Feature: Digital marketing: One man and his blog

Men feel comfortable in the virtual world of the internet. There is even evidence that they would rather shop online than on the high street. But when it comes to the blogosphere, it seems that the male of the species is underserved. The web is crowded with women who can’t wait to bear their souls, but men are far less inclined to share their innermost feelings about health, relationships or – God forbid – sex. This means that brands targeting men are missing out on a one-to-one marketing opportunity.

I discovered the gap in the market when I launched my own blog, Branded Male, as a trailer for the book of the same name. My plan was not to recycle the content of the book, but to write new posts about clothes, grooming, health and other male-oriented subjects. Men would not automatically be the subject of the blog, but they would always be its target.

With this strategy in mind, I went online to check out the competition. According to Technorati, the touchstone on these matters, the most popular blog in the world is Endgadget.com. As its name suggests, it deals with tools for technophiles. In fact, many of the sites in Technorati’s top 100 cover technology. As men revel in both science and status symbols, they are heavy consumers of gadgetry. But these sites are aimed at geeks of both genders.

One of the first blogs aimed at men features at number 66 in the Technorati ranking. It’s called The Sartorialist, and it was set up in 2005 by Scott Schuman, a 40-year-old “street photographer” who previously worked in fashion marketing. The blog sprang out of his observation that a certain type of well-dressed male was not represented in magazines. “I’d be out on the streets of New York and I’d see ordinary guys who nonetheless had a very distinct sense of style,” he says. “Some of them were quirky, others were wearing beautiful Italian suits. I thought other guys would be inspired by them, but you never saw pictures of them anywhere.”

He toyed with the idea of putting his photos on a website, but this seemed overly complicated. “It was only when I found out about blogging that the whole thing clicked.”

Less than a year after his blog had gone online, Schuman got a call from Condé Nast, the publisher of GQ, which dispatched him to Milan to take pictures at the men’s fashion shows. As his site evolved, he began to take photos of women as well as men. This broad appeal – combined with media coverage – drove his site’s figures up to 45,000 visitors a day.

Some early Sartorialist fans have complained that men are no longer the focus of his blog, but Schuman is unrepentant. “Men like to look at pictures of beautiful women too,” he observes. Like other mainstream media, the US version of GQ hosts a number of blogs on its website, including one by Glen O’Brien, the magazine’s legendary “Style Guy”. Back in the UK, the recently re-launched Arena has a website that is essentially a series of outspoken blogs.

Online magazines with blog-type content have proved popular. The US-based Askmen.com claims no less than five million readers a month. It includes categories dealing with “sexuality” and “dating & love”. A recent post discussed how a guy could invite a woman back to his place without implying long-term commitment. But the comments tend to be cynical and amusing rather than heartfelt.

As mentioned earlier, men can feel self-conscious shopping for skincare products in stores, so they are eager to satisfy their grooming needs online. A cross between a skincare shopping site and a blog would therefore seem to be an ideal male media brand.

The closest so far is Mankind, created in 2001 by Hilary Andrews. She told the Beauty and the Brand conference – held in London at the end of November – that on the high street, 50 per cent of male grooming products are bought by the women in their lives. But 98 per cent of the products on Mankind.co.uk are bought by men. “They want a comfortable, fuss-free method of getting products and the internet is the obvious choice,” she said.

She added that the site had grown into a forum about skincare solutions. Men exchange tips about products, providing “word of mouse” marketing. Andrews described it as an “incredibly powerful” tool for brands. The Mankind experience suggests that when they go online to chat, men like the debate to be backed up by concrete solutions: an approach for marketers to bear in mind.

Mark Tungate is the author of the book Branded Male: Marketing to Men, published by Kogan Page, www.kogan-page.co.uk, 256 pages, hardback, £18.99. Find Mark’s blog at www.brandedmale.com.