March 20, 2013
BrainTrust Query: Brand Messaging Focused Only on Women Is Stuck in the Past
Through a special arrangement, what follows is an excerpt of an article from WayfinD, a quarterly e-magazine filled with insights, trends and predictions from the retail and foodservice experts at WD Partners.
It’s the conventional wisdom touted daily via a thousand PowerPoint slides in a thousand new business and campaign pitches: Women drive 80 percent of consumer purchases.
And it’s simply not true anymore.
Yet dozens of studies have searched in vain for the equivalent rethink of gender stereotypes in advertising. In a recent meta-analysis of 64 advertising content studies, sexist stereotypes dominate: Women are three times more likely than men to be depicted as a product user vs. an authority figure; four times more likely to be shown in a dependent role; and 3.5 times more likely to be in a domestic environment, rather than a work environment.
Brands that ignore demographic changes and evolving social norms never evolve enough to capture the loyalty of the next generation. The outright and persistent neglect of the male demo — especially Millennial males and the fast-growing Hispanic target market — is bad marketing strategy.
Over the last six months, this truth was put into sharp relief as I talked to dozens of men across America, from the Midwest to the West Coast, across all generations — Millennial, Generation X and Boomer alike. I found that younger men increasingly find and shape their identity through shopping. Consider that, compared to Boomer men, Millennial males increasingly self-identify as fashionable and trendy — 38 percent of Millennial men compared to 16 percent of Boomer men, according to WD Partner’s resulting study, The Continuum Of Cool. Twice as many Millennial men say they are willing to pay more for brands that reflect their personal style — or 26 percent of Millennials compared to 13 percent of Boomer men.
Brands ignoring young men is a little ironic, considering the make-up of ad agency creative departments. According to one recent academic study, the creative departments’ ratio is still 2.3 men to every 1 woman. Yet once we get out of the realms of consumer electronics and pick-up trucks, the men in that world (or the brand directors they work for) seem to pitch their messaging to women.
In an increasingly egalitarian consumer culture, in which gender roles are less rigid, more fluid and constantly evolving, brands must work harder to understand how this impacts emerging demographic groups. Yes, some categories — the aforementioned consumer electronics — need to pay more attention to women. But for a large number of brands, from fashion to retail to packaged goods, it’s time to start paying attention to men. Perhaps, if more brands do, the lag in what’s happening in the real world — 50/50 parenting, stay-at-home dads, husbands that make the grocery lists and do the shopping — will start to be accurately and authentically represented in the marketplace and the image of women in advertising will get out of the ’50s and into the real world.
BrainTrust
Recent Discussions
Discussion Questions
Do you believe Millennial males are driving purchase decisions more than their Boomer fathers did? If so, how can retailers take full advantage of the opportunity? How will advertising approaches need to be overhauled to reach the Millennial generation?
Poll
Whether we believe it is irrelevant. What is relevant is whether it is true or not, and this is an empirical question. I would have loved to see some data that says males are making X% of the grocery decisions (or had a hand in X%) and Y% of the purchases. Without that data, it’s hard to conclude that advertising of CPG products is off target.
Millennials in relationships don’t believe in pooling their money. What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours. This is the opposite of their boomer parents who pooled their money and designated one person as the controller of the checkbook.
Millennial males having grown up getting what they wanted when they wanted it, are keeping as much control of their purchasing as possible. Are they doing the grocery shopping? Probably not, but they are a lot more involved than their fathers in every other aspect of purchasing.
The only way most Boomer men acquire new clothes is by their significant other purchasing them for them. The Millennial male has taken control of their fashion purchases and the Millennial female couldn’t be happier.
I totally agree that the brand messaging focused only on women has become trite, cliche, and by the way is no longer the right strategy. Smart CPG companies are recognizing and understanding that end-users are the key to success, and that men do indeed choose many of their own products, be it directly or even if in some cases, still indirectly. But if CPG companies will open their eyes and walk through any drug store or mass merchandiser these days, they might be shocked to observe all the non-female humans now roaming through the aisles shopping for their favorite brands.
I think that with each generation, males become more and more brand conscious and drive purchase decisions. Households made up of two-parent environments often share more responsibilities, leaving men with more of the decision-making about what is purchased for the home.
