Man Up: Getting More Guys Through The Door. Part I

How big a part of your business is male clientele? Are you still laboring under the belief that men don’t care as much about skin care as women? If so, we’d like to bring your attention to exhibit A: male cultural trends.

It’s been more than two decades since the term “metrosexual” hit the lexicon. But according to the term’s originator, British journalist and man trend chronicler Mark Simpson, it wasn’t until David Beckham’s haircuts became a top Google search that people truly understood the cultural significance of the term. Or why it mattered.

In the skin care industry, a trend about “men becoming everything. To themselves. Just as women have been encouraged to do for some time,”¹ matters a lot.

According to the International Spa Association (ISPA), men now account for more than 47 percent of spa clientele and are the fastest growing demographic in the spa industry.

Those numbers owe a little something to the metrosexual trend that has now evolved so far beyond its original definition it requires a new term. In an article for The Telegraph, Simpson unveiled the moniker “spornosexual” to describe a new body-obsessed, hyper-perfect male living at the modern intersection of sport, porn and social media. The second-generation metrosexual, he says, is the “pumped-up offspring of those Ronaldo and Beckham lunch-box ads, where sport got into bed with porn while Mr. Armani took pictures.”

While spornosexual may not describe the mainstream, it’s reflective of the broader truth that men are taking charge of their grooming, their skin care and their bodies with more attention to detail than ever before. Like women, they want every advantage that modern skin care and science has to offer.

Many spas have already seized this opportunity by offering a wide array of services designed specifically for men. While massage remains men’s number one choice of service, treatments like facials, peels, waxing and mani/pedis are not far behind.

If you’re not already catering to this growing market, you should be. And, no, leaving a few copies of Maxim and Esquire in the waiting area is not a game plan. Not by a long shot.

In the next article of our “Man Up” series, we’ll look at the dos, don’ts and differences to consider when it comes increasing your man traffic.

¹ Mark Simpson, “The Metrosexual Is Dead. Long Live The Spornosexual,” http://www.telegraph.co.uk, June 10, 2014