Wednesday, 17 February 2016
HAIR STYLES FOR MEN?
When consumers want to master the latest hairstyle, they ask.
Even in the most routine moments, people try new things. With a touch, or just a word, our mobile devices can summon ideas that we may have never thought of. This is especially true when it comes to how we style our hair, a decision we make every single morning. While we used to stick with what we knew—perhaps a look from a magazine or a stylist's recommendation—now, the options are endless.
Take Mabel, who was standing in front of her bathroom mirror, smartphone in hand, thinking about how to style her hair. She wanted something that was versatile, on-trend and suitable for dry hair. A mobile search later, she landed on the wet-hair look and learned how to get it.
Many people now turn to smartphones in these I-want-that-look moments, as evidenced by search and video trends. Of all Google Search queries related to beauty, the majority are done on mobile. To see what consumers are looking for in these micro-moments, we analyzed the monthly volume of beauty-related Search queries from January 2013 to August 2015. The result is an in-depth look at three emerging trends—men's hair, braids, and bold hair colors. It's also a wake-up call, as we saw that many brands aren't reaching consumers in these moments of intent.
Men's hair: an untapped market
The market for men's hair care is rapidly expanding. In fact, 2015 is the first year that there has been more interest in men's hair than women's hair on Google (by around 6%).1 "It's like waking a sleeping giant," says Ellen Sideri, founder and CEO of the trend research agency ESP Trendlab. Not only is the industry bigger than it's ever been, but men are dream customers. "Men tend to have more brand loyalty than women, and are more likely to buy products that the barber recommends," says Rob McMillen, head barber at Blind Barber in New York.
What are consumers looking for today? The "man bun" has emerged as one of the most popular hairstyle searches over the last year. While Jared Leto and Leonardo DiCaprio were among the first celebrities to put the man bun in the spotlight, search volume puts Harry Styles as the celebrity most associated with the trend since October 2014. Thanks in part to Hollywood's and social media's embrace (see #manbunmonday), the man bun is everywhere. Now, lots of men are trying to to get the look themselves, turning to search as their stylist in I-want-to-do moments. Of all queries about the style, questions like "how to grow a man bun" and "how to tie a man bun" are most common.
Next up, the "comb-over." This style has been a steadily growing trend over the last few years, especially in California. Once associated with covering bald spots, today's version is more Don Draper than Donald Trump. "New high-end barber shops are re-popularizing traditional American looks from the '50s and '60s, but making them more high-end and personalized," says McMillen.
For both comb-overs and man buns, men are turning to the web to educate themselves. "Overall, guys are coming in with more of a general idea of what they want. They are doing more research than ever before," says McMillen. Much of that research is happening on smartphones. Looking at top men's hairstyle terms, 82% of searches were done on mobile in August 2015.2
In moments when they're struggling to style their hair, men are also looking to YouTube for advice. Videos about these styles tend to feature a large number of hair products; the top five how-to YouTube videos about man buns featured six products in aggregate. "Increasingly, consumers are looking to these platforms for dynamic content—from tutorials to reviews to videos," says Marie Gulin-Merle, CMO of L'Oreal USA.
Why should marketers care? When consumers reach out to learn—whether it's about "man buns," "comb-overs," or products for these styles—few brands capture the opportunity to be relevant in the moment. Only around 1% of searches for these terms has surfaced an ad.3 For marketers, there is a huge opportunity to be there for guys in their I-want-that-look moments.
Gulin-Merle adds that the best strategy for being there is all about creating great content for these digital platforms. She says, "No matter what the beauty movement is, we want to create relevant content that allows our consumers to continuously engage with products and be given an easy, seamless way to merge online and offline experiences."
Braids make a big comeback
As more men stock up on products, some women are paring down. Natural hair has been trending in recent years, and braids are back in a big way. Braids are the most prominent among top trending hairstyles for women, with "box braids" and "goddess braids" representing the biggest trends based on search volume. These braid trends are seasonal, and are most popular in the South
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Sunday, 14 February 2016
If you have an idea you........
Here are ten steps to get you started in your Job-Hunt Like a CEO project:
- Decide what kinds of jobs you are ideally suited for.
- Brand yourself in your Human-Voiced Resume and your LinkedIn profile for those jobs (the ones you just identified) specifically. The worst brand in the world is the brand “Jack of all Trades” (and the same goes for Jills)!
- Answer this question: “What kind of Business Pain do I solve for employers — an expensive, irritating kind of Business Pain that they will be willing to spend money to alleviate?” Your Pain-Solving ability is your power in the hiring equation!
- Make a list of Target Employers who are located within your commuting radius and who might be suffering from “your” flavor of Business Pain. Maybe it’s pain related to losing market share, or pain related to a broken supply chain or cost overruns. Whatever it is, keep your eye on that pain — if you create traction with your hiring manager, the Business Pain you identified will be the reason why he or she responds to your outreach.
- Use this method to identify your specific hiring manager in each of your Target Employers.
- Read about Pain Letter composition and try your hand at a Pain Letter to a manager on your list. Don’t start with your favorite employer — start smaller until you get the hang of this new job-search approach!
7. For each employer you approach, customize your Human-Voiced Resume by highlighting the most relevant Dragon-Slaying Stories in your past.
9. If you’re working full-time and conducting a stealth job search, try to send out three Pain Letters per week. If you’re not working, you can research, write and send out three per weekday!
10.Finally, take care of yourself. A job search can be draining. Get a lot of sleep and take care of your body and your mind. Don’t flog yourself to sit in front of your computer and job-hunt all day. Get out and have fun. You owe yourself some fun every day, whether it’ a bike ride or dancing to YouTube videos. Once you are working again, you won’t have time to goof off, and goofing off is an essential part of your Mojo-preservation strategy!Recommended by Forbes
If you have an idea, you have to believe in yourself or no one else would.
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