Dad’s In Charge of the Shopping Cart?

mr-household-grocery-buyer

It may be time to rethink your marketing, because men may now be the big shoppers. In a study Yahoo! conducted, based on the opinion of 2,400 men ages 18 to 64, more than half identified themselves as the primary grocery shoppers in their households. In the same study, six in 10 fathers identified themselves as “the household’s decision maker on packaged goods, health, pet and clothing purchases.” As one would expect, when the men were asked about current advertising for packaged goods, pet supplies and clothing, only 22 to 24 percent felt it spoke to them. Beyond this study, behavioral research of shoppers shows that 35 percent of grocery and mass merchandise shoppers are men. This may not seem like a lot, because it’s not a majority, but that’s a third of a brand’s shoppers. While it may not be time to completely throw in the towel on targeting women shoppers, it may be a time to gender-neutralize some of your advertising efforts. Read more on the topic in this recent Ad Age article.