Buzz Marketing

In Consumed: The Bodygroom: The electric-razor technology wasn’t very edgy, but the the marketing was.

About a year ago, Philips Norelco began the push to sell a device called the Bodygroom as a product to help men shave areas of the body other than the face. At the time, according to Jim Olstrom, director of the home division of the retail-data collection firm NPD Group, the idea of a product specifically made for below-the-neck shaving barely existed. Today, the Bodygroom is one of at least four products in what’s seen as a distinct and fast-growing category; nearly 250,000 body-hair trimmers have been bought in the United States in the last year, according to NPD data (which does not count Wal-Mart). “Nobody was talking about this category,” Olstrom says. “Now it’s completely out in the open.” …

Continue reading at the NYT Magazine site.