Generational and economic changes are contributing to men taking a more active role in daily household decisions. Based on a recent survey by Yahoo! half or more of the dads polled say they have increased decision making roles on various product categories. While this shift is still occurring, the article highlights marketers have not made the appropriate adjustments to their advertising – 66% of dads felt ignored by apparel advertising, and 57% felt alienated by child and baby care ads.
Additionally, the article highlights that dads tend to be more avid information seekers. The internet was identified as a primary information source, with review sites and ads as the top two online resources for products and services.
This article nicely highlights the importance of monitoring not only a target market, but also continuously analyzing consumers that have previously been excluded from a marketers focus. A shift in gender raises many interesting question on how this change may impact market share, product development, and overall marketing techniques that have traditionally always been focused on women.
Questions:
- Why do you think advertisers have been slow to respond to this shift in consumer decision making?
- What differences do you anticipate there being in the buying decision process between moms and dads?
- Is this an opportunity for brands with less market share to gain by targeting more of a male consumer?
- When industries that are traditionally male-dominated rebound, will these shifts in decision making maintain, or do you feel they will revert back?
I think it is hard for some companies to change or refocus because their advertising and traditional target markets become part of their DNA. To me it is like Wrangler jeans. I have never bought any and don't plan to because I see them as a traditional western/country style or farming jean, two things I do not participate in at all and don't plan to. They tried recently to branch out by doing an ad campaign with a seemingly broad appeal person, until his sex scandal, Brett Favre. Even in doing this they picked a premier football player but one who is from the south and speaks like he from the south. I think they probably felt better in selecting a spokesperson who would not offend their core consumers. I think it is the same struggle for female dominated advertisers. While Tide spends a fortune on Nascar racing, I can't ever recall a TV spot where they showed a guy doing laundry.
ReplyDeleteI do think there is an opportunity for brands to gain more market share by targeting men but it needs to be subtle. Going to extreme in the other direction could offend their current base. Maybe a better alternative is to create a brand extension or sub-brand with a similar but separate product or a new brand all together.
The article is interesting. One thing that would help is to know where the polling was conducted only from urban or rural areas. That could help explain why the marketers might be slow to respond as how representative the poll population is to the real target market for the companies/products. Though the growing trend is of Mr. Moms, some companies think that the trend is not affecting their industry and are affraid to respond to quickyly due to the uncertainty of relevance of the trend to the their industry.
ReplyDeleteThere was an add about hardware tools like hammer being made for women, that indicated that women are changing roles at home. In short, with changing buyer / consumer group comes the changes in their goals, beliefs and perceptions. Companies need to understand the new emerging consumer group's perceptions and behaviours related to the product.
It is an opportunity for every company to gain more market share not only the low market share companies. If the marketing is changed to address emerging consumer group withot elianating the core base, the companies can ride the new trensd wave into gaining market share.
Very interesting and true article! Men are getting more involved with children and play “soccer mom” style role. It is amazing that marketers are not going fast enough to catch up with this growing trend. Car manufacturers are working toward building “Man Van” to cater to Mr. Moms, hopefully most automobile manufacturers get on this trip.
ReplyDeleteUnlike moms, like the article suggests stay home dad do a lot of research in buying the right product with less impulsive purchasing and more of think before you buy. This will eventually shift the buying power and marketers should consider this factor.
Elain
ReplyDeleteInteresting article. It's hard to say if our current environment of more men being at home will remain. Times are tough right now and I think businesses are not going to jump to changing their marketing approach to compliment men and how they think, buy, etc. Eventhough there might be more men at home today with more women in the workplace, to me I still think couples are balancing and sharing the duties of running the household. For that, women are still engaged and make a lot of the decisions regarding the buying and purchasing of items for the house/home. For this, I honestly believe that companies are doing their research analysis and are monitoring the number of men shopping vs. women and more importantly their purchasing habits. A change will occur if today's environment continues but I think it will be gradual.
