The men's toiletries market appears calm, based on the past five years of relatively flat revenue, but the industry has many active segments. As with most other consumer products, aggressive expansion by the mass merchandising companies is changing where men buy toiletry products. Of course, this change has inspired department and speciality stores, major providers of men's toiletries, to rethink and re-focus their marketing strategies. But generational changes are also shaping this market. As the Baby Boomers have matured into middle-age, the toiletries industry is creating many new products to help slow or mask the ageing process. These products should spur growth, but the Boomers have not generated big annual growth rates for men's toiletries in the past five years, and probably will not do so in the next five.

Yet, there are reasons for optimism. One of them is the fact that the buyers of men's toiletries do not start at age 18 any longer- there is a significant group of consumers all the way down to age 10 and younger. In addition, men aged 18-34 purchase more toiletry products than their elders. Consumers aged 10-34 should contribute more growth to the industry over the next 10 years than that registered in the past 10.

This report will examine the hypothesis that the men's toiletries market has just started a decade of moderately increasing growth, relative to the past decade. Rising revenues will come through optimizing product mixes, such as increased marketing of toiletries sets, through displays aimed at a specific racial/ethnic clientele, and also from increased attention on the differing needs of three generations (ages under-18, 18-34, and Baby Boomers, born 1946-64, who in 2001 were aged 37-55).

Mintel defines the men's toiletries market as:

-Male fragrances (e.g. aftershaves, colognes, pre-shaves, splashes, talcs and perfumes)

-Male deodorants and antiperspirants

-Male-targeted hair care products (e.g. coloring, restoratives, thickeners and styling/grooming)

-Men's skincare and personal hygiene (e.g. depilatories, facial creams, lip care, hand and bodycare, and body washes)

-Men's shaving cream.

This report contains US IRI InfoScan data.