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Branded Male
Book

Branded Male

Marketing to Men

Kogan Page, 2008 more...

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Editorial Rating

7

Qualities

  • Engaging

Recommendation

Mark Tungate explores how to market to the elusive, desirable male demographic by following a fictitious young businessman throughout his day. This glimpse of how a prototype male engages with different brands indicates what men generally look for in a product and how to reach them with your marketing. Tungate explores several consumer categories, including grooming, fashion, travel, cars and sex. Curiously, much of his book is off-point, yet his writing detours are appealing and enlightening. For instance, he has a proclivity for outlining the history of various brands, but declines to explain what marketing avenues these labels traveled on the road to branding success. Instead, he brings the subject back on-point by including a helpful “branding toolkit” at the conclusion of each chapter. Although other positioning books might prove more practical, getAbstract suggests that marketers and brand managers will find Tungate’s meandering, evocative anecdotal approach more enjoyable.

Summary

Today’s Man in the Market

Marketers have heard that today’s evolved male is sensitive, nurturing, loving and not afraid to get in touch with his feminine side. Best of all – to marketers, that is – he cares how he looks. The so-called “new male,” dubbed the “metrosexual” by British writer Mark Simpson, is a marketer’s dream come true. Finally, here is a man who focuses on his appearance, enjoys designer clothing, works out at the gym, indulges in massages, and might even occasionally visit the tanning booth or get a manicure.

Unfortunately for marketers, however, the metrosexual doesn’t really exist in large numbers. So, is today’s male really a “retrosexual,” that is, a beer-guzzling, sports-watching, barbecue-eating insensitive dude who dresses in his old college t-shirt and washes his hair with a bar of soap? Perhaps not, although this type of man certainly exists. Today’s men are not like their fathers, just as today’s women are different from their mothers. The question is, how can marketers effectively reach men – a huge, varied, elusive demographic that typically doesn’t like to shop?

Grooming and Dressing

“Fundamentally, a man could go his entire...

About the Author

French journalist Mark Tungate wrote the bestseller Fashion Brands.


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