Introduction
Personal hygiene has been one of the most lucrative industries since the dawn of time. Various texts found by archeologists in the ruins of ancient civilizations of Rome, Greece, China, and India indicate that humans were always concerned with healthy appearances and matters of personal beauty (Balaji & Baskaran, 2018). While personal care products in ancient times were available only to the select few individuals belonging to the higher echelons of the society, modern economy recognizes the value of low and medium-income customers as well as their needs for quality care. Appearances play an important role in modern societies, often being the factor that determines success in finding a life partner or scoring a job. Although traditionally, women constituted the larger portion of the market for skin care products, men aged between 17 and 35 represent a largely untapped market potential (Balaji & Baskaran, 2018). The purpose of this report is to analyze potential advertising strategies, cultures, and subcultures, that can be used to promote an affordable line of personal care products for this subset of the population.
What Are Personal Care Products?
Personal care products include a wide variety of items used in day-to-day beautification and hygiene routines. These include cosmetics, sunscreens, shaving tools and creams, deodorant sticks, soaps and bathing products, toothbrushes and toothpaste, skin and hair care products, nail polish, fitness products, and various other items. Historically, men used less personal care products when compared to women. However, a modern man cannot exist without utilizing certain products, such as (Balaji & Baskaran, 2018):
- Toothpaste and toothbrushes.
- Deodorants.
- Body gels and shampoos.
- Razors and shaving products.
Since dental hygiene products can be considered a subcategory of their own, it is recommended to focus on deodorants, body gels, and shaving products for this advertising campaign, as these three groups of products are associated with the image of modern men, which the target population represents.
Message Appeal
Personal care products are associated with several potent messages that can be used in marketing. These messages are healthiness, cleanliness, and sex appeal (Moriarty et al., 2014). The latter is particularly attractive for younger men, as evidenced by the success seen by the AXE line of products, which uses humor and sex appeal to attract male customers. However, AXE is a relatively expensive brand, meaning that our advertising campaign will also need to focus on the availability of the product to low-income customers. Healthiness is associated with the sport, which is also an area largely dominated by young men aged between 17 and 35. Therefore, the message appeal for the product’s advertising campaign should focus on the following (Balaji & Baskaran, 2018):
- Sports
- Sex appeal
- Affordability
The advertisements should not focus on any other messages, as cluttering the mental image of the product would dilute its recognition in the minds of potential customers.
Cultural Context
Sex appeal has different connotations, depending on the culture. For example, images of beautiful women in skimpy clothes can have a positive effect on the western male audience, while being rejected by Muslims and East-Asians, whose cultures are based around moral and religious restraint. Therefore, the target audiences must have similar cultural values. Sex appeal is positively looked upon by cultures originated in the West. In the North American market, the majority of the population is represented by Whites (European culture), Blacks (African-American culture), and Latinos, all of which have similar preferences regarding sexuality (Balaji & Baskaran, 2018). Therefore, the advertising strategy must involve representatives from these specific cultural and racial groups.
Additional Demographics
Additional demographics and cultures that can be viewed as potential customers include teenagers aged between 13 and 17, as well as adults older than 35. Younger teens often replicate adult habits in an effort of looking more mature, whereas older adults, while not as responsive to sex appeal, might still appreciate the healthiness and affordability aspects of the product. The advertising strategy, thus, must not emphasize sex appeal over other factors and represent all three of them in equal measure. Showing younger teens and older adults in advertising materials might establish a rapport with these customer groups (Moriarty et al., 2014).
Group Influence and Marketing
When it comes to personal care products, many young individuals utilize the internet and social media outlets in order to formulate their decisions. Word of mouth and personal advice also play an important part in their decision-making. In order to make the brand recognizable, it should be advertised on all social media websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others. Promotions and free sample distributions would be effective in areas where young males live, such as student dorms (Moriarty et al., 2014). Group influence would persuade individuals to purchase our products, following other students’ example. Lastly, it would be prudent to give our product a reputation for being trendy and modern. If a large portion of the target demographic saw our product as such, it would be easier to expand the product’s market share.
Need Recognition and Search Behavior
The company can study consumer behavior in numerous ways. One of these methods involves conducting surveys targeting the required gender and age groups, in order to discover their preferences, needs, and requirements for the product. Search behavior can be studied by utilizing personal browsing data. Many big data companies, such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, and others, utilize cookies in order to make target content suited for individual customers. They offer services, which allow researching and analyzing consumer behavior based on their search history. Lastly, the company can manufacture limited batches of the product and distribute them through drug stores, grocery stores, and large product distribution chains like Wal-Mart and Target (Moriarty et al., 2014). Selling these products would enable the deeper understanding of the customers’ preferences as well as the approximate price range in which they would be willing to buy the product. In addition to providing valuable data, this method will increase product exposure to potential customers, making it a valid long-term strategy.
Conclusions
Affordable personal care products catering to a young male demographic (17-35 years of age) have much potential as an untapped market. Our product should be advertised using sports, affordability, and sex appeal in order to attract potential customers. The target cultures should be European-American, Latin-American, and African-American. The additional target audience should include young teens and older adults, who would appreciate the product for being affordable, healthy, and trendy. Social media and word of mouth should be used in order to advertise the product and get brand exposure. The latter could be achieved through limited sales and various giveaways. The advertising campaign should use symbols of traditional masculinity in order to appeal to a greater demographic within the chosen age, race, and cultural groups. The product should be advertised by a diverse cast in order to establish rapport and show that everyone could benefit from our line of personal care products.
References
Balaji, P., & Baskaran, E. (2018). Determinants of personal care products advertisement effectiveness – A study with special reference to male consumers of Chennai. SIBM Pune Research Journal, 15, 28-37.
Moriarty, S., Mitchell, N. D., Wells, W. D., Crawford, R., Brennan, L., & Spence-Stone, R. (2014). Advertising: Principles and practice (3rd ed.). Sydney, Australia: Pearson.