Ypulse’s youth brand tracker reveals that Gen Z and Millennial males don’t agree on their favorite personal care brands…
We shared Gen Z and Millennial females’ favorite beauty brands last month, and we’re following up with young males’ favorites—because though they may be a genreless generation, we still see them using and buying different personal care products. Case in point, the “Glossier for Dudes” startup Hims, selling “science-backed” health products and prescriptions to Millennial males. Their service offers everything from salicylic acid shampoo to generic Viagra, skincare, and oral care. The founder was inspired by Glossier, and tells Racked he wanted to find a niche for simplifying males’ daily routines without the overwhelming experience of a store visit: “Every guy who is hitting the age of 30 is trying to figure out how they can not look like a leather bag, and they’re overwhelmed by everything on the market… Say we want a face wash. We have to go to Sephora, and it’s all women’s products. That’s uncomfortable. And there are 15 different types of wrinkle creams that include avocado oil and sea salt-types of shit and I have no idea what to do.”
Startups see the opportunity in marketing personal care to Millennial men, and our financial tracker survey shows that 32% of 13-35-year-olds, and 41% of 25-35-year-old males, are spending on personal care products monthly. (Looks like those hitting 30 really are trying to avoid the leather bag look.) So what favorites are they putting in their carts? We checked Ypulse’s youth brand tracker to find out their favorites. Ybrands, which launched in January of this year, has collected over 40,000 interviews that tell us how young consumers feel about more than 300 brands, including which are their favorites—and here’s the top list of Gen Z and Millennial males’ favorite personal care brands right now:
*Ybrands measures young consumers’ relationship with a brand based on a weighted 6-point scale, ranging from “Never heard of this brand” to “This brand is one of my favorites.” These are the top personal care brands that received the response, “This brand is one of my favorites,” among those who are aware of the brand. The brands on this list are among the 243 brands included in the brand tracker as of 8/21. Rankings are subject to change as more brands are added and removed.
Though there are brands that all three groups call their favorites, the different age groups of males we’re looking at here do not agree on their top favorite personal care brand. Axe is the top brand among 13-17-year-olds, Dove Men the top favorite among 18-24-year-olds, and Old Spice topped the list for 25-36-year-olds.
Axe might be lower on the list of favorites for older males here, but the brand has adeptly changed their marketing to appeal to a new generation of teens. They’ve infamously pivoted their hyper-masculine advertising, and even ran a commercial asking viewers to question what masculinity really means last year. They’ve also gotten on board the Influencer Effect trend, getting 30 male influencers, including comedian Anthony Padilla and Cooking Channel star Josh Elkin, to create videos to encourage young men to use Axe products in their hair.
Meanwhile, Old Spice ranked high among all three groups, showing the classic brand is in a strong position, and that their quirky marketing—and their products—continue to resonate.
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