Male grooming in Dubai and India

Gillette in India and an exclusive salon in Dubai both target men's ever increasing vanity. Metrosexuality may be so yesterday, but male grooming certainly isn't.

Yes, male grooming dominates every single lifestyle publication known to metrosexual man in big, happening metropolises. This may just have something to do with the fact that this is now a multi billion dollar market: commerce and vanity rule the world, after all. For example: in the UK, sales of male grooming products grew 560% over the last 5 years. Yet, we’ve managed to spot something promising in this field that is NOT located in New York or London:starting with a dedicated male grooming facility in Dubai, called 1847 (no website yet), which is ready, in our opinion, to be franchised around the world! Dubai’s upscale 1847 grooming lounge for men (see pics to the right) takes a decidedly executive-friendly approach to male grooming. 1847 is located in a prime location to service their target customers: The Boulevard of the Emirates Towers Hotel, an uber-swanky shopping complex attached to one of the best executive-focused hotels in the UAE. And by the way, don’t call 1847 a “salon” — the management is adamant that they “are not a spa or a salon” but rather a new sector of men’s grooming. Service areas in 1847 are partitioned for privacy and designed to feel like traditional male retreats such as libraries and studies. 1847 also has wireless LAN throughout the facility, 18″ LCD screens with DVD and personal libraries in each service area, a 42″ plasma screen television in the lounge, custom designed treatment sofas, and hand-made Italian barber chairs so clients can catch up with work or indulge in extra leisure and comfort while enjoying 1847’s signature treatments. 1847 also has an in-house retail boutique featuring premium grooming products designed to address the travel and grooming needs of busy, powerful men who want to look good. Moving on to India: there too, men of all ages are taking a keener interest in their appearance – a Gillette India study indicates they now spend an average of 20 minutes in the mirror each morning, higher than the 18-minute average for Indian women. Gillette is capitalizing on the increased interest and upswing in unisex salons via Gillette Grooming Centers, a project designed to use existing beauty and grooming establishments as a conduit to closer links with customers. 50 salons in Delhi, Gurgoan, and Noida are participating in the branded program and will receive shaving service tips and full product line displays from Gillette. (Source: The Financial Express.) The company says the branded salons are not company-owned or Gillette franchises, and that the Grooming Center project is a temporary branding initiative, which to Springwise sounds like the company is afraid of either being too ‘with it’, or it’s succumbing to the metrosexual backlash which by now may well have reached the outskirts of Delhi!

Opportunities

Whether you’re an entrepreneur with a queer or straight eye for the metrosexual guy, or a marketer working for *any* FMCG company, both the 1847 and the Gillette ideas are crying out for franchising, for copycatting, for introducing the ungroomed masses outside Dubai, Delhi, London and New York to decent (and high-margin) personal care! It’s a bit like .coms and the internet: the .com crash never stopped the Digital Revolution, and the metrosexual backlash will not stop male grooming either. This will be a clean and smooth market for a long time to come!