Metrosexual Men Research Articles

Indonesian metrosexuals on Instagram: A phenomenological approach of male fashion style experiences in communicating the identity

This study analyses the self-representation of the Indonesian metrosexual community on Instagram, focusing on how they use the platform to showcase their fashion style and express their identity as consumers and members of society. Metrosexuality is a relatively new phenomenon in Indonesia, but it has quickly gained popularity, particularly among urban men. Metrosexual men are typically highly interested in fashion, beauty and maintaining a healthy lifestyle. They are also more brand-conscious than traditional consumers and are willing to invest in high-quality products. Social media has become an essential platform for the metrosexual community to express themselves and connect with others. Instagram, in particular, has become a popular platform for metrosexual men to share photos and videos of their outfits. This study examines how metrosexual consumers use Instagram to showcase their fashion style through their posts. The study employs a qualitative approach within the constructivist paradigm, using phenomenological research methods, including interviews, observations and a literature review. The informants comprised ten Indonesian male Instagram users with the highest followers and engagement. The study’s findings suggest that metrosexual consumers prioritize comfort and suitability over brand and product prestige for day-to-day activities and social media engagement. Also, the study reveals that metrosexual consumers use Instagram to express themselves and share their activities with others. Their commitment to their appearance extends beyond the online realm to offline settings. The study’s managerial implications underscore the importance of attending to male consumers for products such as clothing.

The Reality of Indonesian Metrosexual Men's Online Skincare Shopping and the Power of Cultural Industry

The purpose of this study is to find out the reality of metrosexual men's skincare shopping online which is driven by the power of the cultural industry. The research method in this study is virtual ethnography, which focuses on digital texts with Instagram as a medium for viewing the way in which metrosexual guys are disciplined. Six informants were identified by the researcher as part of the inquiry. Males, located in Jakarta, Bandung, and Surabaya, interested in facial skincare products, repeat purchasers, and visible via posts on their individual Instagram profiles are the characteristics of the informants in this study. The researcher used the snowball technique to conduct an informant search after obtaining informants who met the research criteria. The results of this study show that the reality of online skincare shopping driven by the power of the cultural industry for metrosexual men is carried out by metrosexual men with different practices. Besides that, the reality that has been built is that caring for facial skin is a form of self-respect and added value for everyone.

Purchase Intention on Grooming Products among Metrosexual Men: Whether Brand Awareness, Brand Loyalty and Self Concept Give Significant Relationship?

The objective of this paper is to study on purchase intention among metrosexual men living in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In total, three hypotheses are developed on the relationship between dependent variable, purchase intention with brand loyalty, brand awareness and self-concept. The hypotheses were tested through a Smart-PLS using data from a sample of 200 of respondents in Kuala Lumpur. This research has been conducted to identify best drivers affect purchase intention of skincare or grooming products among metrosexual men in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Most of independent variables are significantly correlated with Purchase Intention. The outcome of this study provides valuable understandings about metrosexual men who have a positive relationship between brand awareness, brand loyalty and self-concept towards purchasing skincare or grooming products. Furthermore, it also recommends numerous important insights for marketing experts in terms of designing effective marketing strategies to capture the growing market, especially in the context of male skincare and grooming products.

Insights on Metrosexuality and Consumption for Marketers in South-East Europe

This article explores the emergence of metrosexuals among millennial men in five South-East Europe (SEE) countries and their subculture of consumption. It qualitatively studies their beliefs about masculinity and metrosexuality, and it identifies their purchasing behaviours’ of grooming products online and offline by employing digital extended self-theory to provide strategic guidance for marketers and new insights for academics. This qualitative study includes ten semi-structured in-depth interviews and one hundred qualitative open-ended questionnaires. Additionally, it employs netnography to analyze the subculture of consumption of male metrosexuality in two representative blogs. The findings reveal that SEE millennial men embrace a dual identity, a traditional masculine identity, which co-exists with their metrosexuality, creating an emotional conflict as they differ along an accepted to extreme continuum. Metrosexual men are heavy users of personal grooming products favouring online purchasing (1) due to the frequent lack of retail availability in SEE countries and (2) their sense of embarrassment––the underlying emotional conflict. This study directly challenges the existing academic literature, which supports the dominance of traditional masculine identity among developing countries. For both marketers and academics, it presents a different market reality. Metrosexual males show a distinctly different self-identity online from offline. Social media provides them with a safe space, which is often subject to public embarrassment in offline settings. These findings have note-worthy implications for marketing practitioners including communication messaging, social media strategy, brand identity and presence, and product development. They provide insights for both practitioners and academics regarding the subculture of consumption of metrosexuals in the historically macho male-dominated SEE regions.

