6 tips for female-focused brands trying to win over male customers

Over the last several months, a host of brands known for their female-friendly wares have been devising new strategies to attract male consumers. Companies including Skims, Stanley and Peloton, as well as skin care brand Cetaphil, have introduced new campaigns geared toward men as they seek to boost revenue by expanding awareness. In its recent “Connecting with Men” report, Kantar found that campaigns that portray men positively can boost brand equity by 37 percentile points more than ads that negatively feature men. “Realizing the world we live in is constantly changing so who our audience might have been and how they might have shopped or behaved is quite different now,” said Věra Šídlová, global creative thought leadership director at Kantar. “There’s an opportunity for categories to expand who thinks of them.” NextGen Marketing Summit Join us for a crash course on Gen Z, DTC marketing and the creator economy Register today Below, Ad Age compiled a list of best practices for brands planning to win over male consumers with new marketing. Research your customer When Peloton was devising new marketing last year, the fitness brand took a look at its users. The company found that two thirds of its members were women, which left a “big addressable market with men,” according to Lauren Weinberg, chief marketing officer. “When we do research with men, there’s a misperception about our brand and their perception is maybe we don’t have the kind of workouts they need, but we do,” she recently told Ad Age. To fix that confusion, Peloton ran a campaign directed at men in November that starred NFL player T.J. and his brother, former NFL player J.J. Watt. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Peloton (@onepeloton) For Cetaphil, the brand saw that men were beginning to lean more into their own self care. Fifty-two percent of American men use skin care, a 20% increase from two years prior, according to Mintel data cited by Tara Loftis, Galderma global president of skincare and Cetaphil. She also saw that Cetaphil’s own social following was between 50% and 60% men—a statistic demonstrating men are “hungry” for recommendations, she said. To attract them and help normalize skin care routines, Cetaphil created the digital campaign “Made For Phil” last June as a test and learn. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Cetaphil (@cetaphil) Cetaphil also enjoyed some free publicity when NFL rookie Xavier Legette, in an interview that swiftly went viral, mentioned he uses its products as part of his skin care routine. @bleacherreport Big Cetaphil guy 😅 (via @NFL) #nfl #football #xavierlegette #carolinapanthers ♬ original sound - bleacherreport Loftis and her team quickly reached out to Legette to recruit him for a bespoke campaign in which he hit the streets with Cetaphil samples. His work, along with the Made for Phil push, helped drive a three percentage point increase in purchase intent among men, Cetaphil said, as well as four percentage point increase in brand awareness among consumers not already familiar with the brand. “The campaign was meant to be something fun that increased brand affinity within the male community, but it drove real brand awareness and sales,” Loftis said. She added that one big takeaway from the campaign’s success was the importance of keeping in touch with the brand community. “The bigger learning for me is that every person that posts about our brand is something we take notice of and the sky’s the limit with creativity with campaigns.” Use the fans you already have Legette’s Cetaphil love was marketing gold, allowing the brand to turn the athlete’s appreciation into a paid campaign. “Authenticity is the best currency and genuine storytelling is better than any kind of media buy,” said Loftis. Similarly, Peloton teamed up on a campaign with the Watts after they already became loyalists on their own. “They’re members of Peloton and they often will tweet and talk about Peloton organically,” Weinberg said, referring to X. To promote its new Lux Balm lip product, Fenty Skin tapped rapper A$AP Rocky, the romantic partner of founder Rihanna, last year for a marketing film as the brand tries to communicate that its skin care products are for men as well as women. The deal Kim Kardashian’s Skims inked with the NBA in 2023 featuring its new menswear line was a “natural fit,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told Ad Age at the time. He noted Kardashian’s frequent courtside attendance at games helping to lead to her understanding of what players want to wear, for example. Don’t just replace women with men Many brands may be tempted to just replicate messaging and marketing already in place for female consumers by subbing in men. Experts say brands should resist such temptations and dig deeper. Lululemon started with its products—in order to design apparel for men, the brand had to understand the male consumer, according to Rebecca Marstaller, senior VP of North America brand marketing at Lululemon. In recent years, as the Canadian activewear brand has increased its menswear offering, it has continued to talk to men. “The work has been to refine how we talk to them,” Marstaller said. The brand has found success with recent efforts around its ShowZero Polo, she added, noting a recent collaboration with golfer Min Woo Lee. @keithbennettgolf This past Friday, 200 of Min Woo Lee’s biggest fans stormed the WM Phoenix open to cheer on and support @lululemon’s newest golf ambassador @Min Woo Lee. The vibes were at an all time high, and so was our comfort as we felt amazing all day in our ABC pants. They are my favorite pants to play golf in for a reason. You need to keep an eye on Min Woo this year and get yourself a pair of ABC pants. #ad #lululemoncreator ♬ original sound - Keith Bennett Golf “It wasn’t about putting