Beauty Brands Jumping on the "For Men" Trend

While in the shower, I decided to analyze the products that I use and the names of the products in particular. The concept of brand architecture came to mind right away because these names of the products appear as simply and obvious, but there is actually a lot of thought going behind it.

For example, I use Dove Men+Care body wash. Here's it's architecture:

Company Name: Unilever

Family Name: Dove

Brand Name: Men + Care

Modifier: Clean Comfort (Mild Version)

This name leverages the dove brand while also tying it back to the parent company, Unilever through a symbol on the back of the bottle. This allows this product to leverage all of the positive brand equity of Unilever through some of its other products that the consumer may have used and associated back to the parent company.This also clearly positions the product as a men’s product which is highly effective in the health and beauty category because through my experiences, men often get frustrated and deterred from searching for these types of products in stores that they are unsure of whether or not they are shopping for a men or women's product. Another product in my bathroom is Nivea for Men aftershave which also clearly identifies itself as a men’s product. On all commercials for dove, the Unilever icon is also shown which helps to leverage the strong brand reputation of the company. The brand modifier was effectively chosen and helps to emphasize 2 benefits without any explanation (just simply in the name): Getting clean and also being comfortable. One suggestion though is that they should have refrained from using "Mild Version" as a modifier because this could be detrimental when men perceive the other products in the collection to be non-mild and perhaps have the connotation that it is harmful to you skin. In this regard, this should be either removed or replaced with another modifier like the flavour or the scent.

Referring back to presentations in brand communications class, the team performing a brand Audit on Aveda recommended to keep the brand name the same while expanding to appeal to the male market. I disagree with this and think that they should add a modifier like Aveda MEN. This will help to fine tune the image rather than building equity but it would succeed at ensuring these male buyers are willing to look at your products comfortably, with no doubt that they are browsing women's products. I think many marketers underestimate how strong of an influence these modifiers can actually have on a brand and should think much deeper about these modifiers.