They’ll take it to go in Birmingham

An analysis of quick-service and sit-down restaurant patronage in the U.S. by New York-based Scarborough Research shows that while the average adult visits a quick-service restaurant such as McDonald’s or Subway 5.2 times in a given month, residents of Birmingham, Ala., visit a quick-service restaurant 6.5 times in the average month. Louisville, Ky., (6.4 average visits), Austin, Texas (6.3 average visits), Memphis, Tenn., (6.3 average visits) and Raleigh, N.C., (6.2 average visits) round out the top five local markets for frequent fast-food restaurant patronage.

In the sit-down restaurant category, which includes establishments such as Applebees, T.G.I. Friday’s and Boston Market, the average adult visits one of these restaurants 3.4 times a month. Orlando, Fla. is the top local market for the frequent sit-down restaurant patronage. Consumers here visit a sit-down restaurant 4.5 times monthly. Cincinnati (4.2 average visits), Fort Myers, Fla. (4.2 average visits), Tampa, Fla. (4.1 average visits) and Atlanta (4.1 average visits) complete the top five local markets for frequent sit-down restaurant patronage. 

Convenience is a dirty word to these Italian consumers

An April 25, 2006 article in the Wall Street Journal told an instructive tale of the difficulties encountered by marketers such as Unilever and Procter & Gamble in selling their time-saving cleaning products to Italian women, many of whom take their chores very seriously.
P&G research showed that Italians devote 21 hours a week to household chores other than cooking - Americans spend just four hours. They wash kitchen and bathroom floors at least four times a week, compared to the U.S. consumer’s once-a-week cleansing.

Despite those hours and hours of labor, Italians aren’t necessarily a perfect market for convenience products. They want products that are tough cleaners, not timesavers. For example, dishwasher makers targeting the Italian market have had to fight the perception that machines don’t get dishes as clean as hand-washing.

When Unilever’s Cif brand cleaning spray flopped, company research found that Italian women needed convincing that a spray could be strong enough, especially on kitchen grease. The company spent 18 months reformulating the product, testing its power against grease. It changed the focus of advertising from convenience to cleaning ability. And when it was learned that the women felt they needed different cleaners for different tasks, new varieties were created. Containers were also made 50 percent larger because Italians clean so frequently.

P&G’s Swiffer Wet mop bombed as a cleaner but research found that Italian women were using it to polish after  mopping, so the firm created a Swiffer with beeswax, which it sells only in Italy. Another variety, the Swiffer duster, is sold in many countries but is especially popular in Italy, selling five million boxes in its first eight months, twice the company’s forecasts.

 “It was a real shift of mind-set on how to market products like these,” said Alessandra Bellini, head of marketing for Unilever’s home and personal-care products. “If you present a product as quick and easy, women may feel like a cheat….It took us a while to understand that Italians didn’t want that.”

“Women in Italy Like to Clean but Shun the Quick and Easy,” Wall Street Journal, April 25, 2006

I am man, watch me buy

A September 4, 2006 BusinessWeek cover story by Nanette Byrnes chronicled the latest efforts of companies to market to men in the post-metrosexual era. Citing a study by Leo Burnett, which claims that metrosexuals and their evil twins the retrosexuals (the beer-swilling, burger-munching louts wearing the backwards ball caps) only account for two in every five men, the article outlined Madison Avenue’s current state of thinking on how to sell to the guys in the middle of that spectrum.

Obviously, the product or service dictates the strategy. Through ads that focus on technology, Dyson vacuums have become a hit by appealing to the inner geek in men (40 percent of Dyson’s customers are men). Sly humor and a great Web site (www.shaveeverywhere.com) helped make Norelco’s Bodygroom electric shaver (for removing hair “below the neck”) a hit.

Marketers shouldn’t overlook the purchasing power of teenage boys, many of whom have mastered the Web as a product research vehicle and flock to it as an outlet for forming bonds with products they like. Teenage Research Unlimited coined the term maturiteen to describe a group of teens who are more savvy, responsible and pragmatic than previous cohorts, thanks in part to the tendency of their Boomer parents to treat them as equals.

Speaking of Boomers, even that most boring of creatures, the Boomer dad, has a lot to offer marketers. These men are in their peak earning years and are almost as likely to be found shopping for diapers as moms are. Companies such as Patek Philippe and Dyson are aiming their efforts at this group.

The article offered four quick tips for capturing the attention of the male consumer: stop boring him (don’t fall back on tired approaches and messages), keep it basic (men don’t like products they have to fuss with), get him talking (harness the power of word of mouth), and don’t fake it (if you try too hard to be hip you’ll be quickly exposed as a fraud and ridiculed for it).

“Secrets of the Male Shopper,” BusinessWeek, September 4, 2006