According to Tungate (Fashion Brands
), while women see shopping as a leisure activity, men consider it a dull necessity—making them hard targets for eager advertisers. Citing changing historical ideals of masculinity, from the scruffy cowboy to the metrosexual, Tungate describes how men typically engage with brands, using the course of a typical day as framework—from grooming to clothing, car and sex. Male consumer patterns are rapidly changing; sales of grooming products for men in Europe and the U.S. are estimated to jump significantly in the next few years, from $31.6 billion in 2003 to $40 billion in 2010, and the “Branded Toolkit” wrap-ups at the end of each chapter offer tips for marketing products from alcohol to hotels to these increasingly keen shoppers, paying close attention to the factors that tend to attract men: functionality, authenticity, status and “cool.” Tungate can’t quite decide if he wants to be writing a sociological study or a guide for marketing professionals; he muses at length about the histories of male habits and social behavior, but deviates fleetingly, and almost as an afterthought, into individual branding strategies from companies like Ikea and Dunhill. The book displays useful information, but its absurdly high price and concentration on specifically British consumers might make this a tough sell to the very audience Tungate is trying to reach. (May)
