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Why the Beauty Industry Hates Men Part 5B - Three Essentials Ingredients of A
                              Missed Opportunity

    The Ingredients of a Missed Business Opportunity: Part 2 of a 2 Part Series


While all of the shockingly big missed opportunities (and blunders) in Part 1 of this article
have different details and paint different pictures, it‟s insightful to look beyond the
surface to the common denominator – because in doing so, it becomes evident that
there are some key, common ingredients to every missed business opportunity. These
include:

   1. Misjudging the marketplace. Each of these sad tales wraps itself around a core
      mistake, which is that the marketplace was woefully misjudged. Either markets
      that truly did exist were assumed to be nothing (or, at best, not worthy of
      consideration), or basic fundamentals of what consumers wanted was ignored in
      favour of what businesses wanted and figured were in their best interest, rather
      than the consumers‟.

   2. Not seeing the warning signs. While hindsight is 20/20, it‟s fair to conclude that
      the writing was already on the walls for these folks – and for some of them, it had
      been there for years if they would only pay attention. But instead of reading the
      signs, accepting reality and making adjustments, they either pretended that
      everything was fine, or did an ostrich dive and insulated themselves against what
      was really going on. The irony here, of course, is that the people who were
      charged with seeing reality – the leaders – were the ones who were dead-set on
      seeing anything but what was really happening. In the end, their failure was
      much bigger than them – it crushed entire companies to the ground.

   3. Not partnering with the right solutions provider. All of these businesses can
      be faulted for failing to look outside of their organization. If they had, they would
      have no doubt connected with the right solutions provider and obtained
      invaluable access to knowledge, products, services, channels and systems – any
      or all of which could have saved them from economic catastrophe and a spot on
      this terrible list. In other words, they couldn‟t solve the problem on their own
      (presuming they saw it in the first place) and failed to work with partners to solve
      it smartly and successfully.

The Writing is on the Wall for the Beauty Industry

We‟ve seen how the three core mistakes identified above – misjudging the marketplace;
not seeing the warning signs; not partnering with the right solutions provider – have led
to untold billions in losses for IT leaders who would do anything to go back in time and
undo the damage (and not be the laughing stock of future generations). And chillingly,
we can also see how these blunders are making their way into the Beauty Industry –
specifically, in how the Beauty Industry deals with men.

Frankly, the Beauty Industry, for all of its combined intelligence and experience, is
woefully neglecting men in its product development, its marketing, its advertising and
especially its retailing. Why? Well, if you ask the Beauty Industry, you won‟t get an
answer – because most industry insiders don‟t think there‟s a problem! The few who do,
their visions are so myopic they can‟t see their way to a clear solution. In fact, the
traditional Beauty Industry would have you believe that men in general, are well on their
way to be „feminized‟.

It would be unfair to say that the Beauty Industry made no effort toward creating
products and marketing campaigns that “appeal to men”. But the little that they did, is so
far off the track that pulling the train back would be akin to getting it to stop on a dime.
That‟s no surprise because meaningful change from the ground up takes money – lots of
it. Yet because masculine men don‟t wield nearly enough buying power to catch the
Beauty Industry‟s attention, the Beauty Industry figures that you aren‟t important enough
for them to invest in a complete and costly overhaul of their current practices toward the
marketing of men‟s skin care and men‟s anti-aging products.

Besides, the modern Beauty Industry as a whole, like some of their counterparts in the
IT section that made the List, are still so confined by traditions and influences of their
feminine roots that have defined the Beauty Industry for nearly 200 years, one doubts
that they‟d see the solution even if it were right before their eyes.

But that is a MONUMENTAL problem, and writing is clearly on the wall.

It‟s an undisputed fact that men‟s skin care and anti-aging is the fastest growing
segment of the Beauty Industry today. But note that this growth isn‟t the result of the
Beauty Industry‟s efforts to respond to the needs of masculine men, it‟s actually the
opposite. Earlier issues of this article series talk about this extensively, as well as the
Beauty Industry‟s practice of recruiting and bribing of women to do their heavy lifting -
that‟s why up to 70% of men‟s skincare products are bought by women.

