Recently, Ad Age reported on the results of a Yahoo study stating that more than half of men now believe they’re in charge of the grocery cart! But, why are they there and what are they thinking? We all know that men are chipping in more around the house these days and that’s likely due, in part, to the fact that recent spikes in unemployment makes them more available to help out. But don’t change your marketing plan until you understand your evolving customer’s mindset and motivations. Is he there checking items off of a list that his wife created in her role as the nightly meal planner? Or is he there looking for some culinary inspiration because he now owns meal preparation on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays? Has his recent expanded involvement in grocery shopping left him with the sense that he is the primary decision maker on items that make their way into his cart (regardless of what the truth may be)? Obviously the implications to marketing strategy and messaging (not to mention media placement) are significant depending on how these questions are answered.
Conversely, it appears that just the opposite has taken place in the automotive repair industry. In the early nineties we saw that women accounted for less than half of the customer-base at a sampling of auto repair facilities in New England. . . and that the majority of those women were not actively engaged in process of choosing that facility. Fast forward to today and we see that women today account for up to 65% of the customer base at service centers, purchase 60% of all passenger tires and influence more than 85% of all automotive sales in the US. Clearly this category’s gender evolution is the byproduct of true empowerment. While most car manufacturers have significant dollars committed to women, when is the last time you saw a tire commercial on the Lifetime Network?
These are just two examples of how gender evolutions can occur. . . for different motivations and with different implications to the marketing plan. The idea of looking at these new growth segments and asking “why are they there and what are they thinking” impacts a wide range of other retail and consumer categories; family healthcare, large ticket purchases, vacation planning and booking. . . I could go on. All of these categories are undoubtedly experiencing shifts in their customer profile as we speak – some of which appear to be significant. . What about your business? Has your gender mix evolved as well? If it has, rushing off to engage more deeply with that new/growing segment may turn out to be a misuse of funds until you know the answer to, “why are they there and what are they thinking”?. . .