Whether as a client-side Consumer Insight Manager on Baby Food for Numico's Global Marketing Team or as Kids Brands Europe working for clients in Children's TV, it has always been a dilemma; do we include stay at home dads in our mums' groups? I have many friends who are 'stay at home dads' and do a fantastic job. Yes, certainly they are responsible for what goes in the lunch box, what children watch on TV, what they eat for tea and what toys and magazines are purchased. These factors would lead one to insist that dads be included in any market research being conducted on kids products or services. The question is rather, do we research them separately in focus groups for stay at home dads to ensure their views are considered as an important part of the market or do we just pop a few into each mums group? I am afraid to say that in my experience neither of these two options really work well. Adding a few into mums groups means that they tend to clam up partly because men and women communicate differently in groups. Men tend to talk in turn but not necessarily responding to what the other has said. Each comment just sits there in space which isn't really the idea of a discussion group. Women respond to each other but all talk at once which men find quite scary. Separate groups are hard to justify especially in today's economic climate and given the global nature of markets, often clients can only afford to have 4 per country making it difficult to add an extra 25% to the cost by adding another group of stay at home dads. So what is the answer? What do you do? Judy Bartkowiak runs Kids Brands Europe and can be contacted on 0044 1628 660618 or email judy@kids-brands.com |
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