Advertising to a specific demographic without turning others off is a slippery slope. We saw how The Gap went for cool and hip and totally alienated their core base. The important thing to market to all people is to offer innovation and a fresh outlook. It would be interesting to research which brands that have done a re-fresh have been successful in not only pulling their target demographic along, but gaining new devotees in the process.
There are some companies that are waking up to the fact that women work. Tide has been running a series of ads featuring dads talking about laundry, while folding and talking with small kids. With all the discussion about “Lean In” it’s nice to see that some brands understand that women harbor plenty of ambition.
If this were all true, retailers would be already switching how they spend their advertising dollars. And maybe they are. Retailers need to spend their advertising dollars toward what works and not try to spend them in order to train various demographic groups to be force fed. What might be accurately and authentically represented in the real world demographics does not mean consumer spending is equally represented.
With the average age of marriage for males increasing to about 27, it certainly makes sense that more boomer males are making purchases for themselves. Once the habit of purchasing for themselves before marriage, there is no reason to believe the habit will disappear. This is just another example of the fragmentation of the onsumer market.
I agree with Michelle’s points. Some of this is age-related; Boomer men are older now and care a lot less about staying up with the latest fashions than they did in their 20s and 30s. But by and large, gimme a break. The ads are sexist, and women are made to look stupid or subservient. (Whereas a lot of the ads that depict men show them as merely stupid.) I’d say that if you’re going to stay with using women in most TV spots, at least make them people of average intelligence who can make their own decisions.
On another note, the ads on TV for Viagra, Cialis and such are absurd and insulting to men. Either you’re a stupid macho male who thinks the way to fix a boiling-over radiator is to pour in cold water, or you’re a condescending male, shaking your head and smiling/nearly snickering, as you watch your stupid and subservient wife dancing alone to her own music. And every time the Cialis ad comes on, with the man and the woman in separate bathtubs (um, you can’t get much done that way), my wife and I break out laughing.
I don’t see any evidence that “it’s not true anymore.” Where is your data? I see purchases by men in everywhere but hardware and home improvement moving to the internet, leaving an even greater share of traditional retail to female shoppers. If the author’s premise is correct then why aren’t Macy’s Belks, Nordstrom selling power tools and firearms?
You might have a valid argument for a few major metro areas, but the nation as a whole is still seeing a growth in the power of the female shopper.
First off, yes, millennial males do drive more buying decisions than their dads. Some of this is simply age related and some is generation related. Needless to say, the males are definitely in the picture.
Moving on to advertising approaches, well…since most Millennial’s—male and female—pretty much don’t watch ads, who is in them and how they are depicted is becoming less relevant. We’re looking at a less ‘pitch’ more ‘personalize’ world.
With personalized campaigns, that should bring retailers closer to the true picture of the person, their likes, character, personality. That’s what I’m thinkin’….
For much of my (now prehistoric) career as a paid observer of the retail business, I have heard practitioners (male and female) refer to their customer as “she.”
This was certainly reflected in the content of slice-of-life advertisements, day-time television programming, and the allocation of floor space in department stores. All of those practices were mass-market oriented and based on sweeping assumptions about consumer behavior.
Those gender role assumptions deserve to be challenged today. Cultural norms are giving way to a spectrum of attitudes and behaviors among various consumer segments. Millennials may act differently from Boomers on average, but today’s practitioners must slice the matrix more finely than that.
Savvy ad folks will move beyond the search for the one unique selling proposition for their product and substitute a new pursuit—unique persuasive propositions for each relevant population segment. That requires doing your market research homework. Gender will still matter sometimes. The data will tell you when.
I finally realize why I shop at the dollar store for generic CPG products—I’m completely turned off by the CPG ads featuring only women as if men are not relevant in the purchase decision or usage.
Maybe the male-dominated marketing department at CPGs are too “macho” to create personas showing men actually buying CPG products, collecting coupons and maintaining their own households.
There must be some studies about male grocery shopping, but I don’t recall any at the moment. However, it’s generally accepted that more married men nowadays are shopping for groceries and cooking. Some supermarkets even have “men” aisles to lure this new breed of shopper to the HBC department. My hunch is that Millennial males are leading the change, whether they are married not not.
There is more to this than just Millennial males. Each category and brand needs to dig a little deeper. The household structure in the US has been changing for years. The high percentage of working wives has pushed some shopping onto the males in the traditional married household. Married households have a decreasing percentage of households. Single household percentage is increasing. People are marring later, which is partly driving this change.