The strategy of digital marketing of Bening’s Clinic through Instagram

Men’s bodies have become a commodity in the capitalist industry to compete with women’s bodies. This is because in modern life, how you look is a way to show your freedom, personality, and confidence. There are a lot of facial treatment clinics now, and one of them has helped bring up the need for both men and women in modern society to care about how they look. Instagram was chosen for this study because it is a popular social media site. Instagram makes people compare how they look and makes them feel unhappy with their bodies, which can affect each person’s body image. The goal of this study was to find out what Bening’s Clinic’s digital marketing plan was for disciplining the metrosexual men’s body on Instagram. As a research method, the Krippendorff content analysis method was used to find out what the message was about and what it meant. The posts on Instagram by @beningsclinic_jakarta from October 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020, will be the unit of analysis. Researchers chose the Krippendorff content analysis method because they wanted to look at the content of Instagram posts in a quantitative way. The researcher then tries to figure out what the @beningsclinic_jakarta Instagram post is about, how to read the symbols, and what the interaction between the symbols means. The conclusion is that Bening’s Clinic Jakarta’s digital marketing strategy in the @beningsclinic_jakarta Instagram post includes ads that are more focused on bringing up men public figures from the entertainment world as an attraction and building fantasy for potential customers, especially metrosexual men who want to discipline their bodies through facial treatments.

Communication Experience and Self-Concept of Metrosexual Men in Indonesia

The passage of time and technological advancements can have an effect on human desires and lifestyles, and the emergence of the metrosexual man phenomenon is one of them. What makes metrosexual men interesting to study is the relationship between their self-concept and their interactions in their social environment. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to elucidate metrosexual men's communication experience and self-concept from a phenomenological perspective in terms of physical, psychological, social, and moral dimensions in the city of Bandar Lampung, Indonesia, Asia. The study is qualitative in nature and employed a phenomenological approach, with four metrosexual men being purposefully chosen as research subjects. The data were collected through unstructured interviews, observations, and literature review. The findings indicate that while the subjects under investigation have a pleasant communication experience with their family members, relatives, and friends, they do not have a positive experience communicating with the community. They have a positive self-concept, owing to their openness and confidence of all informants.
 
 Received: 24 January 2022 / Accepted: 25 March 2022 / Published: 5 May 2022

TRAITS OF MASCULINITY AS DEPICTED IN AVENGERS: ENDGAME MOVIE

The concept of masculinity has broadened as a result of gender equality. Masculinity refers to a culture in which men's and women's social roles are clearly defined. This research objective was to find out traits of masculinity of male characters in Avengers: Endgame movie based on the theory proposed by David & Brannon, Beynon (2007). The research method used a descriptive qualitative method. The data of this research are dialogues and scenes in Avengers: Endgame movie. The results represent that there were seven traits of masculinity found in the male characters of Avengers: Endgame movie were be a big wheel, be a sturdy oak, give 'em hell, new man as nurturer, new man as narcissist, new lad, and metrosexual men. The researcher also found out the dominant traits of masculinity namely new man as nurturer. Keywords: gender, masculinity, traits of masculinity, movie.

Indonesian Millennials: Building Metrosexual Capitalist Industry through Instagram #cowokmilenial

The digital era has changed the human lifestyle of social media use. Social media has become a platform not only to show “who one is” in cyberspace but also a platform for the capitalist industry to promote consumerism. As one of the most popular social media platforms, Instagram is utilized by the capitalist industry to achieve its goals of sales and growth. This study aims to determine how posts from Instagram with the hashtag. #cowokmilenial used by the capitalist industry build a metrosexual side. The researchers employed the qualitative approach with the semiotic method on Instagram through the hashtag #cowokmilenial during 2019. The findings in this study indicate that the capitalist industry constructs the meaning of metrosexual men among Indonesian millennials through skincare products (especially facial care/Rodeos soap) which promise to help them look handsome with a clean, bright, and acne-free face.

