Scooping the ‘Best Male Product’ award at the recent Sainsbury’s Beauty Awards, the UK-headquartered brand pipped other major players to the post, including L’Oréal Paris Men Expert and Nivea For Men.
The brand notes that Sainsbury’s recognition is especially important to it, as the retailer was the company’s first UK stockist. We caught up with Simon Duffy to hear more on what the award means, and to hear his take on the current state of the male grooming segment.
What does it mean to be picked out as the best, particularly when your brand was one of the first to innovate explicitly for male grooming in the UK?
“Sainsbury’s was the first ever retailer that listed Bulldog and we have always appreciated the support and encouragement that their team has given to Bulldog right from our very beginnings,” explains Duffy.
“Bulldog beat some other massive brands to win this award, so were both surprised and delighted when the results were announced. It was also fantastic to receive award from Lee Kynaston who is a someone that we have admired in the male grooming industry for a long time.”
Can you give us an overview of the current state of the segment?
“It’s a really exciting time in the male grooming industry at the moment,” Duffy asserts, noting that it is evolving in new and unexpected ways.
“The sector continues to grow and innovate. There has been a lot of disruption in the products that men are looking for, in part driven by the rise of the beard, and also due to higher levels of knowledge about skin care.”
Education around products is changing, the company head observes, and that in turn is changing the way male consumers interact with brands, and discover and choose products.
“Men are learning about new products in different ways and we should expect the influence of male bloggers and vloggers to continue to build.
“People are also looking for different things from companies as the values and principles that underpin different approaches to formulation, sourcing and manufacturing are increasingly placed under the spotlight.”