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Shops told how they can sell themselves to men
"MALE zones" should be set up in city centres to allow men who do not like shopping to have everything they need in one place, a Yorkshire academic is advising.
And if stores want to get them spending, they need to make sure shop floors are a bit more macho.
The study by Leeds Metropolitan University has found men fall into two types of shopper: "metrosexuals" who take an interest in products they are buying and "traditional males" ho only shop out of necessity.
Neither group, however, enjoys spending large amounts of time shopping and both are put off by the thought of walking long distances from shop to shop.
The results were compiled from a student project interviewing single men aged between 25 and 35 from the Leeds area.
John Temperley, a senior lecturer in marketing at Leeds Met, is now publishing his findings in book entitled Handbook of Consumer Behaviour: an International Perspective.
"Male shopping and retail activity is an area where not a lot of academic work has been done," he said. "We have focused on highlighting the gaps in our knowledge in terms of the difference between male and female shoppers and its implications for retailers."
Mr Temperley believes city centres such as Leeds would benefit from the creation of male zones – a masculine area where men would feel comfortable and be able to buy everything they need without having to shop for long periods of time over larger distances.
"The traditional male does not enjoy wandering around shopping and the prospect of this puts them off. Metrosexuals like shopping but follow the traditional attribute of desire for convenience rather than shopping for the experience of it."
His research has found that traditional men also do not like to shop in what feels like a feminine environment and do not like to have their masculinity challenged.
Mr Temperley said that since the 1990s there had been an increase in the number of male fashion shoppers but there were still few examples of male- targeted strategies from large retailers.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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