Part of the reason the past has been filled with marketing, store design and products for “her” more so than “him” is because she’s been an easier sell. She listens more, is open to new ideas and believes in exploration (which ads to basket size) and in general, likes shopping more.
And we still see some of that in our studies; men rank brands lower in surveys we’ve done and when they don’t like something, they’re harsher critics.
But things are definitely changing. New ad techniques like Old Spice, new store designs like Varvatos and Double RL and new products for hair and aging have really begun to turn the tide and make shopping and buying much more palatable for men.
And in the end, it does seem a little ridiculous to pay as little attention to 49% of the population as we have in the past. Hard to imagine another segment that size that’s received so little attention. So, here’s to keeping it up! We’ll all be better off for it.
The comment above about floor space allocation made me laugh. I’m an older male Millennial at 31 and don’t really care to shop much mainly because most stores don’t have much to offer men. For years I’d accompany the wife to various malls to shop and come back with nothing. When the wife would ask why I’d say because there really wasn’t much to look at.
Most stores have nothing for men. The bigger ones that do, have maybe 10-15% of the floor dedicated to men’s stuff. It’s a joke. Even Macy’s “men’s” store is still half filled with beddings, towels, and dishes…come on! I once joked about creating a real men’s store with apparel, hardware, automotive, electronics, and such all under one roof. Or at least put some couches and sports center on in a little section so bored husbands have something to do. 😉
I believe Millennial males are more likely to live alone or with same gender roommates—partnered or not—than their fathers’ were and therefore the answer to the question is, “Yes.”
Retailers need to stop thinking in terms of traditional gender biased ways to improve sales to all their customers. The world has changed—years ago!
Advertising is going to have to develop a more interactive model to be effective.
I don’t think my mom knew a single stay-at-home dad. I’m in my 40s and can think of four off the top of my head. I’m sure people in their 30s know even more. I also think men pay much more attention to fashion than they ever have before.
I’m not sure how to say this exactly, but the few ads I do see for men that are related to fashion and home life tend to give off a feminine spin. Maybe men in advertising have a harder time relating to stay-at-home dads. Maybe they need to bring in more stay-at-home dads and Millennial men into opinion centers for studies to review ads. But I agree that advertisers are lacking in this area.
Absolutely, Millennial males are driving purchase decisions. It’s not just the ability to make money, but also to keep it. Millennial men are cooking and cleaning (maybe not as frequently as they should). Also the economy has forced other men cohorts into sharing home chores so the dynamics have been altered.
Male shopping dynamics will be different than females, and retailers need to invest in consumer research to understand how to reach all, not just Millennial males.
I agree with Dr. Stephen Needel’s comments.
It is all a matter of what you are selling and who you are selling it to. Whether we want to believe it or not, some stereotypes are still going strong and that is evident in advertising.
Mass advertising plays to the majority. You might find millennial males over-indexing on some buying decision than boomers, but if they make up a small portion of the population then mass advertising will not hit them. The alternative, of course, is to segment the advertising and hit the smaller pockets of customers with ads that will speak to them.
The commentary here is too focused on large segments: male vs. female, boomer vs. millenial. This is a time of multiple segmentation, with the rise of global consumer traffic, and certainly cross-city, cross-state traffic—all driven by digital. Of course, the male demographic has become much more powerful in purchase decisions—but it varies by product category, distribution channel, etc.
The simplistic question of “should brand messaging pay more attention to men?” is answered by “of course,” but shouldn’t end there.
This is a complex time and the path forward is not as simple as determining male vs. female focus.
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Whether we believe it is irrelevant. What is relevant is whether it is true or not, and this is an empirical question. I would have loved to see some data that says males are making X% of the grocery decisions (or had a hand in X%) and Y% of the purchases. Without that data, it’s hard to conclude that advertising of CPG products is off target.
Millennials in relationships don’t believe in pooling their money. What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is yours. This is the opposite of their boomer parents who pooled their money and designated one person as the controller of the checkbook.
Millennial males having grown up getting what they wanted when they wanted it, are keeping as much control of their purchasing as possible. Are they doing the grocery shopping? Probably not, but they are a lot more involved than their fathers in every other aspect of purchasing.
The only way most Boomer men acquire new clothes is by their significant other purchasing them for them. The Millennial male has taken control of their fashion purchases and the Millennial female couldn’t be happier.
