It's time to acknowledge men as serious shoppers - column

It's Time to Acknowledge Men as Serious Shoppers

Men and teenagers are getting serious about shopping. Not just for athletic shoes and compact discs, but for a whole range of items that at one time had been within the province of women shoppers only. As more work outside the home, much of the family shopping is being done by husbands and children. And, as more men live alone (in Los Angeles, for example, 39.6 percent of a group of surveyed shoppers are single, never married), men have to be taken seriously as serious shoppers.

Impact Resources of Columbus, Ohio, affiliated exclusively with Touche Ross, surveyed men and teenage shoppers (aged 14 to 17) in four locations--Los Angeles, St. Louis, Minneapolis and New York--and found them to be a worthy target for retailers to pursue. Consider the fact that more than 50 percent of the men in Los Angeles and more than 42 percent of the men in St. Louis and New York consider themselves the primary grocery shopper in their household. Teens are also active in the supermarket, as 20 percent in Los Angeles, 13 percent in St. Louis and 16 percent in New York do much of the family grocery shopping.

And, the implications for general merchandise retailers are just as strong. Let's take a look at the shopping habits of both teens and men.

Between 25 percent and 32 percent of the 3,500 teens in the four locations shop for groceries once a week, and in three of the four cities another 12.5 percent shop more than once a week. Each of these grocery shoppers averages between $71 and $75 per shopping trip. Attesting to the seriousness of these shoppers is the fact that in three locations (excluding Minneapolis) between 37 percent and 42 percent use coupons "regularly" or "occasionally."

Teens consider shopping a preferred leisure activity, surpassed only by movies, TV, listening to music and, in some places, going to the beach. Though the girls in the survey have a stronger preference for shopping than the boys, healthy percentages of boys (63 percent in St. Louis and 54 percent) cite shopping as a popular way to spend their free time.

In shopping for clothes and shoes, teens (both boys and girls) are like their elders in citing selection as their primary consideration in choosing a store. But while the adults are apt to shop discount stores for some of their clothing and footwear purchases, the teens stay away in droves, making their purchases almost exclusively in upscale department and specialty stores.

Discount stores fare somewhat better with teenagers in the area of health and beauty aids, as teens will purchase H&BA products there, but not to the extent their elders do. It seems the discount industry would do well to consider new ways of attracting these young men and women to their stores.

Who Are These Teens?

Most are students, 73 percent in grades 9 to 11. They live at home with 3+ other persons, one of whom is under 18. House-dwellers outnumber apartment-dwellers by from 3.5-to-1 to 10-to-1 in the different cities. Ethnic representation shows 54.7 percent of the teen shoppers to be white, 18.7 percent to be Hispanic In St. Louis, the percentage of white teens is higher (68.5 percent), and black teens make a significant showing (25 percent). In New York, the breakdown is 65 percent white, 16 percent black and 9 percent Hispanic. In Minneapolis, almost 88 percent of the teen shoppers are white, with 4 percent black and 3 percent Asian.

Good numbers of survey respondents indicated they have regular jobs, though we assume most of these are part-time jobs. But every retailer today knows how much of the retail work force is made up of youngsters between 14 and 17, which means that if these teenagers are working, they are earning money and spending it somewhere.

These part-time jobs may account, in part, for the fact that these teens attend three to four movies a month and rent movies for their VCRs in large numbers. There is somewhat of a discrepancy in terms of ownership of compact disc players, however, as 33 percent of the teens in Los Angeles and 28 percent in New York own these machines, compared to only 22 percent in St. Louis and 18 percent in Minneapolis.

How can you reach these teens? In all four locations, they seem receptive to phone solicitations, billboard and transit advertising, and direct mail advertisements. They are definitely reachable, but finding the message they will listen to is the key.

The 17,000 men surveyed in the same four locations express an attitude that suggests retailers ought to consider them also in their marketing plans. Aside from their grocery shopping (at which they spend between $50 and $58 per trip), these men attest to shopping the full range of retail stores.

Though they rank shopping further down on their list of favorite leisure time activities than do teens, shopping is on the list of between 32 percent (in New York) to 47 percent (in St. Louis).

And, a good many men--ranging from 7 percent to 24 percent of those surveyed--have definite intentions of making major purchases in the coming year, such as a car/truck, furniture, home appliances, jewelry or watches, TV/VCR or stereo equipment (see chart, page 136).

Where do these men make these purchases? In all four cities, they buy their own clothing in stores that offer the best selection. But for items such as televisions, stereos, appliances and the like, price is the criterion cited first most often. In terms of store preferences for general merchandise, selection is their prime criterion.

Catalog and direct mail buying are not popular with these men, as only between 6 percent and 8 percent of them use this form of shopping "regularly" through television shopping shows.

What does a profile of these men shoppers look like? Between 58 percent (St. Louis) and 71 percent (Los Angeles and Minneapolis) are between the ages of 18 and 54. A good many are married (from 40 percent in Los Angeles to 56 percent in St. Louis), but obviously many of them are not. So in advertising to them, retailers must take a dual approach: seeing roughly half of them as a complement to women and seeing the other half as independents.

Between 36 percent and 42 percent of the men hold "professional/managerial" jobs earning them an average annual salary of between $32,000 a year (Minneapolis) to $38,000 (New York).

Home ownership among these men ranges from 58 percent in St. Louis to 41 percent in Los Angeles. Between 30 percent (New York) and 45 percent (Minneapolis) do work around the house regularly, and between 17 percent (New York) and 29 percent (Minneapolis) work on their cars.

In the homes of a large majority of these men you will find a microwave oven; in just over half you'll find cable TV; and in about one-third of them (less in Minneapolis) there is a home computer.

About half the respondents said they listen to "some" telephone solicitations, and considerably less read half or more of the advertising circulars they receive.

What to Do

A television commercial of one major auto manufacturer shows a very "with it" woman buying a car, and bringing her man along "to pick out the color." That commercial is acknowledging a change in today's woman buyer. Isn't it time retailers acknowledge a new role for men as serious shoppers?

Are you reaching these teens and men, these serious shoppers? They are becoming a powerful force. Do you know where and how to find them? Are your radio and TV commercials, and your print ads focusing on these seemingly untapped sources of new sales?

Table: Percent of men Shoppers Planning Major Purchases This Year

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