NewsBytes: Post-Feminist Era Men, No More Golf “for Women, Health & Wellness Stays Strong
1) Recent Social Technologies/Spike TV research shows that "guys are still deciphering what it means to be a man in the post-feminist world," and, as Social Technologies Senior Analyst Chris Carbone further explains: "Life is complex, and even contradictory and—just like women—guys have more options for identity than ever before." Just as with the women’s market – today’s marketers need to learn and reflect those many options for male identity and how they influence the buying behaviors of men. What you’ve been learning about how to reach women over the years will come in very handy.
2) Conde Nast just announced the end of Golf for Women . According to an article by MediaPost’s Eric Sass, the magazine couldn’t garner the advertisers or audience that plain old Golf Digest could (and even that title is suffering somewhat at this point in time). So, will women who play golf have to suffer without a publication to serve them, or will the publisher do what it probably should have done initially and just make sure there was content for all in their stronger, non-female-focused golf publication? Golf fanatics would likely embrace such an approach (done well, it shouldn’t alienate one gender or the other, but be really spot on for golf nuts). This doesn’t mean adding pages of "fashion" or "diet" tips either…
3) Health and wellness devotees are not yet losing their faith in this economic downturn. Rather, the core consumers in this category are making creative choices in order to continue purchasing their favorite organic products and live their mission. According to a MediaPost article by Sarah Mahoney: "The Natural Marketing Institute says that retail sales within the U.S. consumer packaged goods health and wellness industry hit $102.8 billion in 2007, representing growth of 15% from 2006–and it doesn’t seen signs of a pullback next year." I certainly see this in my granola-y neck of the woods, but didn’t realize it was quite so noticeable on the national scale. What does this mean for your brand? A simple "health/wellness wash" won’t do, because these consumers are looking way deeper than printed words on an updated label.
