin care sales grew by 28% year on year and interest is typified by the recent acquisition of Chinese male grooming specialist TJoy by US based multinational Coty to gain a foothold into the Chinese market.
“Taking into account the mostly tropical climate in Asia, deodorants is another sector showing impressive growth,” D’Costa added. “However the value driver will continue to be skin care, as this segment is less price sensitive and male grooming products are in general placed in the premium category.”
Data from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry for 2010/11 shows that Japanese sales of men’s hair products grew in volume terms by 4.3% with products such as hair lotions growing by 45%, hair spray by 8% and hair colouring by 97%. Shaving and preparations grew by 4.5% in volume terms and by 25% in value terms to ¥11.95bn ($137m). “The market for all other categories such as skin care, make-up, hair care and fragrance has diminished but men’s cosmetics retained its market size at almost the same level as the previous year,” said Kazumi Yanagisawa, a spokesperson for Japan’s Yano Research Institute.
Kao’s skin care brand Men’s Bioré has enjoyed “favourable conditions”, according to company spokesperson Ryota Ogawa, who attributes the growing market to “stimulation by global brands’ entry into the men’s grooming market and the economic expansion across the region”.
He added: “Men in Asia have become more aware of grooming or beauty care. Previously they used to share skin care or hair care products with their family but recently they tend to use products specified for their skin condition or hair texture. This trend used to be observed only in Japan, however recently the trend has also been drastically observed in other Asian countries.”
In India meanwhile sales of men’s skin lightening creams endorsed by various Bollywood celebrities have resulted in explosive growth in this sector, accounting for more than 50 million sales in less than seven years.
Culturally, Asian men seem to be receptive to grooming products. “Chinese men are less susceptible to the macho male image and are much more willing to accept the metrosexual corporate honcho image,” said D’Costa. “Most Asian men think that dressing the part is one step closer to moving up the corporate ladder.”
Back in 2007 Unilever sought to unpick this market by commissioning a study of men’s grooming trends that revealed that just 5% of Filipino men bought a cosmetics product every week. Accordingly, Unilever has since worked on projections that men’s grooming products sales will increase in the Philippines by 5%-6% year on year. There have been cultural challenges though: Philips launched a campaign in Indonesia to dispel a common perception that electric shavers could electrocute the user.
Meanwhile men’s skin care is thriving in Malaysia, typified by Garnier’s launch of its Garnier Men range into the market. And there have been reports of strong growth in Malaysian sales of Fa Deodorant Sport and Nivea for Men Stick, Men’s Bioré Power Brightening Active Cool Facial Scrub and Men’s Bioré 2-in-1 Power Foam (Wash & Shave), all of which were introduced in 2011. “Improvements in living standards and urbanisation encouraged Malaysian men to dedicate more time and money to improving their appearance,” said Sangam.
Malaysia’s grooming market also reflects some unexpected colonial echoes. Formerly British owned, Brylcreem was present in Malaysia before the country gained independence and analysts mainly attribute its current US owner Sara Lee’s market lead in men’s grooming to the Brylcreem brand. Procter & Gamble was the second leading men’s grooming player in 2011 claiming a value share of 19%, while other prominent competitors in Malaysian men’s grooming included Mandom, Unza, Marico and Tohtonku.
In South Korea, men’s grooming grew in value terms by 11% to reach KRW738bn in 2010 ($676m) and men have been recruited by several companies as direct sellers. Again, men’s skin care enjoyed the highest growth rate at 17% and according to the brand manager for men’s cosmetics at South Korea based AmorePacific Corp, which has the leading value share of 24% in the market, facial nourishers/anti-agers and face masks also recorded positive growth.
Euromonitor’s most recent figures for Vietnam say it recorded a 21% increase in value terms for the men’s grooming market in the 2011/10 period, compared to 2009/10, with a consumer base of young to middle-aged males in urban areas. According to Sangam, this is in large part attributable to manufacturers’ advertising campaigns “that successfully boosted men’s interest in self-grooming”.