Me?
I’m a middle-aged, entrepreneurial, creatively-inclined business person specialising in Direct Marketing and Customer Relationship Management.
No, wait.
I’m a middle-aged, pre-professional cook specialising in the simple, German-American dishes mom used to make.
Uh, hold on.
I’m a middle-aged, budding playwright and professional actor who prefers the immediacy of theatre over the tedious (though often more well-paying) mediums of television or film.
Well, I guess we can all agree on one thing. I’m middle-aged. Certainly, all men are not alike. In fact, most individuals – men and women – are profoundly schizophrenic, and have multiple group-sets of needs and wants hidden within.
If you are marketing a product or service that you believe has a particularly seductive allure to men – in general – your simplest task is to gender-pitch your advertising. But alas, in today’s increasing fragmented, multi-channeled world of communications competing for attention, simple gender-pitching just won’t cut it anymore. The more successful you are at appealing to an individual’s specific needs and wants, the greater your chances of increased sales, at least to that particular individual.
A caveat. In Successful Marketing Land, there is a time for specificity and a time for narrowing the broadstrokes.
First, narrow the broadstrokes.
The results of recent research by Advertising Age magazine, for example, have helped marketers focus on leisure-time behavior differentiators between three generations of American men.
The 12-24 year olds ranked playing games on consoles as their main leisure-time activity (34 percent). That was followed by playing sports (14 percent) and the Internet (13 percent). The top activity for 25-44 year olds was Internet (18 percent), but closely followed by watching television (16 percent), playing console games (12 percent) and listening to music (10 percent). 45-64 year olds mostly watch TV (23 percent), but also enjoy the Internet (20 percent).
As a tool to narrow the broadstrokes, these results suggest not only different messages for different age groups, but also multiple-platform, specifically-weighted communication channels within each age group. That, at least, is a start.
Refining your sales message and media choices by recognising the behavioral differences between generations of men are smart marketing tactics. This is only one way to target, but it wisely avoids the risk of being too specific, too soon.
Premature specificity may alienate prospects who would be willing to buy, but feel they don’t fit the narrow consumer definitions implied by your message. Open your arms a bit wider, and you set yourself up for a nice big hug.
But there’s smart marketing and REALLY smart marketing. As you make that warm and friendly embrace, get a name. And contact information. This moment is your opportunity to get to know one another. To start dating. Get engaged. Take the vows. And live happily ever after. The process from hug to happily ever after is the time when individual details determine long-term success, and the more specific the better. Knowledge breeds intimacy, and intimacy helps ensure a mutually beneficial relationship, long term.
If you can’t get a name and contact information immediately, get them to your website. This is especially important if your product or service offers benefits that cannot be fully and convincingly explained in your advertising. Make sure your website also offers an attractive incentive to give up their name and email address – with a clear opt-in declaration – to increase your potential for on-going sales. And remember, when you market to men, don’t assume we are only about power tools or cars or gadgets. Most of us are many different men in one, just waiting to get noticed.
By Kurt Crocker, Creative Director
Drayton Bird, Crocker & Mano Sdn Bhd (DBC&M)
Please visit: www.dbcm.com.my