Who are you talking too...

When considering how to attract more men or women into your salon or to purchase your products there are some significant differences in the way these groups approach the subjects of facials, skincare and moisturiser.

Firstly it is worth noting that this is a generalised view and as individuals these stats may not sound like a specific customer or even like yourself. However some key figures stand out when looking into this subject:

• 82% of women and 62% of men follow a skincare routine, from a marketing perspective that means we have 18% of women to educate or 38% of men who we could upsell to any basic products to start their skincare routine.

• Women spend more time researching skincare products online before buying, with 60% of women and only 44% of men reporting they research before buying. 

• Women however are harder to convince to change products with 62% buying products they have bought before compared to 48% of men. 

So lets explore some Google trends, when comparing terms prefixed with ‘mens’ compared to the single search term you can see a clear trend in men searching directly for a product rather than for the subject of skincare or facials. The below graph shows the last 12 months where in the men specific search terms moisturiser is the most searched term whereas in the generic category it is consistently the lowest searched term.

Male Search terms (Mens moisturiser (Yellow) / Mens facial (Red) / Mens skincare (Blue)

Generic Search terms (Moisturiser (Yellow) / Facial (Red) / Skincare (Blue)

This trend is mirrored across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with men's moisturiser being the top search of the 3 for men and facial coming out on top for the generic searches.

So why is this useful to know?

• If you are looking to widen your customer demographic and attract more male customers, think of simple products and treatments, whereas women will be looking more into specific treatments. By adding some of your products to your website you may pick up more male specific traffic as they search for support online.

• Men are generally not as advanced down the skincare journey and may not require all of the advanced treatments and a bigger focus on simple benefits like spf, black head or blemish removal may be bigger pulls.

• Women are often looking for the next trend and therefore are more likely to try something new whereas once you get a man comfortable in your salon setting they are less likely to leave and go somewhere new. This is because men value consistency and familiarity in service environments like salons.