The discourse of men's facial care products in Instagram from the Foucauldian perspective

Talking about body appearance, of course, cannot be separated from metrosexual men who tend to place great importance on appearance, from the way of dress to rituals in caring for their bodies. The men's body has been viewed and utilised as a commodity from the capitalist industry to rival the women's body. This study seeks to explore the discourse Erto's Men as one of facial care product for men built through posts on Instagram because Erto's Men is the face care product that appears the most in searches via #metrosexual on Instagram. The method used in this research is a critical discourse analysis on the @ertosmen Instagram post from June until August 2020. The results obtained in this study indicate that Erto's Men as a men facial skincare product builds a disciplining men's bodies by juxtaposing metrosexual representations through clean and bright skin, and with masculine representations through beard growth. So that through this representation, Erto's Men also helps build a health discourse for men through masculine concepts.

Masculine and metrosexual: Indonesian actor’s clothing style on Instagram from the Foucauldian perspective

This study seeks to explore the fashion styles of Indonesian actors on Instagram from Foucault’s perspective. Appearance is a demand that is not only aimed at women but also for men. Appearance is an important part, especially for men, so that also increases the metrosexual side. The enhancement of men’s appearance in clothing has increased metrosexuality. The metrosexual side has been viewed by society as indicating the waning masculine side of a man. Thus, some people believe that metrosexual men lose their identity entirely because excessive attention to appearance is associated with women identity. The method used in this study was the Krippendorff content analysis carried out on Joe Taslim’s Instagram account Instagram posts from October 2019 to February 2020. Joe Taslim, known as an Indonesian action actor, is a figure with a masculine appearance chosen in this study to represent a masculine men figure but still looks metrosexual. The results of this study indicate that Joe Taslim’s Instagram is used as a medium in creating fantasies about the men body metrosexual, which is run by the capitalist industry to create a masculine impression.

Symbolic Consumption of Advertisements for Male Perfumes: Effects of Advertising Appeals and Product Involvement on Advertising Effectiveness

Because of the trend of metrosexual men, numerous cosmetic brands that originally focused on female customers have extended their product lines to cover the male market, and symbolic consumption in advertisements for male perfumes has flooded society. This study adopted a 3 × 2 between-subjects experiment method to examine the effect of two independent variables, namely the appeal of various types of male perfume advertisement (vanity appeal, admiration appeal, and sexual appeal) and the product involvement of consumers (high and low), on attitudes toward the advertisement (Aad), attitudes toward the brand (Ab), and purchase intention (PI). This study revealed the following: (1) The types of advertising appeal do affect the Aad, Ab, and PI of consumers; (2) consumers’ product involvement also affects their Aad, Ab, and PI; (3) vanity appeal and admiration appeal both result in optimal Aad, Ab, and PI of consumers with high product involvement; and (4) sexual appeal results in optimal Aad and Ab for consumers with low product involvement but has no effect on their PI. In today’s advertising and marketing business, how a product is made to carry certain symbolic meanings has become particularly crucial; company owners must not overlook the influence of symbolic consumption. This study’s results can serve as a reference for company owners and advertisers when planning future advertising and marketing strategies.

The Sexualization of Male Body in Perfume Advertisements in the Period of 2010-2013

This research explains male body sexualization and discloses its motives in the 21<sup>st</sup> century’s American society through four perfume advertisements in the period of 2010 to 2013 which employ the unforeseen eroticized and sexualized images of men that raise questions among male body. This research is conducted using semiotics and socio-cultural approach. The findings show sexualization of male body is implemented through nudity, ambiguous sexuality and narrative tales & concepts in contemplation of extending market into metrosexual men, heterosexual women and homosexual men. They reveal the new portrayal of men’s masculinity –i.e metrosexuality.

METROSEXUAL IDENTITY: PERCEPTION OF MALAYSIAN MALE CONSUMERS TOWARDS COSMETIC AND SKINCARE PRODUCT

The main purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions of cosmetics and skin care products in Malaysian metrosexual men. The scope of this study is limited to Malaysian males aged between 20 – 50 years old. A total of 105 respondents were interviewed and only 100 complete interviews was used. The results show that majority of respondents believed that cosmetics are for ladies while skin care products are associated with protection. Respondents also stated that men who use cosmetics and skin care products in daily life are normal. This study suggests that the relationship between consumer trends and social acceptance demonstrates the influence of new consumer culture. Moreover, the new consumer culture brings the opportunity to the cosmetics industry which has been saturated by female consumers.

