Uber-, Macho-, or Metrosexual: The New Male Shopper
Though I knew what the trendspotters were trying to get at in the past few years, I was never a big fan of the term "metrosexual." So, here we are at the end of 2007, still searching for a way to define this new type of more holistic-shopping-inclined male consumer. "Ubersexual" and "Machosexual,"are the latest terms coined by Euromonitor International and Packaged Facts respectively, and, again, I bet most men would run screaming if they had any suspicion you were calling them that. (What would the female version be, I wonder…?)
Still, groping around for labels and publishing new studies DOES reflect a re-energization of consideration of how men shop, which would seem to be getting closer to how women shop. Here’s how Euromonitor defines ubersexual: "more complex, more thoughtful, more culinary and better groomed than macho man, but more traditionally masculine than the metrosexual."
Consider the "more complex" and "more thoughtful" aspects of that description. What the Euromonitor and Packaged Facts reports may be pointing out is that men are now following less linear paths to their purchases. And, that is exactly how women’s market experts and consumer research reports have long-described a woman’s buying process.
What does this mean for you and I? If you’ve been working on, and getting better at serving the more complex and thoughtful buying process of women, you are ahead of the game. And - if you can do it all without a "-sexual" label, all the better!
