Men’s care brand Every Man Jack employs a strategic calendar-based marketing approach that shifts focus throughout the year, responding to consumer behavior and competitive pressures.

“[Our marketing approach] really depends on the time of the year,” said Nick Hasselberg, vice president of performance marketing and ecommerce at men’s care brand Every Man Jack on a recent episode of “Behind the Numbers.” “At the beginning of the year, it’s brand marketing. In the back half of the year, it’s probably a little bit more [about] performance marketing.”

The brand front-loads awareness campaigns at the beginning of the year, recognizing competitors are aggressively generating demand immediately after the holiday season.

• "We realized last year that our competitors were not standing pat and really after the holiday focusing intensely on generating awareness and demand," Hasselberg explained.
• This early-year brand marketing creates a foundation of awareness that the company can leverage in the second half of the year through more performance-focused tactics.
• These include rewards programs through partners like Ibotta or Neptune, and increased investment in search marketing to convert aware consumers into customers.

This approach aligns with broader retail trends.

“Nowadays, with the holiday calendars, especially being pulled forward more, it becomes more important to get brand awareness earlier into the year,” said our analyst Sky Canaves.

Men's personal care: A category in transformation

The men's personal care category is experiencing significant growth, outpacing personal care at large, driven by several converging trends.

• "Men are increasingly interested in 'better for you' offerings," Hasselberg noted, pointing to the rise of clean ingredients in men's products mirroring broader trends.
• This shift has been accelerated by social media creating greater appearance consciousness and COVID prompting increased health awareness.

But men's personal care marketing requires a distinct approach compared to women's beauty marketing, focusing more on outcomes than ingredients.

"Beauty shoppers are so much further along the adoption curve. They know what they're looking for. They know what those ingredients are on the back of the bottle," said Hasselberg. "Men still need to be educated. And really for men, it tends to be a bit more outcome focused."

This education gap means that while ingredient transparency matters, connecting those ingredients to specific benefits is crucial for male consumers who may not understand the significance of components like aloe vera or jojoba beads without clear explanation of their effects.

The vital role of marketplaces

Marketplaces play a crucial role in Every Man Jack's ecommerce strategy, offering benefits beyond sales.

• "Marketplaces are vital to this brand's growth. First and foremost, they provide the most consistency in terms of return within marketing, which is essential to planning," said Hasselberg.
• This consistency helps stabilize marketing performance when other plans encounter challenges.

Marketplaces can also contribute to upper-funnel marketing goals or serve as testing grounds for new products.

• “One of our greatest sources of awareness amongst all consumers is seeing us on Amazon or seeing us at Walmart.com,” said Hasselberg.
• The brand recently launched a new deodorant on Amazon, using the platform to gather consumer feedback on creative elements, reviews, and purchasing patterns.
• These insights can be packaged as proof of concept for approaching wholesale retail partners.

Listen to the full episode