Increasing popularity among men? Investigating the needs for “sunscreen”! Latest Edition [2024]

There may be an impression that “sunburn = summer,” but when in the year does consumer interest for “sunburn” actually start to increase?

The graph below shows the trends in the number of people who searched for the word “sunscreen” over the two-year period from January 2022 to February 2024. In both years, the number of people searching has increased rapidly since March, peaking between May and July. You can see that people are searching even before the summer season officially begins.

Regarding the above graph, if we focus on 2023, we can see a drop in the number of people searching in June, unlike in 2022. On the other hand, if you look at the data for 2021, you can see the following: In 2021, the number of people searching peaked in June.

For reference, focusing on the Kanto-Koshin region, the Japan Meteorological Agency's statistics on precipitation during the rainy season, the end of the rainy season, and the rainy season are summarized as follows.

2021 - Around June 14th to around July 16th, Precipitation: 128%
2022 - Around June 6th to around July 23rd, Precipitation: 90%
2023 - Around June 8th to around July 22nd, Precipitation: 110%

It seems likely that demand for sunscreen in June did not decline because the rainy season started late in 2021 and because there was little precipitation and long periods of cloudy and sunny weather in 2022.

Next, let's take a closer look at the attributes of people who recently searched "sunscreen."

The male-to-female ratio of people searching is approximately 2:8, with women making up the majority of people searching, and looking at the age groups, people in their 30s account for the biggest ratio, with a higher proportion of people searching in their 20s and 30s than internet users overall. The needs of young people may be unique in the sun protection market, where sun protection is said to be important from a young age. Sunscreen is also a product that is often purchased at offline stores such as drugstores. With that said, it is possible that many younger people are highly motivated to go through the extra effort of researching online to find products that suit them.

The expansion of the men's cosmetics market has been a hot topic in recent years, but is the proportion of men increasing among all of the people searching?

Below is the trend in the gender ratio of people searching for sunscreen. Over the past two years, the percentage of men has remained stable at around 20%, so it does not seem that interest in sunscreens among men has increased more than that among women.

Click here for detailed trends in demand among men's cosmetics.

Next, when looking at the marital status and whether or not the people searching for sunscreen have children, about 60% are unmarried and about 65% have no children. This seems to be due to the high proportion of young people searching. However, if you look at the words searched in combination with sunscreen (described below), the word "baby" also ranks relatively high, indicating that there is a need to search for sunscreen for children.

Regarding annual household income, the proportion of households with an annual income of less than 4 million yen is slightly lower than that of all Internet users, and the proportion of households with an annual income of 6 to 8 million yen is slightly higher. Considering that the proportion of unmarried people was high, it is likely that many of the young people were in the middle-income bracket. Many people who search for sunscreen may be more concerned with the effectiveness of the product than its price and want to carefully compare and consider the products.

When we think of sunscreen, we associate it with spring and summer, and this is when the number of people searching actually increases. However, on the other hand, it can be said that those who are highly interested in sunscreen even during the winter are likely to be more beauty-conscious.

We will look at the rankings of words searched for in combination with "sunscreen" from March to August, when the number of people searching increases and peaks, and October to February, when the number of people searching eases down to a lower level.

Regarding the above data, let's call the left side spring/summer and the right side autumn/winter.

Spring/Summer is characterized by the fact that “Biore” is highly recalled among brands, there is a growing need for "spray" type products, and words such as "face,” “word-of-mouth” and “baby” are searched more than in fall/winter. The fact that it is easy to reapply even when sweating and can be used on the whole body without much effort is thought to be contributing to the increased attention on "sprays.”

In fall/winter, in terms of brands, "Nivea" ranks high along with "Biore," and brand names such as "Curel," "Orbis," and "Muji" rank higher than in spring/summer. People who are considering sunscreen in the fall/winter may have a strong need for brands that are more tailored to their individual skin concerns. In addition, it can be seen that the "tone-up" effect is expected in fall/winter sunscreen products. From these points, it can be said that the percentage of beauty-conscious people searching is higher in fall/winter than in spring/summer.

On the other hand, there is no difference in the fact that "recommended" is the most likely to be searched in combination with “sunscreen” in both spring/summer and fall/winter. Additionally, there were no major changes between seasons in the rankings for brand names such as "Allie" and "Anessa" and words such as "(makeup) primer" and "sensitive skin.”

The men's cosmetics market has been attracting attention recently. So, do men and women search for "sunscreen" differently? We will focus on spring/summer, when the number of people searching peaks, and compare search terms for men and women.

For women, the brand name "Biore" ranks first, but for men, the brand name ranks from 6th place or later, and relatively few men search for brand names. Also, for men, "men’s" ranks first, and words such as "use by date" and "order" are distinctive search words.

Among males searching during the same period, the page with the most traffic from searches made in combination with "men’s" was the following article by web media "LDK the Beauty Men." The content is designed to answer concerns such as “Should men also be wearing sunscreen to begin with?” and “What sunscreen products are suitable for men's skin?”

Regarding the combination keywords such as "use by date" and "order," the amount of traffic for both is small, so it is a reference value, but the traffic to the pages listed below were high. The questions that people seem to have are “Can you still use sunscreen from the previous year?” and “What order should I apply it when using it in combination with other skincare products or primers?” In order to attract male customers, it seems necessary to expand the content that answers the basic concerns that people new to sunscreen tend to have.

New products with added value in addition to UV protection, such as moisturizer and color control, are appearing one after another every year. What will happen in 2024 as demand peaks? Stay tuned.

▼Data from Dockpit was used in this case study. Dockpit is an online behavior analytics tool provided by VALUES, Inc., and it allows you to access online behavioral data (updated monthly) via your browser so you can research competitor websites and investigate trends. There is a FREE version of Dockpit, so if you are interested in using it, please register below.