Starting a Men’s focused D2C Brand
I believe men are becoming increasingly conscious of their appearance and it’s quite evident on GV as well. Working out, getting in shape is only L1 problem, personal care goes beyond working out. But there are two problems when men want to start personal care (skin,hair, body) 1. Lack of knowledge. Where to start? How to start? Which products to use? What is Vitamin C? WTF is a hyaluronic acid? 2. If #1 is sorted, then the second problem is laziness. I spoke to 220+ men and 70% spend only spend or want to spend 10-20 mins/day on personal care. I plan to solve this by, 1. Content. Becoming an education first brand. Best example is Ditto Insurance, they’re more of an advisor than a Insurance selling company. A good example in D2C space is The Whole Truth. I want to educate men about personal care. I want to build a brand that men turn to when starting their personal care journey. 2. Innovative products & Functionality. Men would benefit a lot from serum but they don’t use it primarily because the hassle of using a dropper, rubbing it on your face is too much. We’ll innovate how these products are made. Easy to use. I’ve dropped a full-time job offer to build this right out of college. Borrowed 10L from F&F. Registered the company and on-boarded a few kickass people to create content. Hope all goes well. I’ll keep sharing the progress here :)
Best of luck. I don't care about the market or the product you might sell, but love the energy. People buy from people who are 'realistic' and passionate about what they sell.
101
Stealth
4 months ago
Thanks Man. I’ve always tried to build something while in college but failed :/
Hopefully this will work out. I am truly passionate about building a Men’s personal care brand and I know 8/10 Men will start taking their apperance seriously in the future.
It's never a failure, it's a tactical retreat at best and strategic pivot at worst. You keep learning and keep building and that's the only thing that matters.
Dihaadi
Stealth
4 months ago
CTSMS -
Cleanse: Scrub and clean your road tar like skin.
Tone: Apply a liquid toner or spray after cleansing and exfoliating.
Serum: Apply a few drops of serum to your fingertips and gently massage it into your pavement until it's absorbed.
Moisturizer: Apply a pea-sized amount of moisturizer to your pavement and rub it in using circular motions until it's absorbed.
Sunscreen: If you’re going out in the sun.
Now repeat CTSMS.
Dihaadi
Stealth
4 months ago
Btw Minimalist is capturing this persona, it is my brand of choice. Would love to try your products whenever you are ready. All the best to you
The skincare routine is common for men and women. Nykaa and Nykaa Man already have the products you need.
101
Stealth
4 months ago
Well. Grofers, BigBasket, Swiggy existed for grocery delivery but Zepto was still started.
Zepto disrupts logistics. What disruption would one bring in men's personal care?
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The idea is not to get affected by your looks not more.
Anything with sole purpose of increasing aesthetics is shallow and people infatuated with it need to look inwards.
101
Stealth
4 months ago
Skin Care is basic hygiene. Anyone avoiding bare minimum personal care is ignorant.
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One interesting observation I've made over the past year is that wives and girlfriends are taking ownership of building a grooming/personal care regimen for their respective partners. I too believe that men indeed want to groom themselves more, apart from the usual routine haircuts and facial haircare but are too lazy to initiate. If someone by hook or crook can educate and implement it for them, they can soon reach a tipping point of habit formation and perhaps start seeing some positive changes too.
So your content might appeal to women as well. All the best, good to see your passion and energy!
101
Stealth
4 months ago
That is 101% true. Given that you’re from Amazon, is there a site or repository where I can look at buying data/reports of consumers?
Nothing immediate that comes to mind, will still check and let you know
Can you DM me your product page link or something ? I am very much interested
101
Stealth
4 months ago
I don’t have a product yet, finalising manufacturers. Hopefully by August we’ll start the ops. I’ll keep you posted :)
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101
Stealth
4 months ago
Thanks king!
101
Stealth
3 months ago
Hi! Not sure if you remember but i’m the guy that posted about building a personal-care brand for Men. We’re finally live on Instagram and would love to have you follow us :) Here’s the page: https://www.instagram.com/get.verge?igsh=MXRoOG5kaDV1a2dpZw==
You will see us posting a lot of content over the next few months! Thanks.
Equitymaster
Stealth
4 months ago
Starting a D2C brand is extremely easy in todays world. Successfully executing a D2C business in today's market and that too for men and that too grooming - You are trying something extremely difficult.
The only suggestion would be "pls don't be another copy paste brand". If you don't have anything unique to offer then don't start. Pls spend on R&D. Don't bring US or korea products to India. We need indian solution to indian problem.
Anyone with some funds can start D2C business. Identify product, get a manufacturer, on-boarding marketing agency and it's done. But this won't give you sales. Be unique, solve genuine problem.
101
Stealth
4 months ago
I’m betting on the future, there seems to be early signs of men getting serious about their personal care. Consumption is increasing. Fitness, Healthy Foods, The market overall is growing. The problem here I feel is lack of education, unlike women, men don’t care about the ingredients in their product and neither do they understand it. They want to KNOW what problem is x product going to solve + how can it be done with minimal effort possible. We are innovating on “product application”, one example is Roll-On Serum. I’ve lived the D2C journey once, launched a clothing brand and failed. Hence focusing on Distribution this time.
Equitymaster
Stealth
4 months ago
Your target audience is mainly gen z if your product is serum kind. Gen z male population is extremely small as of now. Be mindful of paying capacity.
I will again advice to spend time on identifying genuine problem and spend money on R&D.
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All the best!
Skincare can work wonders. People who just use a minimum of face wash, moisturizer and serum combo will agree. This section will keep increasing so the time is anyway good to enter.
