KOLKATA - Rakesh Pandey knows more than a
little bit about how important it is for men and
women to look good. But surprisingly, it's men who
are the fastest-growing part of his personal
grooming business.
"Looking good, which
was just a matter of feeling good earlier, has
become a necessity for Indian men," said the chief
executive officer of Kaya Skincare, a Mumbai-based
skin-care and grooming chain. "I think men in India
should try hard to project the right kind of image
where looking good is integral."
Pandey is
not alone in his views on how important it is
these days for Indian men to look their best.
According to a recent survey by
the
New Delhi-based retail consultancy firm KSA
Technopak, 70% of urban Indian males visit a salon
at least once a month.
The most important
activity is no longer just a haircut. Salons now
offer men a slew of other services, including
hairstyling, facials, skin-lifting and everything
associated with looking good.
And a good
case is unfolding for Indian men now being more
vain about their appearances than women. A survey
by Gillette India indicates that Indian men now
spend an average of 20 minutes in the mirror each
morning, higher than the 18-minute average for
Indian women. "Men of all ages are taking a keen
interest in their appearance," said the Gillette
study.
It's not only younger men keeping
up on their preening, Pandey said. Men older than
60 have been flocking to Kaya's 45 clinics across
the country for radical improvement in their
appearance.
"While younger men mainly
seek treatments like chest-hair removal and facials
that include face-polishing - besides the usual
hair-coloring and styling - the older men go
primarily for treatments that make them look
younger," Pandey said.
Small wonder Kaya's
male clientele base is growing much faster than
for women. In the past three years, its male
clients have tripled to 20,000 regular visitors,
"which may be modest considering the growth rate
which numerous smaller clinics and dermatologist
in the country have seen in recent times".
Industry sources reckon that of about
70,000 salons in the country's top 100 cities,
about 60% thrive by catering only to men. Even in
the 5% of salons that are unisex, the growth
drivers now are men.
And to cash in on the
demand generated by this fast-growing sector of
Indian men who are increasingly showing that
streaking their hair and hydrating their skin is
not feminine anymore, global cosmetic companies
are scurrying to their laboratories to create
products for these new consumers, which the
industry calls metrosexual males.
Paris-based L'Oreal, the global cosmetics
company that primarily has sold products for
Indian women, has just introduced to the country
three products from its international menu,
including anti-fatigue creams, hydrating gels and
anti-wrinkle creams and cleansers. And last month,
Emami, a local cosmetics giant, which until now
catered to women only, launched what it claims to
be "the world's first fairness cream for men" -
called "Fair & Handsome".
"We are
surprised by the acceptance it got in the market,"
Emami director Mohan Goenka said. "Within the
first two weeks of the launch, this product got
sold out in many stores as some store owners
complain that they have been waiting ever since
for replenishment from the company."
And
there are others, such as Clarins (Paris) and
Shiseido (Japan) that, with their wrinkle-control
and face-wash products, now enjoy dedicated shelf
space in large department stores across the
country. They say four of every 10 buyers are men.
Other international brands - Avon, Garnier, Marks
& Spencer, Tommy Hilfiger and many others -
have seen brisk demand in the gray (unofficial
imports) markets, even though they have not
officially launched in the local markets yet, say
industry sources.
Nevertheless, even as
the male-grooming products are becoming
increasingly easier to sell, satisfying the Indian
meterosexual male isn't turning out to be all that
easy.
"Indian males are far more
discerning than women," Pandey said. "It is easy
to satisfy a women client because usually she is
happy if she is pampered well. Indian males,
however, are very result-oriented. If a treatment
does not yield satisfactory results within the
stipulated period, they do not come back."
That
is why high tech is the name of the
game in the male-grooming market. According to
Pandey, perhaps the reason behind Kaya's scorching
growth is that it's the only clinic in the country
that offers a whole range of cutting-edge
treatments.
For instance, to remove a wart
or skin tag (a benign skin outgrowth) there's no
need to go for surgery anymore - a new technology
removes skin tags "bloodlessly" with the help of
radio frequencies. Similarly, for acne-scar
reduction and "face-polishing" (removal of dead
skin that cause patches), Kaya uses a microderm
abrasion machine to spray very fine crystals of
glycolic acid - derived from sugar cane - under a
vacuum.
Moreover, regular physical
activities are no longer required to keep one from
looking old. A laser treatment can bring the
youthful firmness back to the skin by a method
called photo facial anti-aging treatment. And if
laugh lines developed after the mid-40s are no
laughing matter, there are Botox fillers that can
be injected in the naso-labial folds so as to
reduce at least 10 years of age from the face.
The desire to look good and feel young is
not unique to Indian men. According to global
market research firm ACNielsen, men the world over
are more focused on improving their image.
And that has boosted sales in personal
care products. A recent Time magazine article
predicted that global sales of male-grooming
products will surge by 67% to US$19.5 billion by
2008. Although it is hard to gauge the exact size
and growth rate of the Indian male-grooming market
just yet, industry sources say it won't be long
before sales in grooming products begin to
skyrocket as well from the $220 million men are
now estimated to spend.
Indrajit
Basu is a
Kolkata-based equity analyst turned
journalist with more than 12
years of experience in business/finance and
technology journalism. Besides writing for Asia
Times Online, he also writes for US-based
publications, as well as IT companies.
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