The Asian men’s skin care market is the largest in the world. South Korea is the largest market, but there are many other emerging countries, such as China, India, Indonesia, and now Thailand.
According to Euromonitor research, the category has posted a healthy performance in Thailand over the past few years and is anticipated to register a positive performance with a CAGR of 5% in constant value terms to reach Bt12.2 billion in 2017.
And the men’s skin care market in Thailand continues to grow, with international brands such as L’Oreal and Beiersdorf entering the market and local brands launching products targeting male consumers, with increasing demand expected still.
“In Thailand, the market has seen double-digit growth year-on-year, and men’s skin care per capita is set to overtake Hong Kong in 2017,” says Warangkana Anuwong, senior research analyst.
Education
As well as established brands marking their territory in Thai men’s skin care, during the last 2-3 years, there has been an increase in the numbers of premium brands in the market, such as SK-II Men.
The problem is that a lot of men in Thailand remain uneducated about male skin care products and are still using either women’s or unisex products, the researcher highlights.
“Thai men have grown more concerned about their looks, but they are still using female or unisex skin care products. So this is a consumer challenge – trying to convert and support them to use more men’s skin care products in the future,” explains Anuwong.
Blogging rise
As a result, male beauty bloggers are rising in popularity in the country, educating Thai men about skin care and colour cosmetics.
It is Euromonitor’s opinions that educated Thai men will drive the men’s skin care market to continued double digit growth this year.
“These bloggers teach men how to use skin care for their daily life. Male bloggers have started to teach men how to use colour cosmetics for special occasions as well as for their daily lives,” continues Anuwong.
“Therefore, we expect that there will be more colour cosmetics for men entering into the market in Thailand in the future, such as has been seen in the trend in South Korea, where men have already started using male-specific BB and CC cream,” she adds.