Pengaruh Citra Merek Dan Loyalitas Merek Terhadap Perluasan Merek (Penelitian Pada Produk Gatsby Face Wash Di Wilayah DKI Jakarta)

Awareness of the importance of facial skin care is not only owned by women but also by men, or known as metrosexual men. PT. Mandom Indonesia. Tbk is one of the pioneer of men's cosmetics industry with its Gatsby brand. Gatsby successfully leads the top brand with its Gatsby hair oil products and extends the brand by launching Gatsby face wash. But the Gatsby face wash was unable to follow success like Gatsby hair oil. This study aims to determine the effect of brand image and brand loyalty to the extension of the brand Gatsby face wash in the area of Jakarta using 750 respondent. The results obtained from this study were analyzed using descriptive method, correlation, and structural equation modeling (SEM). The results of this study indicate that the Gatsby brand has a good image by customers and consumers loyal to the Gatsby brand; Brand image and brand loyalty are strongly influential on Gatsby face wash products; Brand image and brand loyalty have an influence on brand extension on Gatsby face wash products. But there are some indicators that make the strength of each variable to be weak. Keywords: brand image, brand loyalty, brand extension, Gatsby face wash

KONSTRUKSI PRESENTASI DIRI: STUDI PADA PRIA METROSEKSUAL DI INSTANSI PEMERINTAHAN

Urban modernization has affected the behavior of the people in it. Today, real phenomenon is the emergence of an urban men’s lifestyle who really cares about her physical appearance like women. Previously, this lifestyle initially seen as hegemony and monopoly media celebrities, now replicated by people in everyday appearance, including a group of men in certain professions. The phenomenon of the metrosexual man in the government bureaucracy becomes interesting to study which stereotypes that the government bureaucracy are closed and rigid culture. Construction self-presentation shows an overview of social identity and self esteem. This study used a qualitative descriptive exploratory approach through the case study method. With purposive sampling technique, researchers determined the study subjects according to general characteristics of the metrosexual men. Researchers conducted in-depth interviews on four informants metrosexual men in the Ministry of Finance with a different of profession, age, and status. The conclusion is informant’s lifestyle more positively oriented. They tend narcissism, tidy, fashionoriented and more consumptive. Through informan’s self-presentation, the results show that bodyguard professions more recently adopting the metrosexual lifestyle than any other professions. Based on the characteristics of the AIO, the results showed four types of metrosexual men lifestyle, among other types of sport, trendy, automotive and artistic. Motivation of informan’s behavior in line with the general metrosexual cycle. Diverse motives behind the desire informant lifestyle look attractive especially to the opposite sex, work demands, and also increase comfort in social interaction. However, the phases of the metrosexual were experienced by the informants ‘non-linear’ as in general. While associated with the consumption patterns, the entire informants have high interest to the consumer. The findings showed that all informants included in the category of impulsive buyers who think rationally and selectively.

Metrosexual Men: Intention to Purchase Facial Care Product, Attitude or Price?

Metrosexual Men: Intention to Purchase Facial Care Product, Attitude or Price?

A Case Analysis of Appearance Management Behaviors and Body Characteristics of Metrosexual Men in their 20s

A Case Analysis of Appearance Management Behaviors and Body Characteristics of Metrosexual Men in their 20s

The Portrayal of Elements Historically Associated with Masculine and Feminine Domains in Lad and Metrosexual Men’s Lifestyle Magazines

Differing presentations of masculinity exist that appear to differentially embody elements historically associated with masculine and feminine domains. Metrosexuality, for instance, has been associated with more feminine characteristics and lifestyle choices (Simpson, 1994a) while laddist masculinity was presumed to be more traditionally masculine given its focus on bachelorhood and hedonistic consumption. The present research investigated representations of stereotypical or hyper-masculine (sports, strength, cars) and stereotypical or hyper-feminine (fashion, beauty, dieting) content in a metrosexual and laddist men’s lifestyle magazine. Qualitative and quantitative analyses suggest that the magazines differed in the amount of hyper-masculine material related to sports and strength, but not cars, with laddist magazines portraying this information more than metrosexual magazines. In terms of stereotypical or hyper-feminine material, both laddist and metrosexual magazines depicted fashion frequently, but the metrosexual magazines did portray this information significantly more often. The magazines did not differ in the frequency of portrayals of beauty or dieting; however they did differ in how they portrayed these topics. Implications for masculinities are discussed.

Metrosexual Men in Thai Classical Literature

Metrosexual Men in Thai Classical Literature