Dads, and their role in society and the family, are changing. Schools have noticed it. I, as a researcher who regularly conducts studies specifically among dads, have noticed it. And marketers have noticed it.
Dads are becoming increasingly important to marketers, with good reason. They play a crucial role in purchasing and family decision-making, and ignoring them could be bad for business. However, marketers and advertisers continue to make the same mistakes with dads that they’ve been making for decades, including:
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Treating them like moms
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Treating them like other men
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Treating them like dads of the past
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Treating them like idiots
Having done research among dads for many years now, they continue to surprise me. They continue to change, and the pace of change seems to be increasing. Some of these changes are widely reported – such as their greater involvement in parental and household tasks and greater involvement in family decision-making) – while others are less well-known. Here’s one, for instance; dads feel much more pressure lately to be nurturers as well as providers, and these pressures clash with each other. As noted clinical psychologist Dr. Gail Winbury has observed, “fathers feel they’re being encouraged to attach emotionally to their children to a much greater degree than even a few years ago.” And this pressure brings internal conflict—while they’re expected to be nurturers at home, dads still feel clear pressure to leave the house every day and slay dragons.
Winbury again: “Fathers are profoundly conflicted. They’re receiving complex and often contradictory messages.” These messages come through the media and their own social networks, and create a sense that nothing they do will ever be entirely correct. As one recent focus group participant dad observed to me, “I feel like, no matter what I do, I’m going to be told I screwed up.”
So, here’s what I think marketers need to do:
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Stop making outdated assumptions. Realize that fathers today bear little resemblance to dads of the past, that they’re significantly different from moms in their attitudes and behaviors, and they don’t like being portrayed as being clueless. The biases and misconceptions that marketers continue to build into their marketing strategies and tactics toward dads often render them ineffective.
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Do some research. Get to know the dads of today. This can be done in a variety of ways. Qualitative tools and custom quantitative approaches are worth the resources. In addition, social media listening and syndicated data can also inform your understanding of dads. But, as with the previous point, be careful of the assumptions you might be making when conducting this research. Also, bear in mind that, as dads continue to change, you’ll probably need to refresh this research regularly.