A few good men

Entrepreneurs will do just about anything to get into the minds of consumers right now – and hints or tricks that might unlock those wallets is gold in the current environment.

That’s why it’s worth taking a look at a study coming out of Queensland University of Technology’s School of Advertising Marketing and Public Relations, which examined the way male grocery shoppers approach their weekly shop.

While grocery retailers (and probably lots of other retail sectors) have traditionally focussed on female shoppers, the study of 280 male shoppers suggests retailers might need to think again – 40% of males do their shopping for their family unit, and they shop in a very different way to women.

Study author Dr Gary Mortimer found five distinct groups of male shoppers:

• Mr Budget Conscious (35.3% of all male shoppers) who concentrates on value.
• Mr Convenience (23.5%) who wants efficient service.
• Mr Egocentric (22.5%) who hates shopping and doesn’t worry about the price of goods, brands or the store he’s shopping in.
• Mr Equitable (15.5%) who likes shopping for the family.
• Mr Controlled (3.6%) who takes a very planned approach, using a list and thinking carefully about brands, price and ingredients.

Now, fitting people into neat categories like this is always a bit dangerous, but Mortimer has reached the conclusion that retailers may find very helpful.

“Men will spend more per item than women and this is related to a lack of planning,” he said.

“Men generally don’t look at price labels or consider freshness, quality and other important characteristics such as friendly operators, cleanliness and easy parking.”

For retailers stuck in the discount cycle, this is potentially very useful information. While a big chunk of your customer base will remain very value-conscious, there is a group – and potentially a very big one – that is not driven entirely by price.

These customers want you to be easy to deal with, friendly and quick. Some of the things Mortimer talks about are self-service checkouts, less choice in terms of product range and more customer service staff.

It’s food for thought and more evidence of how retailers – and all entrepreneurs – need to have systems in place that effectively allow them to customise parts of the buying experience.