Welcome to the Kleber & Associates blog! Are we still ignoring the male consumer? Here’s the latest on.
A few years ago, K&A put together a white paper on “Missing Males,” and how many – if not most – marketers tend to ignore the male consumer, focusing almost completely on female head of households &/or moms.
Advertising Age recently published further information about how marketers still have yet to embrace this growing consumer base of men. It highlighted a Yahoo survey in which more than half of men said they were the primary grocery shopper for their household… even though a small majority of packaged goods actually speak to them via advertisements. Yet, men still tend to wind up at the butt-end of a joke, implying they’re incompetent, goofy or aloof – especially when it comes to food and consumer goods for the home.
Have dads become more important targets for marketers over moms? That’s not quite the case, as household decision makers are still by and large women. For some, however, there’s something to be desired in advertisements and marketing in which men are left out.
It may be a difficult line to draw, but some brands have revamped their M.O., including Jif peanut butter’s addition to its “choosy moms” tagline and Kellogg’s targeted campaigns on ESPN.com. While the female head of household may very well make the majority of purchasing decisions, it’s clear that men simply can’t be ignored in advertising campaigns. The good news: a fair amount of white space exists here for specifically targeting men. Let’s see what they come up with…
