Male Market

As deodorants are part of the “beauty & hygiene” segment, the first target that pops into our minds is women. Even if men can also using deodorants, studies have shown that men over 45 years old were not necessarily using deo every day. However, the today new generation of young men is more and more perceived by the beauty industry as an important target to care of, as they like to take care of them, and have no shame in using beauty products. Because of this new trend, innovation for men deodorants is booming, and thanks to men, the loss in value (-0,6% in 2009) and in volume (-1,6%) of women deodorants is compensated by the dynamic men deodorants sales (+3,9% in value and +3% in volume). On the same period, the index of penetration of deodorants for men was 36% (compared to 51% for women), but brands expect to make this index grow to 40-45% in the next years. 

The offer for men could be seen as identical to the women offer, with FMCG deodorants, pharmaceuticals, fragranced deodorants, and organic ones, depending of the needs. However, some brands seem to understand men’s needs better than others, like Axe (24,2% of market shares in value in 2009). We will analyze this brand to see how it manages its success. Following Axe, we find the brand Brut (Unilever Group), and Adidas (Coty group), which is constantly, innovate in order to gain market shares in front of its main competitors. Other brands like Play Boy (Coty Group), or Nivea, are sharing the rest of the market for FMCG.

Thanks to this “new generation” of males who are more sensitive about the beauty aspect, and also thanks to sociological factors of seduction, deodorants created by famous fragrances also encounter a great success toward the masculine target. To cite some of them: “Le Male” by Jean Paul Gautier, “Chrome” by Azzaro, “Hugo Man” by Hugo Boss…