Our Chairman, Paul Walton, was recently quoted in Marketing Week discussing the growth in global male personal care brands. The full article by David Benady is available here if you have access to their Pitch section – if not then you can read what Paul had to say in the extract below:

‘The multinationals have piled into the male personal care area over recent years. “Everybody is looking for growth in flat western markets, and male grooming is such a happening area,” says Paul Walton, chief strategy director at Cello Group. But he says there are serious questions about how effectively personal care giants such as P&G, L’Oreal and Unilever are managing to cut through in the male grooming market. The difficulty, he believes, lies building  global personal care brands for men when in some markets, the whole idea of men paying too much attention to their appearance and applying skin moisturisers is considered effeminate.

“You won’t sell many ‘L’Oreal Men Expert Hydra Energetic Eye Roll-Ons’ in Dayton, Ohio. In New York and Los Angeles maybe, but men in mid-America listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd do not do skincare,” says Walton.’

Now that I have your attention, I’ll add the caveat ‘online’ to the title. Paypal has just released an online retail survey that shows men outspending women in every category except groceries and clothes. Whilst this is no surprise in techie/gadget sectors men also outspend women on online health and beauty products.

Are men afraid to be seen carrying multivitamins, moisturiser or touche eclat in their shopping baskets? Is there a real opportunity for FMCG brands to target blokes through the internet, getting us to consume new products without bruising our sense of machismo?

For me, yes and yes. I am hardly the most caveman of chaps but I’d happily not feel the urge to hide the few grooming products I do buy under piles of steak and beer as I do my weekly shop. And who knows, maybe I’d branch out and try something I’d never buy in a store (I’ve always been a tad curious about face packs!) so long as I could find a good hiding place for it in the bathroom cabinet!

With male grooming products set to sell $21.7bn globally in 2009 and hit $25bn by 2011 the relative anonymity of the online retail opportunity should not be overlooked for products men would never consider buying face-to-face.

Fake Viagra anyone?