I totally agree that the brand messaging focused only on women has become trite, cliche, and by the way is no longer the right strategy. Smart CPG companies are recognizing and understanding that end-users are the key to success, and that men do indeed choose many of their own products, be it directly or even if in some cases, still indirectly. But if CPG companies will open their eyes and walk through any drug store or mass merchandiser these days, they might be shocked to observe all the non-female humans now roaming through the aisles shopping for their favorite brands.
I think that with each generation, males become more and more brand conscious and drive purchase decisions. Households made up of two-parent environments often share more responsibilities, leaving men with more of the decision-making about what is purchased for the home.
Advertising to a specific demographic without turning others off is a slippery slope. We saw how The Gap went for cool and hip and totally alienated their core base. The important thing to market to all people is to offer innovation and a fresh outlook. It would be interesting to research which brands that have done a re-fresh have been successful in not only pulling their target demographic along, but gaining new devotees in the process.
There are some companies that are waking up to the fact that women work. Tide has been running a series of ads featuring dads talking about laundry, while folding and talking with small kids. With all the discussion about “Lean In” it’s nice to see that some brands understand that women harbor plenty of ambition.
If this were all true, retailers would be already switching how they spend their advertising dollars. And maybe they are. Retailers need to spend their advertising dollars toward what works and not try to spend them in order to train various demographic groups to be force fed. What might be accurately and authentically represented in the real world demographics does not mean consumer spending is equally represented.
With the average age of marriage for males increasing to about 27, it certainly makes sense that more boomer males are making purchases for themselves. Once the habit of purchasing for themselves before marriage, there is no reason to believe the habit will disappear. This is just another example of the fragmentation of the onsumer market.
I agree with Michelle’s points. Some of this is age-related; Boomer men are older now and care a lot less about staying up with the latest fashions than they did in their 20s and 30s. But by and large, gimme a break. The ads are sexist, and women are made to look stupid or subservient. (Whereas a lot of the ads that depict men show them as merely stupid.) I’d say that if you’re going to stay with using women in most TV spots, at least make them people of average intelligence who can make their own decisions.
On another note, the ads on TV for Viagra, Cialis and such are absurd and insulting to men. Either you’re a stupid macho male who thinks the way to fix a boiling-over radiator is to pour in cold water, or you’re a condescending male, shaking your head and smiling/nearly snickering, as you watch your stupid and subservient wife dancing alone to her own music. And every time the Cialis ad comes on, with the man and the woman in separate bathtubs (um, you can’t get much done that way), my wife and I break out laughing.
I don’t see any evidence that “it’s not true anymore.” Where is your data? I see purchases by men in everywhere but hardware and home improvement moving to the internet, leaving an even greater share of traditional retail to female shoppers. If the author’s premise is correct then why aren’t Macy’s Belks, Nordstrom selling power tools and firearms?
You might have a valid argument for a few major metro areas, but the nation as a whole is still seeing a growth in the power of the female shopper.
First off, yes, millennial males do drive more buying decisions than their dads. Some of this is simply age related and some is generation related. Needless to say, the males are definitely in the picture.
Moving on to advertising approaches, well…since most Millennial’s—male and female—pretty much don’t watch ads, who is in them and how they are depicted is becoming less relevant. We’re looking at a less ‘pitch’ more ‘personalize’ world.
With personalized campaigns, that should bring retailers closer to the true picture of the person, their likes, character, personality. That’s what I’m thinkin’….
For much of my (now prehistoric) career as a paid observer of the retail business, I have heard practitioners (male and female) refer to their customer as “she.”
This was certainly reflected in the content of slice-of-life advertisements, day-time television programming, and the allocation of floor space in department stores. All of those practices were mass-market oriented and based on sweeping assumptions about consumer behavior.
Those gender role assumptions deserve to be challenged today. Cultural norms are giving way to a spectrum of attitudes and behaviors among various consumer segments. Millennials may act differently from Boomers on average, but today’s practitioners must slice the matrix more finely than that.
Savvy ad folks will move beyond the search for the one unique selling proposition for their product and substitute a new pursuit—unique persuasive propositions for each relevant population segment. That requires doing your market research homework. Gender will still matter sometimes. The data will tell you when.
I finally realize why I shop at the dollar store for generic CPG products—I’m completely turned off by the CPG ads featuring only women as if men are not relevant in the purchase decision or usage.
