Here Come The Daddy Bloggers

You haven’t been able to open a marketing publication lately and not read about how Mommy Bloggers are taking over the internet.  Quite frankly, I’ve found this somewhat annoying.  Sure women control nearly 85% of all household purchases, they are more likely to make online purchases more often, and their numbers are growing faster than men.

But let’s hear it for the man consumer out there.  They are doing more and more of the household shopping lately, still entail a powerful consumer block when it comes to electronics, sporting goods, and health products, and are pioneering some of the online trends that the female consumer is adopting.

Here are some facts to remember before you write-off the men demographic in your next marketing plan:

• Although men make up a minority of the U.S. population, they are responsible for generating most of the income of American consumers.  In 2006 men had an aggregate income of $4.8 trillion, or 62% of total personal income.

• Compared to older men, 18- to 34-year-old men are more likely to say they enjoy shopping even when they don’t buy something. They also are more likely to visit a number of stores when they go on a shopping trip and to browse inside stores rather than get what they need and leave. Younger men are also more likely to use the Internet to plan their shopping trips.
• According to Mintel, men tend to have more online social networking profiles than women
• They use and are more receptive to online videos, banner ads, and online content than women.

• According to Packaged Facts data the men’s market is projected to increase from $5.4 trillion in 2004 to $6.7 trillion in 2009.  This represents cumulative growth of 24.6%.
• Men tend to be more loyal to brands and look for brands they know compared to women.

Last week, Sony started a three-month campaign with daddy bloggers. It will lend a few of them Sony products, like Blu-ray players and Handycam camcorders. Sony is asking the bloggers to use the products to do projects, like recording conversations with their parents or videotaping a family outing, and write about the experience.

“In general, dads have always gotten the short shrift when it comes to parenting, but in recent times, it’s been different,” said Jeffrey Sass, who is a single parent of a daughter and two sons, ages 17 to 21, and blogs at Dad-O-Matic. Advertisers have focused on mommy bloggers “because everyone believes the mother makes many of the buying decisions in the home, but in product categories like consumer electronics, it makes sense to go after dads,” he said.