Data-Centric Digital Media & Email Marketing

Targeting Modern Dads (and Moms)

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Continuing my previous discussion about moving past outdated gender stereotypes in our marketing to parents, Holly Pavlika’s piece in Engage: Moms provides some clear indications of where the parent market is headed. She quotes Tim Sullivan, President of School Family Media, as stating, “There is no such thing as a traditional family today. So when it comes to back-to-school or any marketing, it’s less about exclusive marketing to moms. The Leave it Beaver model barely exists today.” Pavlika goes on to discuss how brands should portray modern parents, including abandoning the image of Dad as “a dolt or never home” and Mom “making lunches and driving mini vans.”

This raises interesting questions about targeting. Does today’s at-home Dad have a “type” that we can target? If so, what are his characteristics? Pavlika gives a few bullet points to suggest Modern Dad should be portrayed as a confident, engaged problem-solver, but this comes off more as aspirational imagery on which to base ad creative. I’m more interested in observing Modern Dad as he is, rather than the idea of what he aspires to be. While the latter makes good ad copy, the former will allow us to accurately target him in the first place.

Here’s a preliminary sketch, thanks to the findings of the At-Home Dad Network Survey and the National At-Home Dad Network’s Statistics on Stay-At-Home Dads:

  • Modern Dad is more common than we think and becoming more so. In the 2010 census, 32% of married fathers (close to 7 million dads) reported being “a regular source of care for their children under age 15,” up from 26% in the 2000 census. Of those 7 million, at least 1.4 million are full-time stay-at-home dads, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics – a number which itself has doubled in the last 10 years.
  • Modern Dad is part of Generation X: 95% percent of the respondents to the At-Home Dad Network Survey were between 30-50 years of age, with an almost even split between those in their 30s and their 40s.
  • Modern Dad is married. 94% of the At-Home Dad Network Survey’s respondents were married.
  • Modern Dad’s kids tend to be young. 60% have children preschool age or younger. More than one-third (36%) have children in elementary grades (K-4), and 13% have children in middle school grades.
  • Modern Dad is proud of his choices. Respondents to the At-Home Dad Network Survey reported that their role in the family “was the result of a value decision they made with their spouse, and that it was both rewarding and a privilege combined with being stressful and difficult.” Modern Dad’s choice to be at home was the result of deliberate reflection on what’s best for his family, and it was a choice in which he takes pride.
  • Modern Dad and Modern Mom make choices together. The At-Home Dad Network Survey concludes that “the greatest theme that emerged from these responses was that these men saw themselves as partnering with their spouse or significant other to share the job of raising children.” Despite one parent or the other being primarily at home, both parents take a collaborative role in their family life.

For some further tentative first steps in this direction, here are some online resources that can help us paint a more complete picture of Modern Dad. These are by no means meant to be exhaustive but rather the beginning of an ongoing conversation about accurately understanding Modern Dad and including him in our marketing efforts.

  • The National At-Home Dad Network: An umbrella organization and online portal for local dad groups around the country.
  • The New Dad: A great foundational resource for starting to understand contemporary fatherhood, the Center for Work and Family at Boston College has been researching and publishing studies for the past five years on the evolution of fathers and their roles at home and at work.
  • There are lots of good Dad blogs out there. My favorites include Fathers, Work, and Family and At-Home Dad Matters.

On a final note, I’m all for the National At-Home Dad Network’s campaign to do away with “Mr. Mom” once and for all. I think, for that matter, that marketing just to “at-home” parents – either Moms or Dads – isn’t a sustainable practice for modern brands. Taking a cue from the good, forward-leaning folks who run the Dad 2.0 Summits, we should start realizing that the day to market to Mom and Dad 2.0 is a lot closer than we think.