Increasing numbers of Asian men are doing the grocery shopping, according to market research firm Asia Market Intelligence. The company interviewed 1,000 men with families across ten Asian countries, where traditionally held conservative notions ensured that shopping is a female occupation, and uncovered changing attitudes that herald a wealth of marketing potential for retailers.
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In the majority of the countries, about half the men interviewed are now to be found pushing the trolley. Thailand was most reformed; with close to 50% regularly shopping. In conservative Malaysia and China meanwhile it was nearer 45%. In South Korea the social changes from a similar survey conducted a year previous were remarkable but still lagging behind their Thai equivalents. Here a third of men, up from a fifth, are now decision making as to the week’s grocery purchases.
The reasons for this revolution in the aisles are numerous, but they largely appear to rest on the new prosperity and emerging middle class in the countries surveyed. More numbers of women are working than ever, and therefore their partners must adopt an equal share of the household chores.
Responding to the shifting identity of their clientele, the selling strategies in the supermarket chains are based around a tried and tested idea: build bigger stores and equip them with more products. The time may well have come, however for a reappraisal of the “pack it in” approach. The stores can not safely ignore the “bloke” factor among their congregation any longer, and new strategies focusing on the psyche of the male shopper must be employed, such as product placement, advertising and provision of grouped fresh ingredients.
For a more in-depth analysis of marketing groceries to men, click here.
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