Picking up the slack
Millennials are changing the way America works and plays. As a business, it’s important to keep up with the patterns of shoppers, especially when it comes to families. It’s no surprise that the role of motherhood is changing, but what is often overlooked is who is picking up that slack. Although the media attention seems to be on dads who aren’t involved with their children, there are many families with hyper-involved dads who are doing the shopping and making decisions about dinner and other aspects of their children’s lives. If you’re not marketing to these families, you’re missing out.
Who’s making the decision – Mom or Dad?
EMarketer.com recently released survey results from fathers aged 18-34 who were either expecting a child or had a child under the age of 5. These men were asked who had the primary decision-making for product purchasing in eight different categories.
The men were primarily responsible for consumer electronics and financial services, but they were more equal partners in the grocery and food, personal care, household, and baby’s products than in the past.
Although the survey was recently released, Amazon has acknowledged the father’s role in shopping by changing its Amazon Mom program to Amazon Family.
Dads are taking part in the shopping
The general consensus is that single moms don’t have the disposable income that families and dads do. This makes them an attractive market to reach out to when marketing. There is a difference in marketing to fathers, though.
A dad who goes grocery shopping is probably not embracing new concepts of role reversal. He is more likely taking the time to shop in order to have dinner. Marketers will need to explore the behavior or men as it relates to purchasing products for babies and children to effectively reach out to that consumer.
Interestingly, even though dads are seeing themselves taking a bigger role in the shopping than ever before, many moms don’t agree. Don’t discount the power of men when it comes to shopping for their kids though.
