When millennial males were kids, a lot of them probably dreamed of growing up to be Batman. What they’ve turned out to be instead, in large part, is an upgraded version of “Mr. Mom” — dads who are more involved in child-rearing than previous generations, with buying habits in tune with the era of connected commerce.
It’s a fair estimate to say that almost every boy, at some point in his life, dreams of growing up to be Batman — at least going back to the golden age of television.
During that era, the housewife reigned supreme as both domestic goddess and keeper of the purse strings. At a time when work outside the home was nearly unheard of for women, the household buying power that mothers held made them an attractive and much pandered to audience for the emerging commercial television industry. Just about every company under the sun, from Borax to Coca-Cola, wanted Mom on their side — and they had her.
It was a marketing reality that held up for generations. In the early 1980s, while women were entering the workforce in record numbers and gaining ground in the boardroom, the idea of a father staying at home to tend the household while the mother went to work was still so novel that it was turned into a comedic premise for a film: “Mr. Mom,” starring a future Batman. Women now held multiple roles as career women, mothers and wives, but, more importantly, households were becoming dual-income, resulting in more dollars in the monthly budget to allot to various brand buying.
However, Mom’s buying power, and her attractiveness to retailers, may finally be losing ground to — of all people — the men who were born during the “Mr. Mom” era.
Millennial dads (fathers born between 1980-1997) comprise a new and very appealing audience for household brands that have long had a laser focus on the women of the home. These Dads 2.0 aren’t exactly who — or what — you’d think. In order to appeal to them in innovative ways, retailers are piecing together the identity of this emerging target demographic.
A millennial dad is involved with his household, and not just in deciding where to hang the TV or how best to mow the lawn. These guys are doing the grocery shopping and actively making key decisions about how to raise their kids. Recent Pew Research Center data tracking the amount of time that millennial fathers spend with their kids shows that the average has nearly tripled since 1965.
Immersed as they are in hands-on parenting, of course, millennial fathers are going to need some advice (How many hot dogs should a toddler be fed in one sitting? More than 12?). As native technology users, they are looking online for the answers. Not only are millennial dads likely to use technology to multi-task while doing household chores, but multiple surveys show that they are also more likely to use it for on-demand parenting advice. According to research shared by BabyCenter in June, 7 in 10 millennial dads reported having searched online for parenting tips, with 60 percent of those searches happening on mobile devices.
This phenomenon is giving birth to a new cottage industry of online parenting communities that specifically focus on millennial dads. Whereas mommy bloggers once reigned supreme in the virtual space, sites like Fatherly now offer a variety of dads’ perspectives on everything from the best parenting podcasts, to the changing role of fathers in the hip-hop culture, to outfitting their kids with the right back-to-school gear. It’s a community derived from the winning strategy of combining product placement with peer-to-peer advice, and it’s creating a go-to resource for millennial dads.
The cultural shift in paternal behavior is opening up new channels for retailers, especially around mobile. Many new opportunities exist to drive increased spending at the point of sale both in-store and on handheld devices. According to Millennial Media, there are 52 million mobile dads in the U.S., who make up 21 percent of the country’s total mobile audience. Fifty-eight percent of fathers who are heavy mobile users have a household income of over $75,000 per year, and that’s 33 percent higher than the average income of a mobile user. All of this makes the youngest generation of dads a pretty sweet target for online retailers…but the mobile buying power of the millennial dad in particular is quite enticing, as 45 percent of millennial dads make mobile purchases (compared to just 27 percent of all mobile dads). Dads of the millennial generation are also three times more likely than the average consumer to spend over $500 on mobile purchases.
The millennial dad is evolving. He’s a new breed of father who is figuring out how to balance the expectations society has around success and career with the expectations he has for himself as a parent. In the aforementioned BabyCenter survey, 90 percent of the millennial dads polled said that they aspired to be “the perfect dads,” compared to fewer of their millennial mom counterparts. While the idea of “perfection” may be a bit elusive (especially when it comes to parenthood), the idea of changing cycles doesn’t have to be.
Not every male child of the “Mr. Mom” era grew up to be Batman; at present count, in fact, zero did (Ben Affleck doesn’t fall within the age range). Those with offspring of their own have emerged in significant numbers as something arguably much more viable, at least from a commerce perspective: guys who will settle for feeling as cool as Bruce Wayne while they spend money on their kids.
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