The Art of Understanding Men Much has been researched and written about our changing perspectives on gender and their roles in society. For example, a 2015 Pew Research Center survey found men spent an average of 7 hours per week on child care, which is three times the rate of 1965. Another change, as reported in a May 2016 YouGov survey, is younger men are less likely to rate themselves as “completely” masculine: 30–44, 28%, and 18–29, 30%, while 65% of men 65+ rate themselves as completely masculine. Despite men’s changing role and self-identification, an August 2017 Pew Research Center survey revealed 71% of the US adults surveyed said it’s important a man is able to support a family financially, a rather traditional perspective.

Today’s Dads Are Entirely Different Animals It’s a relatively known fact that men are marrying at an older age than during the past, which has increased the average age of a new father by 3.5 years during the past 44 years, or 30.9 years and 27.4 years, respectively. New fathers were older in Northeastern states, and those with a college education. Ethnically, Asian fathers were the oldest and African American fathers the youngest. As many fathers as mothers said parenting was extremely important to their identity, 57% and 58%, respectively, according to the 2015 Pew Research Center survey. Slightly more fathers said parenting was enjoyable all the time as women, or 46% and 41%.

Important Takeaways from Last Year Although Americans typically spend considerably more for their mothers to celebrate Mother’s Day, they were expected to spend a record amount for Father’s Day 2017, or $15.5 billion, and the largest share, or $3.3 billion, was to be spent on a special outing. Department stores were still forecast to be the #1 channel for Father’s Day 2017 spending, at 39.9%, or 1.7 points more than 2016, while the online channel was expected to increase from 32.4% during 2016 to 33.7% for 2017. According to RetailNext’s June 2017 Retail Performance Pulse report, Saturday, June 17th, the day before Father’s Day, was the best shopping day of the month in terms of sales, traffic, shopper yield and transactions.

Consumers Have the Right Attitude to Spend Although core retail sales decreased -0.3% during January and -0.1% during February 2018, both month’s performance was significantly better than 2017, with January 2018 retail sales increasing 3.6% from January 2017 and February 2018 increasing 4.2%. Not only were more new jobs added during January 2018, or 200,000, and February 2018, or 313,000, than expected, but also the number of job openings during January set a new record of 6.3 million, which indicates many companies are in need of workers. The National Retail Federation (NRF) retail sales forecast of $19.6 billion for Valentine’s Day 2018 and $18.2 billion for Easter 2018 are both the second most ever, strongly suggesting Mother’s Day and Father’s Day sales should be robust.

The Right Gift Is a Bit More Complicated Than a New Tie Rakuten Marketing’s May 2017 Network Trends reported department stores (to no one’s surprise) was the most popular vertical by total orders for Father’s Day 2016, followed by apparel and accessories. The top 5 verticals by conversion rate were department stores, 4.52%; beauty and personal care, 6.01%; footwear, 4.0%; apparel and accessories, 2.74%; and high-end/luxury stores, 1.4%. As has been the case for most recent Father’s Days, dads prefer an experience as a gift. A June 2016 Ebates survey found “a vacation” was the #1 experience gift among US father Internet users, at 32%, closely followed by “tickets to a sporting event,” 31%.

Advertising Strategies Recommend your Father’s Day retailer clients stock and advertise gift ideas other than the traditional ones. Visit Websites, such as https://www.elitedaily.com/life/genius-gifts-for-the- dad-who-says-he-doesnt-want-anything/1960693 Suggest that your Father’s Day retailer clients hire or assign a store associate to be the Father’s Day shopping concierge (a Generation X woman may be appropriate) to be shoppers’ personal shopping consultant and feature him or her in advertising messages. Promote a “Dad’s Summer Experience” contest, offering an all-expense-paid experience during the summer for the family: white-water rafting, skydiving, trip to see his favorite baseball team play, etc.

New Media Strategies Because many teens and young adults will be Father’s Day shoppers, consider Snapchat and/or Instagram campaigns featuring photos and/or videos of gifts, especially unusual gifts. Create a Father’s Day gift catalog to feature on your Website and/or social media campaigns. Make it the centerpiece of an email campaign to young adults and women. Because many dads enjoy an “experience” gift more than all others, invite family members to record and upload videos of the experience they gave their fathers, with Dad explaining how much he enjoyed his experience, and use this content for Father’s Day 2019.