“Tell me, dear wife you notice the seniors, the kids, the Hindustani and of course the so important Aaj ki nari. What happened to the guy who came first — Adam and Manu. You sure have sidetracked him! Your marketeer is always trying to entice the customer as she and marketing pundits, like you have convenient amnesia when it
comes to men, poor souls. In fact we seem to be scoring A-nil with all of you,” lamented Anil, my husband on a romantic, rainy, Thursday morning. “Seriously, I think I am having an identity crisis and questioning my reason to be. Mera number kab aayega?”
Incidentally, it is not as if the other half of the consuming unit, i.e. the male has been completely ignored…
The stiff upper lipped 70’s: Once upon a time this taciturn bread winner was a ghostly apparition in the shopping arena. On the occasions he ventured out it was to pick up his cigarettes, occasionally blades and hair creams. The marketeer could not do anything except sigh resignedly and say Yeh Red & White peenewalon ki baat hi kuch aur hai. Even when the dictate was to ‘sail away into the sunset’ as he lived life king size, the mark of this Old Spice man was one of conventional dignity and latent strength.
Then came the Classic 80’s: The Iodex malo kaam pe chalo bread winner wanted to distinguish himself from the rest and proclaim to the world that he had arrived by becoming the suave, urban, complete Raymond Man. Nims Apparel with Double Bull and the executive Zodiac had realised that the white collar achiever was willing to move away from the tailor master. However, rather than the blatant electronic, it was the more understated print that was the medium. Brylcream rather than the family Parachute was what gave him style and by the end of the era he had moved from the useful HMT to the ornate Titan.
The progressive 90’s: This era has been talked about so often that the globetrotter Bond with Reid & Taylor, Van Heusen, Louis Philippe and the likes could speak a universal language of exercising choice and Voila! it was time to emerge from an eon of hibernation and begin experimenting. Fragrances, toiletries, in-cluding Raymond with Park Avenue — and even the oh-so-controversial and snake-like Kama Sutra had slithered into the male shopping basket.
And then there was a deluge and no looking back. From the definitely male Pulsar to the roughish, Casanova Axe and the suave Gilette macho man; the gentleman had just entered the academy of style. Here even inners were no longer simply Rupa frontline or VIP but the blatantly aggressive Jockey. Old or young, entrepreneur or professional, every aspect of his life was now one of conspicuous consumption, so the bazaar surrounded him to sell him everything from a sedan to a BlackBerry, from fearless Mountain Dew to the macho Thums Up, from a Tag Heuer to a Taylormade golf club. Brylcream was passé now it was the oh la la la lea o, King of Good Times who was here and like a slumbering giant he had woken up to experiment, adopt and indulge.
And the new decade: Well this belongs to the Dus numbari — the roughish 10’s. He is the no holds barred zatak male, the fearless hunk. Move over the straight-laced Raymond man the new creed of BlackBerry boys and the ubersexual SX4 men are back. And if you think that is all, recall the last year and a half. What do we have Fair and Handsome, the mardon wali cream, the macho Abraham also promoting a fairness solution with Garnier power light and then there is the debonair male who is pulled up to use Clinic All Clear before he has the license to wear black. And this is not limited to personal care and grooming.
The enticement and cajoling of the male consumer has taken on a new dimension today. The evolution has been gradual and the same men who puzzled over the preoccupation of the other halves are smiling beatifically as they relish the amorous attention of the marketeer. So, dear husband rather than you being puzzled, I am alarmed and confused, will the next step be all about nail polish and lipstick and the rest moving over from hers to his tray? And guess what my dear husband replies as he quirks his eyebrows at my dilemma? “Why should girls have all the fun?”
The writer is professor, marketing, International Management Institute,
New Delhi