an image of a golf shirt on our website, though that is something we do,” said Marstaller. “It was about understanding the male audience and the whole marketing funnel and talking to them at each moment in that funnel in a way that resonates.” But she cautioned that while messaging toward men should be different than the messaging toward women, both should remain true to a single brand voice. “There is cohesion that needs to exist,” she said. Lululemon stands for a single brand—you don’t want to start creating two fragmented brands.” Kimberly Whitler, a marketing expert and professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business, noted that brands are sometimes stymied when a new target customer “is very dissimilar to the current market” they serve. She pointed to Dove Men as a brand that has found success in growing its audience by targeting another gender. “A common theme is that the core benefit doesn’t really change—but the way in which you talk about it may,” Whitler said, adding that “when the expansion strategy includes serving a different consumer segment, the more you can leverage your core equities and positioning, the more synergy you have.” Keep it going and avoid one-offs Those marketers that are winning with male customers are also continuing to consider them in future marketing and activations. For example, Bath & Body Works has been growing its men’s business since 2019 and is continuing to invest in the sector this year, according to Chief Customer Officer Maurice Cooper. After testing a dedicated men’s shop-in-shop five years ago, the brand rolled out locations within all its stores and hosted a multi-city pop-up tour at NFL, college football and NBA games at the end of 2023 through the beginning of 2024. Cooper said the activations, combined with work with professional athletes such as the NBA’s LaMelo Ball and NFL’s Christian McCaffrey, resulted in hundreds of millions of impressions. View this post on Instagram A post shared by LaMelo Ball (@melo) “The combination of the in-person activations and the influencer stories over the top have led us to not only drive positive traction in markets where we’ve brought the tour but overall created a stronger halo for the brand for men,” said Cooper. “We’re seeing more engagement and more interest.” Analysts have noticed. In a November research note, Neil Saunders, managing director at GlobalData Retail, pointed out Bath & Body Works’ progress with its men’s business. “The expansion of male personal care continues to grow and attract a new shopper base,” he wrote. “From our data, we are seeing repeat purchasing rates improve here which suggests that Bath & Body Works is winning over new shoppers with a good lifetime value.” Cooper noted that the retail chain is planning to add more men’s fragrances this year as well as more formats, such as shower gel, of existing men’s scents. “It shows our focus on growing that business,” he said. “We are an experiential brand—people make the decision to buy based on what they smell—so we are trying to find more relevant ways to show up where guys are and where it matters for them in culture.” Cetaphil also is using its learnings from last year’s campaign to propel it forward with men. The brand is incorporating more male dermatologists in its marketing as expert sources as part of this effort, Loftis said. “For our rebrand campaign [last] fall, we made sure that men showed up,” she said. “You’ll see more and more of it from us.” Read Ad Age’s 2025 predictions stories here Avoid traditional male stereotypes Kantar’s Šídlová said that there are opportunities for brands to challenge stereotypical notions of masculinity, particularly with new categories such as household and personal care. While in previous generations these products may have been advertised to and bought by women, men are shopping doing more of such shopping and are receptive to marketing, she said. Kantar found that ads that portray men as emotionally aware and engaged in self-care and family life in the U.S. have resonated with American consumers. “Showing men caring for one another expressing emotion and not resorting to archetypes of being strong and powerful but showing vulnerability have the element of authenticity,” said Šídlová. “Showing behaviors that maybe traditionally weren’t shown in advertising or culture so much but are present are striking a relatable chord.” Indeed, self-care for men may not have been a trend a decade ago but has grown in importance in recent years, which has helped pave the way for brands such as Cetaphil and Bath & Body Works to market to the group. Target media appropriately One mistake Šídlová said some brands are making as they court men involves their media buys. She said some brands were underutilizing their ability to connect with men by still targeting women with their media. “Who you talk to through your media choices has a huge impact on awareness,” she said. “You could have the right un-stereotypical ad out there but if you’re only showing it to the target that already buys you and knows about you, that’s fine but if you want to expand your audience choices, you have to expand your media choices.” She noted that it’s no longer true that women make all the buying decisions, so media buys should reflect greater gender diversity. Lululemon is keeping an eye on its media mix as it targets men, Marstaller said, noting that the brand performs gender target segmentation with its media partners and channel mix. Men will often see different landing pages and emails than women, for example. “At each channel touchpoint, we look at it in terms of audience gender and then segmentation,” she said, adding that Lululemon is targeting who it talks to by the media it buys and the agencies it taps.

6 tips for female-focused brands trying to win over male customers

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