Estée Lauder owns multiple male grooming brands, but these were often retailed in a way that simply didn’t make sense to most male shoppers. Our challenge was to create an ‘umbrella brand’ for Estée Lauder’s male grooming portfolio that demystified the category for consumers, increased relevance, and ultimately made it simpler for men to shop.

We also had to create a tiered experiential destination where Estée Lauder could educate men on the world of grooming and demonstrate how products could fit into their lifestyle to help them enhance and express their personal style.

So, we set out on the streets of London to interview guys about their grooming attitudes, habits and preferences. We spoke to men in South, East and Central London to hear directly from them what things they look for when they are shopping for grooming products, and what Estée Lauder could do to facilitate their engagement with the category. We learned that for the broad franchise of male consumers, talking about grooming isn’t the easiest of conversations. And that although the overwhelming majority of men do want to look their best, they also don’t want to come across as if they are trying too hard. Men often lack a vocabulary around products in this category and want brands to make it easy for them to achieve their goals. They want to know more, but don’t want to be told. They want to discover for themselves. Based on these insights, it became clear that our main challenge was going to be breaking down the barriers to the category and encouraging self-exploration amongst our audience.