Amy Nelson-Bennett, Group Marketing Director, tells us how Molton Brown has seen the value in targeting a male audience.
‘At Molton Brown, we believe that marketing to men is a smart way of gaining incremental sales in today’s market and it’s something we’re well-placed to take advantage of. Traditionally we have a strong male audience – we offer an easy gifting option to men, all they have to do is remember not to lose it!
We’re re-launching our men’s range later this year and, given that we’re doing that in a recession, it’s a godsend that it’s to a male audience. Men are still moving from mass market to prestige so, while women are more nervous about their spending, expenditure by men is growing.
The advice to ‘adapt existing personal care products to the (male) target market and emphasise male attributes to encourage take-up’ should be taken with care, though. That’s what the big women’s skincare brands have been doing, selling their new men’s ranges in exactly the same way as they sell to women – same sort of displays, similar packaging etc. But our research has shown that men react to quite different cues…they don’t want to browse or test the product. They want good in-store navigation to get them to the right area, very clear messaging at shelf as to what problem the product will solve and simple instructions on how to use it.
Packaging is far less important – the product needs to looks masculine and be straight-forward about what it is, no more complicated that that. The function that the product performs has to be the hero message, the efficacy of the ingredients or the proven benefits are very much secondary to men.
There’s another major difference in selling skincare to men too…they won’t ask for advice. So well in advance of our re-launch we’ll be promoting the range on our website, offering grooming tips and answers to questions men wouldn’t dream of asking in a store.
So yes, we are changing our marketing strategy to attract more men…for us it’s absolutely the way to go.’
