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Use Your Advertising Dollars to Reach the Male Demographic
Back in the old days of advertising, all a marketer needed to do was decide whether the company wanted to reach men or women with their advertising message, and then create and place an appropriate ad on the right TV or radio station and in a certain section of the local newspaper. Because so few marketing mediums existed, advertising was easy, at least by today's standards.
These days, marketing is a bit more complex. New technologies and increased options for how people spend their leisure time make reaching your target market a bit harder. On top of that, you need to do more than simply decide whether you want to reach men or women. You also need to delve deep into the different generations to make your message relevant, and you need to place your message in the correct place for your ideal target customer to see it.
The fact is that today's media is getting more fragmented. While you used to be able to reach the majority of the population via television, today television reaches a small percentage of the population. Things like the Internet, online gaming, DVDs, iPods, Xboxs, and more compete for people's attention. That means these mediums are competing for your advertising dollars as well.
For the purposes of this article, we'll explore how to reach the male demographic. Why focus on men? Because eye-opening research on how men spend their leisure time was recently released by Advertising Age magazine. In it, columnist Mike Vorhaus asked consumers of both genders and of all ages to identify from a list of activities their favorite leisure activity. What he found in the male category impacts all advertisers who have a product that targets men.
Three Distinct Generations
When it comes to favorite pastimes of men, three distinct generations emerge: 12-24 year olds, 25-44 year olds, and 45-64 year olds. Each group prefers to spend their leisure time differently, which means marketers need to tailor not only their message, but also their message placement, if they want to attract consumers in more than one age group.
· 12-24 Year Olds
This group ranks playing games on consoles such as PlayStation 2 and Xbox as their number one leisure activity (34%), followed by playing sports (14%), and using the Internet (13%). Listening to music, watching television, and reading magazines (some of the top advertising mediums used by many marketers) only ranked in at 7%, 6%, and 1% respectively. So if you're an advertiser trying to reach this demographic, you need to consider supplementing your television, radio, and print ads with new advertising vehicles, such as billboards in video games, as well as with online advertising. Even though this group doesn't read traditional print media very much, they do read articles and view ads online...
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