• Brandweek, Thursday, July 2, 2009 10:38 AM

Almost one-third of men are now the principal shoppers in the household, and marketers need to better understand how to reach them, writes Peter Leimbach, who, as vp of multimedia sales research at ESPN, might have a vested interest in the testosteronization of the shopping aisles.

The channels with the greatest relative importance to men include convenience/gas outlets, warehouse clubs and grocery stores, according to Nielsen data, and men are substantially increasing their average dollar basket size across all of them. Spending in grocery alone has increased a whopping 56% over five years.

Furthermore, more than half of the items men buy indicate that they are not just shopping for themselves. Examples include canned seafood (61%), herbal packaged tea (57%); health bars & sticks (54%) and refrigerated yogurt and shakes (52%). Can't wait to hear about Bifidus Regularis between innings of "Sunday Night Baseball."

Read the whole story at Brandweek »