Nearly two thirds (65.7%) of men in the US say they do not notice new personal care and grooming products that come onto the market, compared with 28.2% who keep an eye out for them, and a mere 6.1% who actively monitor them, according to an in-depth research report from Datamonitor.

The “Male Grooming Trends: Profiting in 2009 and Beyond” study, which offers a detailed look at both the male and female personal-care sectors across 15 countries across Europe, Asia-Pacific, South America and the US, finds that men in India (30.6%) and Brazil (20.5%) pay the most attention to new products, while men in the Netherlands (72.4%) and Sweden (77%) pay the least.

In contrast, only 36.7% of women in the US do not notice new grooming products, 47.6% keep an eye out for them, and 15.7% actively monitor them.

Price Has Most Influence

When men do pay attention to personal care products, price has the most influence on what they choose, the research found. More than half of men surveyed feel that price had either a ‘high’ or ‘very high’ influence on their selection of products. This was a substantially higher response rate than for any other factor, although ‘habit/preferred brand’ and ‘ease of use’ also ranked as fairly important influencing factors among men.

“These findings suggest that many men will simply stick with what they know, without even bothering to check out alternative products in the marketplace,” Datamonitor said.

Women Dominate Spending

Across most countries featured in the report, the split of populations is roughly equal by gender, but women continue to dominate spending in the personal care industry, the research found.  The US and Japan have the highest overall spending levels among all countries surveyed, while Sweden and the Netherlands have the lowest:

Different Approach Needed for Men

Males’ overall lack of interest in products and their intense focus on price - among other factors - indicate that there is significant room for growth in the male personal care market if marketers are able to change these behaviors, Datamonitor said. Though the grooming market for both genders continues to grow in most parts of the world - including the US and Europe - the male market is expanding at a slower rate than expected but nonetheless has much more potential if it is tapped correctly.

Many personal care brands targeted at women have been successful in achieving a high level of engagement with their consumer bases, DataMonitor said. However, this situation has not been replicated among men, where the more essential and necessary nature of personal care products has caused a lower level of engagement.

“Marketers need to take a different approach to men because of substantial gender differences in mens’ and womens’ attitudes and behaviors toward cosmetics and toiletries,” said Matthew Taylor, consumer analyst at Datamonitor and author of the report. “Brands that wish to ahieve high-engagement will need to step up efforts to increase loyalty by ensuring that men feel more attached to their male grooming products and brands.”

Datamonitor also cites the following two areas of the personal care market as most ripe for diversification:

• Skincare, which could appeal to men with anti-aging benefits now exploited by only a small number of male grooming products.
• Personal and oral hygiene, which is the most lucrative category in the male market, but still has room to grow.