Advertisers may be slow in responding to the shift in consumer decision-making as the transparency of the situation may be contradicted by point of sale data. The article highlights that men are avid information seekers, and actively participate in the research portion of the product selection process. If point of sale, coupon redemption, and survey feedback data reveal that women represent a larger portion of the actual buyers in the market, then men may continue to be overlooked as a silent partner in the process.
ReplyDeleteAs a dad, I review products more closely for their functionality, robustness of design, efficiency, and the overall conveniences that they offer along with some visual aesthetics. My wife often reviews products more carefully relative to the child’s needs, stage of growth and development, and overall ease of acceptance for the child. Brands have a great opportunity to exploit the male segment by well-positioned value propositions (Dyson) that have some appeal to men. Target marketing with value bundles may also secure market share as presented in the example about the diaper company offering beer coupons for men working through life stage changes.
The rebounding economy may have less correlation with decision making in an information abundant environment where research can efficiency be conducted via smartphones. Traditional gender roles are seemingly less prevalent in the consumer demographic where income and social factors result in dual income families engaging roles of equity in earning, spending, household responsibility, child raising, and decision making. Market segmentation should definitely include Mr. Mom as a target consumer.
Since i live in a Mr. Mom household I can definitely relate. My husband does almost all the shopping. and like the article says, he does a great deal of research on pricing and functionality for almost everything. THe bigger the purchase, the longer he spends comparing situations. However, I think we are still unique in that I have stepped away from those functions at our house. In most cases with working mom's/wives, we're still doing it all. Maybe they haven't moved the marketing because they know the women are still so heavily involved in those decisions.
ReplyDeleteYes, now that advertisers have polled dads/men, etc. they found that they felt like they were excluded or ignored. However, were the advertisers really slow to accommodate the shift??? I would believe that advertisers in most cases are questioned or triggered once a particular company realizes their revenues have decreased and profits have declined for items in their product line. In other cases, advertisers take a proactive approach to continuously monitor the market conditions and be prepared in shift or particular trends. Perhaps even though men are now just as heavily involved in the decision making progress for these types of products, it still hasn't resulted in a drastic change in revenues for product providers. In response to the second question, I believe that males do typically research major purchases (monetary) or important purchases in a rather in-depth lengthy fashion. As for shifts in the trend, I still believe that males should be considered in future advertisements even if male-dominated industries rebound. I believe it is much more common to find households today that have both parents working. In general, I believe men/fathers now take a more proactive approach with interacting with the family and helping out around the house than years ago.
ReplyDeleteMarketing household products towards women has been going on since there has been marketing of products. I believe that though the trend of more men staying at home or participating more equally in household activities has been happening gradually for many years. However, the relatively recent changes in the economy has changed this from being an outlying trend, to a more prominent trend. It is doubtful that in the midst of the recession, that marketers were anticipating the amount of men that would be at home, and for the period of time that it has transpired.
ReplyDeleteMen and women can have different buying processes, technical research is often done by men prior to the purchase. Where a lot of women will use the 'word of mouth' methods, especially when it comes to baby products. Women many times will trust what their friends recommend over what the company says. Considering that the although the economy is reportedly coming out of the recession, there are still many men staying at home with their children, or simply spending an increased amount of time with them, brands would do well to seize this opportunity to gain market share by targeting the male consumer. I think that once men become more involved in the buying process, that it will continue even if more men get back into the work force.
Marketing professionals should be culturally adept and have knowledge of influencers in the retail products and service advertising.
ReplyDeleteIn the westernised environments the line is thinner between the genders and the roles they perform. So it will help to have socialogical understanding and draw wisdom from the knowledge gained in other parts of the world in similar contexts and apply it to blue ocean targets for similar products.
In the case of netizens, the marketing is more for the universal citizen who are predominantly baby boomers and the gen next. These are more no nonsense category and having least amount of time to be influenced to buy.
targeted advertisements (based on the history of searches made in the recent past) will be more successful online.