Walks Like A Man. Buys Like A Woman.
Men have officially become the “next big thing” for marketers. So, should we just forget our women’s market knowledge and shift attention completely toward the male species? No. Instead, the research and experts cited in an AdWeek article by Andrew Adam Newman suggest that what has been true for the women’s market is now true for men as well.
For example, recent studies (many of which are referenced in Newman’s piece) show that a lot more men are making dinner, doing housework and managing the kids. But, you’d never know it from the way brands are advertising their products.
Newman quotes Jack Essig, publisher of Rodale’s Men’s Health magazine saying that he “believes there’s a gender-based blind spot in home brands today that is the inverse of one by car companies a couple decades ago.
‘Ten or 15 years ago, car companies were speaking primarily to men and assuming men were making the majority of car-purchasing decisions, only for research to show that women were really weighing in,’ Essig says. ‘I think the same is true for a lot of home decor and other home brands when it comes to speaking to men. They want their home to reflect their personality as well.’
I agree. As with the marketing to women movement that began roughly a decade ago, there’s one big misstep to avoid in trying to better reach men: swinging the pendulum too far “male.” You risk alienating plenty of men who don’t see themselves as quite that macho, and, you risk turning off any women who might also happen to be in your customer base.
Yet, that reactionary gender pendulum swing is a marketing culture pattern, isn’t it? Brands certainly rushed to “pink” when they first started paying attention to the specifics of how women buy (thus inspiring my book, Don’t Think Pink). Now I fear we may see a rush to “blue” as brands go too far masculine in their mad dash to appeal to “all men everywhere.” Of course, the consuming men we’d like to reach are actually starting to accept/embrace their perhaps more feminine ways of buying – making the stereotypically male, linear marketing approach a bit less likely to succeed.
Here’s my point: (Most) men and women think using some balance, not either/or, of their male and female brain traits. Consumers have many reasons to become more holistic in their purchase processes – and I don’t see that changing in this abundant, 24/7 shopping culture (though the economy may give their decision-making an extra “creative” limitation).
Women already and commonly wind along their purchasing paths using both their linear and their more emotional ways of thinking. This may have evolutionary origins – starting with having to listen for baby cries, while gathering nuts and berries – all the while trying to keep their abode safe from intruders while their men were off hunting. Men, while certainly having the capability to use both sides of their brains, have been more rewarded in society by continually looking through the provider/status filter. Today they no longer need be off “hunting” in order to fulfill their manly missions, and they, like women, can (and may well like to!) engage with the buying process more fully.
Men are starting to think and buy differently because society is allowing them to do so. It makes sense. So, just as with women, marketing must become more relevant to who they are now – not who they were yesterday.
Those of you reading this have long since learned a bit about serving feminine buying traits. So, we have nothing to fear – and possibly plenty to gain – in the consumer that walks like a man and buys (more) like a woman!