No wonder everything from the packaging to the marketing to the ultra-feminine
department store “beauty jungle” experience is totally designed for the ladies. Even the
most frequent promotions are geared towards women – who else would be expected to
make use of a “pretty” make-up bag full of lip stick, eye shadow and mascara!

Does this sound familiar? Kind of smell like some of the staggering miscalculations that
the IT leaders on the list above made back when they had a chance to get ahead of a
trend – instead of lie awake in bed at night (or on their therapist‟s couch in the day)
thinking about it.

So that begs the questions…

   Who will be the Beauty Industry‟s Yahoo! and profoundly misjudge the value of
    Facebook?

   Who will be the Beauty Industry‟s Xerox, and assume that simply because it doesn‟t
    have a distribution channel to a marketplace, then that marketplace must not exist?

   Who will be the Beauty Industry‟s Open Text, who was well within grasp of being,
    well, THE Google of the tech industry today, but figured back then that it wasn‟t
    worth their time to listen to what the marketplace was really saying. Enough said.
   Who will be the Beauty Industry‟s Real Networks and Philips who, despite their
    success in other fields, will never get over the financial loss of having held the future
    iPod in its hands, yet dismissed it as a thing “that will never catch on”?

The list could go on, but the point is clear: this is the Beauty Industry‟s wake up call.
Masculine men are a real – and really big – piece of the global marketplace puzzle, and
they‟re ready, willing and able to spend billions of dollars on men‟s skin care and anti-
aging products that are designed and delivered to them on their terms – not their wives‟,
not their girlfriends‟, not their sisters‟. They want Masculine Men‟s Face Care products
that are designed from the ground up for masculine men - products and messages that
meet the needs and befitting the lifestyle and self-image of the modern masculine man –
The Man‟s Man.

Beauty Industry visionaries who see this writing on the wall, accept the new reality, and
take smart steps to engage masculine men will not only position themselves to profit and
thrive. They‟ll do something just as gratifying:

They won‟t end up the “The Top 10 Stupidest Beauty Industry Company Blunders” list
when it‟s time to write that one up.

###

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Why the Beauty Industry Hates Men Part 5B - Three Essentials Ingredients of A Missed Opportunity By Face Lube Candace Chen

