Michael McRae & Tomas Tappin
Co-founders of Two Dudes
Co-founder of Two Dudes, Michael McRae, said there had been an exciting and incredible growth of Kiwi men wanting to take better care of themselves. Two Dudes is dedicated and firmly believes that the men's beauty category in New Zealand is experiencing an uplift that other developed markets have already experienced.
"If you look at Two Dudes entering supermarkets in New Zealand, there has been solid uptake across the country of our locally made men's products, while our online sales have continued to grow," said McRae.
Two Dudes' success with its supermarket entry has shown this increasing care and growth for the men's beauty category. The preference for simple, effective male master brand products has driven this success domestically for the New Zealand-made brand, as similar care and growth trajectories for men's beauty brands can also be seen across global markets, including the USA, UK and Australia.
Social consciousness emerging as an essential factor in consumers' purchasing decision-making has positively impacted the beauty industry. Challenger brands such as Ethique push other brands in the category to meet consumers' ethical demands of the products they purchase.
McRae explained that for the male shopper, it was important for Two Dudes to incorporate as many of these consumers' demands as possible while simultaneously solving category barriers that exist for most male shoppers first, primarily that skincare is complicated, skincare is feminine, or why is skincare important?
It's a balance, as the female shopper is typically further along their beauty journey than Kiwi male beauty shoppers,
"It's a balance, as the female shopper is typically further along their beauty journey than Kiwi male beauty shoppers," said Two Dudes co-founder Tomas Tappin.
Read the rest of the Two Dudes story below, starting on page 40.
