Indiantelevision.com Team

(2 April 2007 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Indian men are increasingly investing more time and money to enhance their looks, with 78 per cent of respondents feeling that it is ok for men to spend time and money to improve their appearance.

According to a study conducted by Nielsen 84 per cent of the respondents felt that Indian men are more interested in grooming today than they used to be.
It is interesting to note here that 100 per cent of the respondents under the age group of 20 agreed that men are more interested in personal grooming than they used to be, indicating where the change is actually sprouting from.

On the whole 30 per cent of Indians agreed to be spending more on beauty products and treatments to enhance their appearance. Whereas 80 percent of the respondents surveyed felt that the pressures to look good are more today than they were in their parent's generation.

Nielsen executive director customised research services South Asia Sarang Panchal says, "In the last few years we have seen Indians indulging in grooming, health and wellness. The Indian market is now mature to accept specialized product meant for specific purpose rather than a mass general product. Now it's for marketers to promote products which cater to this niche requirements and the sooner someone will identify and understand the need more lies the chance of success".

People have different reasons to look good. As shown in the survey results, 40 per cent of the total Indian respondents and 86 per cent under the age of 20 want to look stylish and well groomed always. It is interesting to note that for half of the Indian respondent (57 per cent) the idea behind looking good is to please their partners. 39 per cent of the respondents also invest in personal grooming to attract a partner. The percentage rises to a phenomenal 77 per cent in the age group 21-24.

"20 is the dream age; when people dream and plan for the life ahead and quite likely looking good boost a lot of confidence that these people constantly seek. Our study results just confirm that," adds Panchal.

A thousand choices for personal grooming: For Indians beauty begins with beautiful hair. 36 per cent of the respondents invest monthly on hair care to enhance their appearance. Surprisingly, the percentage of men investing monthly (37 per cent) on hair care is significantly more than the percentage of women (28 per cent) investing on hair care monthly.

People in Asia Pacific, China, Vietnam, Thailand and the Philippines in particular, make an effort to enhance their appearance daily, weekly or monthly through Hair Care (66 per cent), Skin Care (57 per cent), Facial Treatment (40 per cent) and a host of other applications such as Body Massages, Skin Whitening and Teeth Whitening, compare to their counterparts in the North America, Europe and Latin America.

Beautiful hair needs to be accompanied with a beautiful face, at least that's what the survey in India shows. Facial treatment comes next in line after hair care when it comes to investing money to look good. 21 per cent of the respondents get a monthly facial treatment done to look good. When it comes to women beauty is not restricted to face alone. An equal percentage (39 per cent) of women also invest in manicure and pedicure monthly to enhance their appearance. For senior citizens (32 per cent) too, a daily skin care regime holds quite an importance.

"Looking good is not restricted to only young generation, even the middle age and older generation are keen on improving their look and overall health. But yes these are people who are less likely to run after a fad, what they need is something more substantial and promise real good deal" says Panchal.

Skin whitening and tanning are amongst the other grooming activities that people indulge in, though in India the percentage of people going for these is quite low compared to other countries. In India 3 percent of the respondents claimed that they go for skin whitening and 7 percent go in for tanning to look good. China has 30 percent of people who claim to use skin whitening products either daily or weekly, followed by 20 per cent of people in Taiwan, and 18 per cent of Japanese and Hong Kongers.

If money was not a constraint : Though consumers indulge in a lot of grooming activities, certain treatments are expensive. When asked what they would opt for if money were not a constraint, a majority voted for body massage (61 per cent). Hair care (56 v) is the second choice and facial treatment (44 per cent) the third in line that respondents would like to spend on to look good if money was not a restraint. Though for women both body massage and hair care comes as priority with 59 per cent voting for both if money was not limited.