EXECUTIVE PRESENTATION

NOTES BEHIND THE SCENES

Research & Insights

What are the most important attributes our solution needs to meet?

Given the open ended nature of the project, we started off by breaking apart the competition brief to determine clearer objectives for our designs. From our review, we determined that L’Oreal wanted a solution that was innovative, useful, feasible, and scalable.

Additionally, from our review L’Oreal Men Expert’s branding materials, we determined that Men Expert was positioning itself as a brand to help men reveal their best. Therefore, the product should provide more styling features than cleansing benefits to keep true to their branding.

What openings are currently available in the market for men’s grooming products?

From our review of L’Oreal’s annual report, market report, and grooming surveys, we discovered that Men Expert had the opportunity to become a marketing leader within the hair, after shave, or all-in-one shampoo product categories due to lack of clear leader at that time.

Since the grooming industry is relatively new to men, what do grooming products fit in the lives of millennial men?

Our interviews with millennial men revealed three main types of relationships men have with grooming. The first persona uses the product inherited by their parents growing up. Grooming is not very important, and as a result, they tend to use the bare minimum: shampoo, conditioner, and body soap. The second persona leverages grooming products to be clean and shop for their own products. They chose products that will help them reach their health goals and thus ingredients are an important purchasing factor. The final persona leverages grooming products to shape their unique look. They chose products based off the branding of the product and relevance to their desired style.

From these personas, we discovered that ingredients and branding were especially important for our target market.

To test our personas gathered in our interviews, we asked men across Southern California 18-25 years of age about their relationship with grooming products using an online survey. This survey revealed that these men:

• Use shampoo, deodorant, and body wash the most out of all product categories

• Prefer to purchase their grooming products in the store (86%)

• Prefer in-store purchases since it fits into their normal shopping routine and are able to immediately use the products

• Purchase grooming products monthly (47%) or every couple of months (46%)

• Don’t change grooming brands (49%)

• Seek grooming products to be clean (97%)

• Learned of the products they use from family or friends (86%)

• Besides functionality, choose products based off price (88%) and scent (74%)

• Prefer to continue purchasing from brands that have a good cause (55%)

• Have reinvented their look (75%)

Click here to see the full results of the survey.

How can we gain the attention of men looking for grooming products?

With the men’s grooming industry growing, competition from existing and new brands is fierce. From our interviews with men, we discovered the majority of men purchase their grooming products in store - making in-store brands our primary landscape. In addition, these conversations revealed that besides price, the packaging was a huge factor in buying decisions.

To get a better scope of the landscape in stores, we visited the men’s grooming shelves in local department stores and uncovered that the majority of products were either blue, red, white or a shade of black. From this insight, we realize our product would stand out well on shelves using a brighter shade of orange and informative graphics.

Design Principles

From our findings we created the following design considerations to guide our exploration into solutions.

• Personal Expression: the product must enable men to craft their own look and be clean

• Attractive Packaging: the branding and packaging must win the attention of men on store shelves

• Education: the experience must enable all men to craft their own look, especially those new to grooming