Played by Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković.
Source | Poly beauty
Author | Mars recently learned from foreign media that Unilever's largest personal care brand Dove Men+Care announced that it has partnered with Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajaković (Dako Rajaković) to appoint him as the brand's Chief Care Officer (CCO). Notably, this is Dove Men+Care's first Chief Nursing Officer.
"Crossover" sports, hiring the head coach of the Toronto Raptors
According to public information, Darko Rajaković is from Serbia, he began his coaching career at the age of 16, first coaching the local youth team in Serbia, during which he led the team to win the Serbia youth team championship twice. He then took charge of La Liga and won the title in his first season. In 2004, he began working as a European scouting consultant for the San Antonio Spurs, and later joined the Spurs Summer League team, Phoenix Suns, Memphis Grizzlies as an assistant coach, and began serving as the head coach of the Toronto Raptors of the NBA in mid-June 2023.
As Chief Care Officer at Dove Men+Care, Darko Rajaković plans to spearhead initiatives that focus on caring behaviour in sports and beyond. The partnership also includes interactive competitions that allow fans to share their own stories. The stories will be showcased on platforms from the Toronto Raptors and Dove Men+Care.
"I am honored to be appointed as the first Chief Care Officer of Dove Men+Care and to share its message in sports and beyond," said Darko Rajaković.
Divya Singh, Head of Personal Care at Unilever Canada, said: "Dove Men+Care's mission has always been to provide exceptional care for men's grooming and to show that extra treatments make all the difference. By partnering with Coach Darko, we are expanding our commitment to care beyond skin and hair to the world of sports. ”
The market exceeded 500 billion, and DIOR, Shiseido, etc. have increased their bets
It is clear that Dove is bringing the energy of the sports world to Dove Men+Care with the intention of expanding its share of the men's care market, which may be related to the rapid growth of the men's skincare market in recent years.
According to the forecast of international market institutions, the global men's cosmetics market will be 540 billion yuan in 2024.
In the Chinese market, according to iiMedia Research, the size of China's men's skin care market has increased from 4.5 billion in 2016 to 16.5 billion in 2023, with an average annual compound growth rate of 17.6%. In addition, the growth rate in the past three years has shown an increasing trend year by year, and it is expected that the overall market size will exceed 20 billion in the next 2-3 years.
With the gradual increase in the popularity and prospects of the "men's beauty economy", more and more beauty brands are adding to the men's care track.
In recent years, in addition to Unilever, international beauty giants such as DIOR, ARMANI, Shiseido, etc., have also bet on the men's skincare market.
In 2022, this track is particularly lively: Estee Lauder has set up a research and development center for Chinese male consumers; EB39, Unilever China's first affordable men's skincare brand; Shiseido launched SIDEKICK, a new luxury complex skincare brand designed for Asian Gen Z men; BRANDS SUCH AS DIOR AND ARMANI HAVE JOINED THE MEN'S TRACK AND LAUNCHED MOISTURIZERS, SHOWER GELS, FRAGRANCES AND OTHER PRODUCTS.
It is reported that a total of 8 men's cutting-edge brands have received several rounds of financing in the past two years since 2022. Previously, the blue brand was favored by the industry and received three rounds of financing; Rationally received two rounds of financing.
According to user data, from May 2023 to April 2024, among the men's skin care segments, the cleansing category occupies the largest share of the market, followed by men's facial cream, men's lip balm, men's toner and other categories. Among them, although the cleansing category has the highest market share, the number of filings and Douyin sales are slowing down year-on-year, while the sales of men's facial cream and men's lip care on Douyin increased by 359.65% and 1026.69% respectively, and the number of filings increased by 30.03% and 105.84% respectively.
All indications point to the possibility of the "men's skincare" market. The appointment of the chief nursing officer of Dove Men+Care is undoubtedly Unilever's desire to take a share of the track and help its overall revenue performance.
Last year's operating profit was +16.7%, and Unilever's "slimming and muscle gain" was effective?
In addition to the men's care track, Unilever has also made frequent moves in other popular tracks (vegan beauty, perfume) and regions (North America, Southeast Asia) recently.
In July this year, Unilever successively announced its investments in Luna Daily, a women's intimate care brand focusing on balancing the microbiome, Indonesian vegan beauty brand ESQA, and India's luxury skincare brand SkinInspired, while Indonesian vegan beauty brand ESQA is Unilever's second investment after 2022. It made its first investment in the fragrance sector last November: Unilever's venture capital arm partnered with investment firm True Beauty Ventures to announce an investment in Canada's high-end fragrance brand The 7Virtues.
At the same time as "gaining muscle", Unilever is also continuing to "slim down" its business and reduce its personnel.
According to incomplete statistics from Jumei, since 2023, Unilever has successively sold the skin care and hair care brand Ioma IMOA, the North American business of the personal care brand Suave, the men's grooming brand Dollar Shave Club, Elida Beauty business and ice cream business, and recently announced the sale of the water purification company Pureit.
In addition to the downsizing of the business, Unilever has also reduced its personnel. The global layoff plan announced in March last year has recently begun to be implemented, and the "first knife" is directed at Europe, which is expected to cut one-third of office positions; There have also been small layoffs since last year, such as United States factories in Long Island, New York, Amityville, Farmingdale, etc.
Earlier this month, Alessandro Manfredi, Dove's global chief marketing officer (CMO), confirmed on LinkedIn that he would end his 28-year tenure at Unilever; Vasiliki Petrou, founder and CEO of Unilever's premium brands division, who announced his departure last month, will also leave the company at the end of this month.
All of this is related to Unilever's Growth Action Plan. The program was officially launched in October last year in line with its development strategy of "focusing on 30 strong brands". "Fewer things, done better, with greater impact," said Hein Schumacher, CEO of Unilever.
In announcing the recent sale of the water purification company, Unilever executives said, "This marks another step in our journey to move our portfolio to higher growth in line with our growth action plan."
On the whole, Unilever's brand strategy may have begun to bear fruit. Specifically, from the financial report data, in 2023, Unilever's annual revenue will be 59.6 billion euros (about 472.521 billion yuan), a year-on-year decrease of 0.8%; Underlying sales increased by 7%, of which sales increased by 0.2% and prices increased by 6.8%; The basic operating profit was 9.9 billion euros (about 78.489 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 2.6%; Underlying operating margin increased to 16.7%. At present, the "30 strong brands" account for 75% of Unilever's revenue.
In the second half of 2023, the underlying sales of strong brands increased by 6.9%, of which sales increased by 2.7%, which was 210 basis points higher than the group, Sima said. In the first quarter of this year, they continued to deliver underlying sales growth of just over 6 percent, improving volume to 3.8 percent.
So far, Unilever has begun to bear fruit. But the next challenge left for it is, how do you achieve sustainable growth? Source: Happi website
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