Mr. Mom

Editor's note: Jon McNeill is president of Hunter Qualitative Research, Portland, Ore.

Marketers love moms. Seen as the CEO of their households, moms are the target of millions of ad campaigns each year. Unsurprisingly, the majority of market research aims to decode moms’ shopping behavior, attempting to find out where, how, why and what moms buy.

But a new market research project has unveiled a rising consumer force: Mr. Mom. Dads today are deeply involved in their children’s lives and are making far more of the household purchase decisions jointly with their spouses. Mom used to purchase most of the baby and child products, household goods, clothing and more. Now, dad is increasingly getting involved in all of these purchase decisions and is adept at using mobile, social and online technologies to research and purchase products. As dads embrace their new family roles, marketers can no longer afford to market only to moms.

The changing roles of men

Yahoo! recently partnered with my company, Hunter Qualitative Research, and db5, a Los Angeles quantitative consultancy, to conduct a comprehensive study of dads today. Yahoo! wanted to explore the changing roles of men in today’s families so they could in turn help their advertisers truly understand the male demographic. Yahoo! hoped to paint a clear picture of the modern dad and then use this information to understand which brands dads prefer, how they shop and how they’ll impact the retail economy going forward.

The study, Digital Dads: I’m Not a Sub-Segment, used non-traditional research methods to take a snapshot of dads’ roles in daily family activities such as household chores, childcare and shopping. To get at this level of detail, we needed to capture dads’ thoughts in the moment – whether they were at a store, at home or online. To accomplish this, we designed a mixed-methodological study designed to extract responses from eight dads, their families and the dads’ network of friends. Participants were located in two cities: Chicago and Portland, Ore.

To capture the dads’ in-the-moment thoughts, we partnered with Revelation, a Portland, Ore., provider of online and mobile qualitative research tools designed to gather insights in real-time. Throughout the project, participants were encouraged to record their thoughts through photos and notes, uploading them directly into the research platform via computer or mobile device. For example, participants took their phones shopping and then recorded their thoughts about specific brands using the Revelation mobile platform. The research project also included online diaries kept by each dad; in-home contextual interviews with each dad and his family; and ethnographic interviews with the dads and their peer networks.

One main conclusion

The Yahoo! study came to one main conclusion: Men are getting more involved in every aspect of family life. Men are now taking equal responsibility as their spouses for household activities such as managing the budget, grocery shopping, caring for children and planning vacations – and involvement has grown quickly in the last few years.

Eddie in Chicago summed up this new trend: “I always said I was going to be one of those fathers who is with his children as much as possible. I didn’t want to be that father who always works; I wanted to be there as much as I can.”

The dad respondents said fatherhood “changed them emotionally” and this shift in mind-set caused them to have a greater desire to shop for the best products and get the best deals for their families. Over 80 percent of men in the study said they already have a say in over 10 household purchases per year and would like to be more involved in purchase decisions. These changes also create a greater desire to get the best deals and take charge, with 94 percent of dads citing the desire to be a smarter consumer and 86 percent wanting to be more in control over purchase decisions.

Why are dads suddenly more involved in family life and thus making more of the household purchase decisions? The research points to two high-level trends that have caused this shift. First, the economic downturn in the past few years has hit men particularly hard. Some of the men in the study were laid off or had to accept lower-paying or part-time jobs, forcing them to take on more central roles at home while their wives worked.

Secondly, men today are more open to non-traditional roles and are eager to be deeply involved in their children’s lives. Steve in Portland, for example, always planned to be a stay-at-home dad. “When we got married, we always knew she would be the working one and I would stay home, if at all possible,” he said.

Equal decision makers

Modern dads want to make informed, responsible purchase decisions jointly with their partners – but they often have trouble getting the information they need about products, because marketers don’t speak to them directly. Contrary to popular belief, the study found dads are now equal decision makers with their spouses for health-related OTC products, CPG items, clothing or apparel, household goods, toys, personal care products and child and baby care products. These product categories have traditionally been almost wholly controlled by women – and thus the majority of marketing messages in these categories are geared toward moms.

Some 83 percent of participants said they read articles about items they’re interested in purchasing and the same amount discuss products with friends. Meanwhile, 81 percent of men said they often visit stores to shop for household products they’ve actively researched and 67 percent said they’d discussed products on social networking sites. Forty-six percent of respondents said they use their mobile phones as part of the shopping experience to call home while in the store, check prices and availability, read reviews, research brands or make purchases.

Out of the loop

Unfortunately, the study found that men often feel out of the loop when it comes to understanding products they’re interested in buying. They feel ignored by brands because most marketing messages are geared toward women. In short, dads are actively researching purchases and seeking validation online and through friends and social media sites but are not finding this information from brands.

When thinking about how dads are portrayed in TV commercials as the stupid, can’t-do-anything father, Kenny in Portland said, “I honestly kind of find it offensive. It makes me feel like they [advertisers] don’t really consider me important.”

According to the study, dads can relate to ads for autos, finance, sporting goods and consumer electronics but a large percentage of men feel ignored by marketing campaigns for traditionally-female categories, such as personal care (61 percent), clothing and apparel (66 percent), home goods (52 percent), CPG (52 percent), pet supplies (42 percent), toys (44 percent) and child and baby products (57 percent).

The key takeaway from the research is that men – and especially dads – have become more involved in every aspect of family life, including making household purchase decisions. Yet dads feel ignored by marketers – who spend the bulk of their advertising and demographic research dollars trying to reach women buyers – and so instead turn to social networks and peers to get information on products they’re interested in buying.

Tremendous opportunity

There’s a tremendous opportunity for brands to build loyalty with this growing audience by creating messages that speak to men. Here are a few tips marketers can implement when creating campaigns geared toward men:

  • In the more traditional categories of auto, finance, consumer electronic, sporting goods and entertainment, continue to blend practical information with humor and style. Many of the men in the study found that ads like the “Toyota Swagger Wagon” from Saatchi & Saatchi really spoke to them as modern dads.
  • In the more secondary categories of health, toys and travel, provide evidence as to why men should purchase these products. Men want to know more but are often left out of the ads.
  • In the more unconventional categories for men, such as CPG, pet, home goods, personal care, apparel, child and baby care, provide detailed information and acknowledge that men have a stake in these purchases. Men know less about these categories so they’re looking for information they can use to make smart purchases.

Identify ways to connect

As we discovered during our research, dads like humor, free trials, are generally more open to advertising and have larger social networks than women. Brands need to take these findings into consideration and identify ways to connect with dads online. A good start is to acknowledge in campaign messages that mom is no longer the sole controller of the household purse strings. Brands that create deep connections with dads today will capture a larger share of household purchases in decades to come.