  • 1. Why the Beauty Industry Hates Men Part 5B - Three Essentials Ingredients of A Missed Opportunity The Ingredients of a Missed Business Opportunity: Part 2 of a 2 Part Series While all of the shockingly big missed opportunities (and blunders) in Part 1 of this article have different details and paint different pictures, it‟s insightful to look beyond the surface to the common denominator – because in doing so, it becomes evident that there are some key, common ingredients to every missed business opportunity. These include: 1. Misjudging the marketplace. Each of these sad tales wraps itself around a core mistake, which is that the marketplace was woefully misjudged. Either markets that truly did exist were assumed to be nothing (or, at best, not worthy of consideration), or basic fundamentals of what consumers wanted was ignored in favour of what businesses wanted and figured were in their best interest, rather than the consumers‟. 2. Not seeing the warning signs. While hindsight is 20/20, it‟s fair to conclude that the writing was already on the walls for these folks – and for some of them, it had been there for years if they would only pay attention. But instead of reading the signs, accepting reality and making adjustments, they either pretended that everything was fine, or did an ostrich dive and insulated themselves against what was really going on. The irony here, of course, is that the people who were charged with seeing reality – the leaders – were the ones who were dead-set on seeing anything but what was really happening. In the end, their failure was much bigger than them – it crushed entire companies to the ground. 3. Not partnering with the right solutions provider. All of these businesses can be faulted for failing to look outside of their organization. If they had, they would have no doubt connected with the right solutions provider and obtained invaluable access to knowledge, products, services, channels and systems – any or all of which could have saved them from economic catastrophe and a spot on this terrible list. In other words, they couldn‟t solve the problem on their own (presuming they saw it in the first place) and failed to work with partners to solve it smartly and successfully. The Writing is on the Wall for the Beauty Industry We‟ve seen how the three core mistakes identified above – misjudging the marketplace; not seeing the warning signs; not partnering with the right solutions provider – have led to untold billions in losses for IT leaders who would do anything to go back in time and undo the damage (and not be the laughing stock of future generations). And chillingly, we can also see how these blunders are making their way into the Beauty Industry – specifically, in how the Beauty Industry deals with men. Frankly, the Beauty Industry, for all of its combined intelligence and experience, is woefully neglecting men in its product development, its marketing, its advertising and especially its retailing. Why? Well, if you ask the Beauty Industry, you won‟t get an answer – because most industry insiders don‟t think there‟s a problem! The few who do,
  • 2. their visions are so myopic they can‟t see their way to a clear solution. In fact, the traditional Beauty Industry would have you believe that men in general, are well on their way to be „feminized‟. It would be unfair to say that the Beauty Industry made no effort toward creating products and marketing campaigns that “appeal to men”. But the little that they did, is so far off the track that pulling the train back would be akin to getting it to stop on a dime. That‟s no surprise because meaningful change from the ground up takes money – lots of it. Yet because masculine men don‟t wield nearly enough buying power to catch the Beauty Industry‟s attention, the Beauty Industry figures that you aren‟t important enough for them to invest in a complete and costly overhaul of their current practices toward the marketing of men‟s skin care and men‟s anti-aging products. Besides, the modern Beauty Industry as a whole, like some of their counterparts in the IT section that made the List, are still so confined by traditions and influences of their feminine roots that have defined the Beauty Industry for nearly 200 years, one doubts that they‟d see the solution even if it were right before their eyes. But that is a MONUMENTAL problem, and writing is clearly on the wall. It‟s an undisputed fact that men‟s skin care and anti-aging is the fastest growing segment of the Beauty Industry today. But note that this growth isn‟t the result of the Beauty Industry‟s efforts to respond to the needs of masculine men, it‟s actually the opposite. Earlier issues of this article series talk about this extensively, as well as the Beauty Industry‟s practice of recruiting and bribing of women to do their heavy lifting - that‟s why up to 70% of men‟s skincare products are bought by women. No wonder everything from the packaging to the marketing to the ultra-feminine department store “beauty jungle” experience is totally designed for the ladies. Even the most frequent promotions are geared towards women – who else would be expected to make use of a “pretty” make-up bag full of lip stick, eye shadow and mascara! Does this sound familiar? Kind of smell like some of the staggering miscalculations that the IT leaders on the list above made back when they had a chance to get ahead of a trend – instead of lie awake in bed at night (or on their therapist‟s couch in the day) thinking about it. So that begs the questions…  Who will be the Beauty Industry‟s Yahoo! and profoundly misjudge the value of Facebook?  Who will be the Beauty Industry‟s Xerox, and assume that simply because it doesn‟t have a distribution channel to a marketplace, then that marketplace must not exist?  Who will be the Beauty Industry‟s Open Text, who was well within grasp of being, well, THE Google of the tech industry today, but figured back then that it wasn‟t worth their time to listen to what the marketplace was really saying. Enough said.
  • 3. Who will be the Beauty Industry‟s Real Networks and Philips who, despite their success in other fields, will never get over the financial loss of having held the future iPod in its hands, yet dismissed it as a thing “that will never catch on”? The list could go on, but the point is clear: this is the Beauty Industry‟s wake up call. Masculine men are a real – and really big – piece of the global marketplace puzzle, and they‟re ready, willing and able to spend billions of dollars on men‟s skin care and anti- aging products that are designed and delivered to them on their terms – not their wives‟, not their girlfriends‟, not their sisters‟. They want Masculine Men‟s Face Care products that are designed from the ground up for masculine men - products and messages that meet the needs and befitting the lifestyle and self-image of the modern masculine man – The Man‟s Man. Beauty Industry visionaries who see this writing on the wall, accept the new reality, and take smart steps to engage masculine men will not only position themselves to profit and thrive. They‟ll do something just as gratifying: They won‟t end up the “The Top 10 Stupidest Beauty Industry Company Blunders” list when it‟s time to write that one up. ###