The purpose of this research is to examine the marketing character and status of the male as the "new" consumer. The plan of the research will be to set forth the scope and limit of the so called neo male (Gill, 1991, p. 76) as an important segment of the buying public, and then to discuss the details of market, society, and culture that have contributed to the shifts in perception of the male as contemporary buyer of consumer goods.
The term neo male has, as at early 1991, reached common usage in the popular literary culture. This is the name given to the prototypical adult male buyer of consumer goods who also has been assigned certain sociopsychological and sociocultural characteristics that differentiate him from the male typical of earlier periods. Gill (1991) discusses this in terms of popular culture male role models of postwar decades, particularly male celebrities associated with specific character traits. Gill's description is a useful way of positioning the neo male in a context that will permit an explanation of consumer behavior patterns in the current period.
Male role models in the Eisenhower Decade came in two
varieties the rebel and the family man. Teens and young
single men identified with Marlon Brando and James Dean.
Middle aged men, meanwhile, were busy creating the baby
boom. They had more in common with Gregory Peck's commuting
executive in The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. The ring a
ding ding optimism of the early '60s was a major theme in
popular culture and in the American male's cocksure
attitude. Hugh Hefner cavorted; Sean Connery's 007 was
unstoppable; Paul McCartney had it made. Ads like the one
for Grant's scotch captured this spirit. But a new rebel
began to emerge, one who rejected a career in plastics (The
Graduate) or hit the open road (Easy Rider). . . . Thanks
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