More Men Than Women Splurge On Grooming

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COIMBATORE: Gone are the days when people were happy using a Rs 15 toothbrush. Once the morning chore of brushing was over, nobody thought about it either till they went back to bed or the next morning.

People now want to clean their teeth with hi-tech electronic toothbrushes, into which they can program their style of brushing and set the speed at which the bristles must move. The prices of these high-end toothbrushes start at Rs 1,500 and can go beyond Rs 15,000 if it has Bluetooth connectivity. From being an everyday personal hygiene requirement, brushing has become an expensive routine for many. Never mind the cost, the indulgence is slowly growing.

It is not just brushing, however. People are no longer worried about making bigger holes in their wallets when it comes to overall grooming.

The Indian market is witnessing the entry of high-end personal care products for men like shaving razors, beard trimmers and toothbrushes which cost anywhere between Rs 5,000 and Rs 30,000. "We have noticed that men's luxury fragrances sell thrice as much as women's fragrances," says Amazon India executive Saurabh Srivastava.

The men who indulge in such products admit they get the bang for the buck spent. "The notion that only women spend more for personal care is wrong. Men also want to feel good and clean and are ready to shell out money," says legal head of Toni and Guy, and Essentials Salons, S R Sam Paul.

"Initially it was only film stars, but now even businessmen, IT professionals and CEOs of corporate companies opt for such products and they get addicted as looking good makes them feel good," he said.

But Srivastava pointed out that we can't conclude that men spend more than women on beauty products as, "sometimes even women buy men's products".

Dentists say more people buy expensive, electronic toothbrushes these days despite their lack of health benefits. "Electronic tooth brushes don't have any obvious health benefits. You can program the duration you want to brush, it can be calibrated to brush in a pattern suited to the user's tooth contours and move at a particular speed," says CEO of Apollo White Dental in Bengaluru, V S Venkatesh.

But online portals say the sale of such high-end products is only moderate. "The search-volume of such products is high, indicating the aspiration for these products. But the number of units sold are few," says Srivastava.

Market analysts corroborate this when they say customers seem to prefer products below Rs 5,000 even when it comes to products like trimmers and epilators. "The high-end products target a miniscule population, restricting their promotion to only the online medium," said former president of Ogilvy in Chennai and Hyderabad, Krishna Mohan. "A newspaper or television advertisement would be a waste of client money. So these products are promoted on online portals targeting the niche segment," he said.

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