A 2008 Advertising Age article asked: “Do men really hate shopping? ...Sure, we’ve all heard about — or experienced — the exaggerated groan uttered by the hunters of our species when asked to hit the mall en duo. But is it just a ruse to maintain manliness to their peers?”

They hired Harris Interactive to research this phenomenon, and later reported that, contrary to most stereotypes, men don’t hate shopping. They shop for casual clothing more than ever before, tend to buy many of the household grocery items, and will gladly pick up grooming products for themselves — shower gel and cologne rank highest.

However, men enjoy focused shopping. They usually have a predetermined purchase in mind and they spend less time getting what they are looking for.

Men do like malls with a variety of product and service offerings (i.e. apparel, electronics, entertainment, restaurants, and auto centers). Shopping centers allow men to get what they are interested in, all in one convenient location. Unlike many malls, MallScape shopping centers attract high numbers of male shoppers; male adult shoppers in the MallScape portfolio represent 43% of all adult visitors, versus 36% across malls in the United States.

The Mall Phenomenon

• Males in the MallScape portfolio constitute 43% of customer traffic.
• They go to a mall 3+ times per month.
• Male shoppers spend an average of 1 hour and 11 minutes at the mall per visit.
• Males patronize slightly fewer stores per visit than women (2.6 vs. 3.2).
• 41% of mall stores visited by men, across all age groups, result in a purchase.
• 56% of department stores visited by men, across all age groups, result in a purchase.
• Male shoppers spend an average of $93.70 per visit.
• 52% of all adult male shoppers in the MallScape portfolio are employed in a white-collar position.
• 73% of all adult male shoppers in the MallScape portfolio are homeowners; 23% of them own a home valued at more than $500,000.
• In the MallScape portfolio, 58% of all adult male shoppers have a household income greater than $75,000 a year, of which 40% have a household income in excess of $100,000.

Packaged Goods

• 65% of men said they do at least half of the household food shopping (7% admitted they did absolutely none).
• As the number of items shopped for increased, so did the likelihood that the men shopped with another person in the household. For instance, 80% said they went alone for quick trips, 48% went alone for supplemental trips, but only 30% went alone for the big shopping trips.
• Approximately 60% of all men say they are the principal brand-decision maker for cold cereal, snack food, soap bars, toothpaste, and toothbrushes.

Apparel

• Today, 84% of men purchase their own clothes, versus 65% in a study conducted in 2001.
• The tendency of men to purchase products for themselves has increased most significantly for casual clothing (62%), men’s watches (53%), and fragrances/grooming products (50%).
• The percentage of men shopping at department stores has decreased from 23% in 1995 to 7% in 2005.
• Men under the age of 35 are generally more willing to shop in multiple stores and try on lots of items before making a purchase.
• 65% of male shoppers who try something on in the fitting room buy it, as opposed to 25% of female shoppers.
• 25% of men buy casual clothes at least once a month.

Lifestyle Marketing

Men between the ages of 18 and 49 are a group with considerable income but are very difficult for any advertiser to reach. Whether single or married, with or without children, males are subject to ever-increasing demands on their time, creating both new opportunities and challenges for brands. There is no better place to promote these brands than in the mall environment, where busy consumers are in the state-of-mind to make brand choices and are most receptive to messages that are relevant to them.

Research has shown that MallScape generates recall levels of 42% (half of that unaided) with over half expressing intent to try the advertised product. In a different study, 77% of respondents said that MallScape advertising is likely to inform them about new products that might be of interest to them; 80% responded that MallScape is likely to remind them about products they “are familiar with and might buy either while in the mall or later.”

Niche Marketing

To allow marketers to effectively reach a high concentration of male shoppers, we have screened our entire portfolio to retain only the malls that are most appealing to them. We have created different networks of malls, some with a high concentration of single professional males, others focusing on married shoppers with and without children. Also, to make our selection, we turned to Scarborough to obtain each mall’s household demographics.

*Refer to pdf for source information