Maybe the male-dominated marketing department at CPGs are too “macho” to create personas showing men actually buying CPG products, collecting coupons and maintaining their own households.
There must be some studies about male grocery shopping, but I don’t recall any at the moment. However, it’s generally accepted that more married men nowadays are shopping for groceries and cooking. Some supermarkets even have “men” aisles to lure this new breed of shopper to the HBC department. My hunch is that Millennial males are leading the change, whether they are married not not.
There is more to this than just Millennial males. Each category and brand needs to dig a little deeper. The household structure in the US has been changing for years. The high percentage of working wives has pushed some shopping onto the males in the traditional married household. Married households have a decreasing percentage of households. Single household percentage is increasing. People are marring later, which is partly driving this change.
Part of the reason the past has been filled with marketing, store design and products for “her” more so than “him” is because she’s been an easier sell. She listens more, is open to new ideas and believes in exploration (which ads to basket size) and in general, likes shopping more.
And we still see some of that in our studies; men rank brands lower in surveys we’ve done and when they don’t like something, they’re harsher critics.
But things are definitely changing. New ad techniques like Old Spice, new store designs like Varvatos and Double RL and new products for hair and aging have really begun to turn the tide and make shopping and buying much more palatable for men.
And in the end, it does seem a little ridiculous to pay as little attention to 49% of the population as we have in the past. Hard to imagine another segment that size that’s received so little attention. So, here’s to keeping it up! We’ll all be better off for it.
The comment above about floor space allocation made me laugh. I’m an older male Millennial at 31 and don’t really care to shop much mainly because most stores don’t have much to offer men. For years I’d accompany the wife to various malls to shop and come back with nothing. When the wife would ask why I’d say because there really wasn’t much to look at.
Most stores have nothing for men. The bigger ones that do, have maybe 10-15% of the floor dedicated to men’s stuff. It’s a joke. Even Macy’s “men’s” store is still half filled with beddings, towels, and dishes…come on! I once joked about creating a real men’s store with apparel, hardware, automotive, electronics, and such all under one roof. Or at least put some couches and sports center on in a little section so bored husbands have something to do. 😉
I believe Millennial males are more likely to live alone or with same gender roommates—partnered or not—than their fathers’ were and therefore the answer to the question is, “Yes.”
Retailers need to stop thinking in terms of traditional gender biased ways to improve sales to all their customers. The world has changed—years ago!
Advertising is going to have to develop a more interactive model to be effective.
I don’t think my mom knew a single stay-at-home dad. I’m in my 40s and can think of four off the top of my head. I’m sure people in their 30s know even more. I also think men pay much more attention to fashion than they ever have before.
I’m not sure how to say this exactly, but the few ads I do see for men that are related to fashion and home life tend to give off a feminine spin. Maybe men in advertising have a harder time relating to stay-at-home dads. Maybe they need to bring in more stay-at-home dads and Millennial men into opinion centers for studies to review ads. But I agree that advertisers are lacking in this area.
Absolutely, Millennial males are driving purchase decisions. It’s not just the ability to make money, but also to keep it. Millennial men are cooking and cleaning (maybe not as frequently as they should). Also the economy has forced other men cohorts into sharing home chores so the dynamics have been altered.
Male shopping dynamics will be different than females, and retailers need to invest in consumer research to understand how to reach all, not just Millennial males.
I agree with Dr. Stephen Needel’s comments.
It is all a matter of what you are selling and who you are selling it to. Whether we want to believe it or not, some stereotypes are still going strong and that is evident in advertising.
Mass advertising plays to the majority. You might find millennial males over-indexing on some buying decision than boomers, but if they make up a small portion of the population then mass advertising will not hit them. The alternative, of course, is to segment the advertising and hit the smaller pockets of customers with ads that will speak to them.
The commentary here is too focused on large segments: male vs. female, boomer vs. millenial. This is a time of multiple segmentation, with the rise of global consumer traffic, and certainly cross-city, cross-state traffic—all driven by digital. Of course, the male demographic has become much more powerful in purchase decisions—but it varies by product category, distribution channel, etc.
The simplistic question of “should brand messaging pay more attention to men?” is answered by “of course,” but shouldn’t end there.
This is a complex time and the path forward is not as simple as determining male vs. female focus.