Marketing: Mates, Macho Men and Metrosexuals Report (Assessment)

Mates are a group of men who prefer to stick together rather than to women. They could be people working together, high school friends or just men who met and have had a stronger bond to each other than to members of the opposite sex.

Macho men are those men who appear generally more masculine and sexually active than other men do. They take it a serious business to enhance their masculinity than other things in their lives. Macho men are strong, athletic and mostly do physically involving jobs and activities such as Wrestling.

Metrosexuals on the other hand are the urban men who have taken to shopping for their appearance. They take their looks just as seriously as women do and sometimes even more. Their spending is more on beauty products than other commodities (Albany, 2008).

These categories of men are all present in the marketing environment and it remains solely the marketers’ onus to look into the threats, problems and opportunities posed by their presence in the market.

Problems Relating To Mates, Macho Men and Metrosexuals

These three groups of the men market segment pose a great challenge in the market segmentation process. The marketer is faced with the following problems:

1. To segment the market is a difficult process since each of them has their own special needs. The macho man is always looking for masculinity enhancing products, the mates looking for common interests and the Metrosexuals shopping for ‘beauty’ products.
2. Marketers may find themselves stereotyping men as Metrosexuals, which may not be the case. Men who are simply careful with their looks cannot be classified as Metrosexuals.
3. It is a challenge for marketers to promote products to Metrosexuals. This is mainly because some grooming activities are considered as entirely a women’s affair. The marketer therefore has to take heed not to hurt that segment of the market by showing them as less manly.
4. Different groups of mates have different preferences and needs. This poses the challenge in deciding what products to design for each of them in order to capture and maintain their loyalty to your products (Carnal, 20).

Threats by Mates, Macho Men and Metrosexuals in the Marketing Environment

As much as marketers may say that these groups are a small number in the market, we can only ignore them at our own peril. These sub segments of the market pose the following threat to marketing:

1. Mates are mostly famous people. They are opinion leaders as far as their followers are concerned. Such groups as musician groups or other artists greatly influence the buying patterns of their fans. If not checked and taken care of, they may end up swinging the market share in the ‘wrong’ way for the marketers’ products (Christensen, 19).
2. Macho men form great brands on their own because of their masculinity. Such people as John Cena are brands and have huge followings the world over. A marketer selling male products will surely want to have him on their wagon if their brand is to stay safe.
3. Metrosexuals mostly do shopping for their looks in order to further their careers especially in acting. They are a threat if they end up consuming and endorsing a competitor’s products.
4. These three groups all change their preferences very often and unpredictably. This in turn changes the marketing environment in that consumers’ tastes change.

Mates, macho men and Metrosexuals are great shapers of fashion trends and preferences due to their huge follower numbers. Marketers, therefore, need to keep them on their side if they are to survive in the Dynamic and competitive twenty first century marketing environment (Campbell, 29).

Marketers’ Opportunity

The social cultural environment has changed dramatically. There is an immediate need to make products that specifically targets this group of individuals. Marketers who have realized this opportunity are working to make it a reality in businesses. Macho men are used to advertise products. For example, Usain Bolt is the ambassador for Puma products. Mates are greatly represented by the likes of David Beckam and Tiger Woods who have greatly shaped the fashion world by the brands they advertise or use.

The only area that needs to be greatly looked at is the metrosexuals department. This area has not been fully adopted because the idea of been gay is not acceptable in many countries. Metrosexuals are seen to be gay in as much as their intentions may be right. However, there is also an opportunity molding itself as they attain acceptability in many a society.

Works Cited

Albany, David. The Metrosexual: Gender, Sexuality, and Sport. New York: SUNY Press, 2008.

Campbell, Peter. Organizations and Business Environment. Oxford: Legoprint, 1998.

Carnal, Church. Managing Change in Organizations. Essex: Pearson Education, 2007.

Christensen, Anne. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms To Fail. Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Harvard Business School Press, 1997.