101
Stealth
3 months ago
Hi! Not sure if you remember but i’m the guy that posted about building a personal-care brand for Men. We’re finally live on Instagram and would love to have you follow us :) Here’s the page: https://www.instagram.com/get.verge?igsh=MXRoOG5kaDV1a2dpZw==
You will see us posting a lot of content over the next few months! Thanks.
why does my underwear always start having holes near the a-hole
Because of chafing due to seating. My bums r very big so there's a lot of chafing
Super interesting idea! I am with you in believing this is a relatively white space to build a brand. One example is a recent trending Insta reel of wedding makeup for men which had amazing number of views and shares.
Few comments/questions:
- What do you think about companies like the Man Company or Bombay Shaving Co.? How do you plan to compete with them?
- Content is king and it is a no brainer to start with creating content in this space. What next though? Any particular areas (head, face) that you are planning to Target first?
- What is your strategy on product development? Any R&D plans?
- Thinking out loud, if men are only spending 15-20 mins a day on taking care of their skin/hair, would it be better to offer all in one kind of products? Like which could act as a moisturizer, sunscreen, night cream in one? I am also a user of Himalaya's Beard and Face wash. Too bad they stopped it; not sure why! Having multiple products in one does limit your revenue potential and gradually you will need to still launch individual products to serve all your audience.
- As a man, I also feel like sharing what products I will be the most interested in: Face and beard wash, Moisturizer for dry skin, Shaving foam, Hair wax that does not damage the hairs. Would love all natural kind of products that don't completely break the bank (Imagine pricing at the level of Wow and not Forest Essentials).
Do share your company's Insta handle when you go live!
Good luck!
101
Stealth
4 months ago
- Man company is a shitty brand. They haven’t innovated at all wrt products and have just marketed themselves as a “men” focused brand which is nothing but branding. Bombay shaving co. is more of a shaving/grooming company, their founder themselves mentions that. Would be super hard for them to venture into the personal-care category. I’m actually spending money on R&D, product formulations to innovate in product application (sunscreen spray, roll on serum) to solve for laziness and ingredients (effectiveness of brands like Minimalist, Cetaphil) + Education. Educating Men I believe is more important than the product iself. The concept of “personal care” never existed among Men until recently.
- The idea with content is to build a distribution engine and have ready set of followers waiting to grab the product once launched. My vision is to build a brand that Men turn to when they think about personal care. Read: Communities, Offline Events, Mental Health sessions, Content, Advisors. This is the greater goal.
- We plan to start with skincare. Basic 4 products; Face Wash, Face Serum, Sunscreen, Moisturiser. Most advice on men’s beauty & personal care is to “start working out and do basic skincare”. Thesis is that men are aware about this, just need to push them to use it through content and innovating on product front. We also don’t have a lot of capital to “be a shark in small pond” hence going after the market where awareness already exists.
- We spent a lot of time on two insights; Men spend 1/4th the time on personal care as compared to women + lack of awareness (why is vitamin c important?) Our products will be outcome focused, use X to solve Y rather than ingredient-focused. A lot of R&D has gone into innovation in application of products than ingredients or formulations.
- Interesting. Will think about this.
- Yes. Our basic skincare starter pack (4 products) will start at ₹1199. Pretty similar to Wow. Idea is to give MAXIMUM value to customers at the lowest ₹
101
Stealth
3 months ago
Hi! Not sure if you remember but i’m the guy that posted about building a personal-care brand for Men. We’re finally live on Instagram and would love to have you follow us :) Here’s the page: https://www.instagram.com/get.verge?igsh=MXRoOG5kaDV1a2dpZw==
You will see us posting a lot of content over the next few months! Thanks.
Sidd1dec
Student
4 months ago
Heyy I would really like to contribute some of my brain power with u and ur team space for me?
101
Stealth
3 months ago
Hi! Not sure if you remember but i’m the guy that posted about building a personal-care brand for Men. We’re finally live on Instagram and would love to have you follow us :) Here’s the page: https://www.instagram.com/get.verge?igsh=MXRoOG5kaDV1a2dpZw==
You will see us posting a lot of content over the next few months! Thanks.
Sidd1dec
Student
3 months ago
Is it possible to work with you as I would like to grasp knowledge about startups?
101
Stealth
3 months ago
Hi! Not sure if you remember but i’m the guy that posted about building a personal-care brand for Men. We’re finally live on Instagram and would love to have you follow us :) Here’s the page: https://www.instagram.com/get.verge?igsh=MXRoOG5kaDV1a2dpZw==
You will see us posting a lot of content over the next few months! Thanks.
Bumpy_Stock
Stealth
4 months ago
I think the segment you are targeting is niche. I'm not part of that. Your product value proposition should be outcome based.
Eg. Fair n lovely -> value prop is become fair. Targeting insecurity of women who want to impress the society.
How does your product make men shine in front of women, co-workers or family?
Share your company socials. Will follow it. It’s a bit tough but all the best!
The Man company, mensxp, man matters, beardo, ustraa, Bombay shaving company, man code...
All these companies did extreme marketing in their initial days, stayed relevant for a year Max and then got saturated. You can replicate that.
101
Stealth
4 months ago
Thanks for dropping the comment. I have reached out to you :)
How are you planing to position your brand? Isn’t space the getting cultured?
This is an old problem. When I couldn’t find a solution to my skincare problems, I went to a dermatologist. That was also the best skin, I ever had. People like us were called Metrosexual!
101
Stealth
4 months ago
Not everyone can afford a dermat
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