From a research organization called, Kline & Company:

LITTLE FALLS, NJ, October 31, 2003 - From scented shower gels to prestige colognes to exfoliating creams designed specifically for male skin, the men�s grooming market has emerged as a multimillion-dollar business. Savvy marketers are now earning enormous profits off an increasingly image-conscious male population. But after tentatively dipping their toes into the slowly warming pool of men�s grooming products for so long, why have marketers now dived in headfirst? A newly proposed study by Kline & Company, THE U.S. MALE GROOMING MARKET 2003, will explore this question in detail.

�The recent influx of new products shows that marketers are finally taking a chance in this underexploited segment,� says Lenka Contreras, director of Kline�s Consumer Products Practice. �They�ve identified an attitude shift among men towards grooming products, and they�re now willing to devote resources to the category to encourage that shift further.�

On the one hand, this could be viewed as very annoying. On the other hand, if there's money available for these kinds of marketing surveys, the economy has to be bouncing back.