Men Personal Care Products and Grooming Essentials: Skin Care and Hair Products
To the erstwhile personal care products for men, namely, shaving cream, body talc and after-shave lotions, others have been added, such as hair styling gels, shaving foams, deodorants, colognes and perfume sprays and eau de toilette. It is estimated that the growth in these products is of the order of 10% a year exponentially. The men’s toiletries market has, however, been expanding even faster.
Three diverse factors seem to have contributed to the growth of male predilection for cosmetics and glamour-oriented toiletries. These are new modes of personality-building, aggressive campaigning by the MNC producers and higher monetary income levels. The reduction in customs duties from a high of 120% to the present levels has further contributed to the demand generation.
Competition is growing among the lead players: JK Helene Curtis, Procter & Gamble, Colgate Palmolive, JL Morison, Hindustan Unilever, Baccarose Cosmetics and Bond Street Perfumes, Park Avenue, Old Spice, and Denim. More and more players continue to enter the area causing quite a few splashes. India is now a global market place by the presence of the global producers. While the market for shaving blades in India is estimated to be the largest in the world, oral care (tooth brushes) market in India is the second biggest in terms of volume, globally.
New Trends
Going with the global trend, the Indian male enjoying higher disposable incomes and adopting changing lifestyles, is becoming conscious of his appearance. He is moving from the earlier preference of a rugged look to a more suave appearance of a mellowed demeanour. Leading personal care vendors like Hindustan Unilever, L’Oreal, Proctor & Gamble, Nivea, Emami and ITC are coming up with dedicated products claiming to be exclusively for men. The areas being addressed include anti-spot creams, whitening face creams, under-eye gels, and blackhead uprooting scrubs, pore unclogging washes, specialized bathing bars, skincare scrubs, and oil control cleaners. .
In 2010, the skincare products sold in India had a 5% component for men. Given the push and the dedicated efforts by vendors, the skincare market for men grew 47% in 2010, against 22% rise in women’s skincare market. As China is witnessing a 25% growth in the men’s products, Indian men are not expected to remain behind.
The market size for men’s personal care products has been estimated at Rs 17 bn with a very high growth rate ranging between 12 to 18%. The monthly per capita consumption of grooming products of this segment is expected more than double by 2020. At present, the monthly per capita consumption is Rs 900, a figure that is expected to touch Rs 1800 by 2020.
The soaps constituted 35% of the market in 2011 and its share was expected to dip to over 16% by 2020. Shampoos accounted for over 11% of the market share in the men’s personal care segment.
Market share of pre-shave oils, shaving creams, gels, foams and aftershave balms and creams was expected to grow from the current market share of 6% to 8% by 2020.
The fragrances and deodorants segment has been growing at a relatively very high rate in same year exceeding 20% per annum and is expected to gain a market share up to over 14% 2020 from over 5% of the last year. Skin brightening or lightening products comprise only 16% of the men’s grooming products market in India, but this segment is also projected to grow to 2% of the total market share by 2020.