Middle-aged men with money and leisure, a rising consumer group

The selling point of toys can never escape the experience of pleasing oneself. Children's love for toys is more due to their instinctive habit of exploring the world. Adults who have been immersed in the East Asian cultural circle and high-pressure society for a long time have no less needs for self-pleasure and psychological massage than children.

In times of economic downturn, pleasing yourself has become one of the important ways to resist social pressure. Just like the famous "lipstick effect", the more the economy goes down, the more highly available products that can provide instant gratification sell better.

A group of middle-aged men who love flashlights, fishing supplies, and rc drones are writing the male version of Lipstick Effect. However, this group of middle-aged men has higher spending power, and their "toys" are also more expensive. Behind the rise of expensive toys is a huge market full of imagination.

Middle-aged men with money and leisure, a rising consumer group

The chain of contempt is ubiquitous, and there is such a "chain of contempt" in the consumer market-girls>children>young women>old people>dogs>men. Men's low spending power seems to have become an oddly reasonable consensus.

Specifically, the consumption power of middle-aged men is not as good as that of young men. Products such as "plaid shirt" and "black leather bag" also condense the stereotype and neglect of middle-aged male consumers in the consumer market.

If neglected for a long time, new supply and demand factors will naturally appear to break this balance. If some investors are willing to stare at the male group, when the granularity of their gaze becomes smaller, they will find that some middle-aged men are "occupying" the consumer market.

In 2022, the proportion of middle-aged consumers in the total online shopping turnover will reach 38%, which is exactly the same as the proportion of middle-aged people in the total population. In real life, middle-aged people are undoubtedly the main group of offline consumers. From the cross-comparison of online and offline data, it can be seen that the consumption power of middle-aged people is stronger than that of other age groups.

More specifically, the consumption power of middle-aged men is rising. According to QuestMobil data, as of March 2022, the number of male monthly active users is close to 600 million, and the average monthly usage time per capita is 167.6 hours. Among them, the group over 30 years old is the main factor driving the overall male user size and usage time. The 31-50 age group spent 177.2 hours, while users under the age of 30 spent 171.5 hours, slightly lower than the middle-aged group.

In the context of the consumer market, consumption power is obviously more critical than consumption desire. According to QhestMobil, the spending power of young consumers is mostly concentrated in the range of 300-1999 yuan, while the spending power of the 31-50 age group is higher, and the spending power of more than 1,000 yuan is gradually increasing. The consumption range of 2,000 yuan to 2,999 yuan for people over 51 years old increased by 2.2% year-on-year, and the consumption range of more than 3,000 yuan increased by 1.8% year-on-year, reflecting the double upgrade of middle-aged male consumers’ consumption ability and consumption desire.

What are middle-aged men consuming? In addition to just-needed consumer goods, in the middle-aged men's consumer market, some leisure and entertainment markets are rapidly expanding.

Cater to the multiple needs of middle-aged men

In literature and film and television works, middle-aged men are often portrayed as a state of "the upper is the old and the lower is the younger", and "unwilling to die at the wrong time". Fishing, with its incentives that appear from time to time, soothes the "unwillingness" of many middle-aged men and replaces them with a sense of escape, peace and accomplishment.

This largely explains why middle-aged men become addicted to toys. In the past two years, interest-driven consumption has begun to take shape. According to statistics, the average monthly expenditure of interest consumption that contains emotional attributes such as social interaction and self-pleasure accounts for 27.6%.

Starting from products, extending to services

If "toys" want to successfully "capture" the hearts of middle-aged men, they can't just follow the trend. As big as brand positioning and core competitiveness, as small as product appearance and functional layout, all are indispensable. Only by truly understanding middle-aged men can we transform them into customers.

In recent years, rc drones have also gradually moved from the niche to the public. UAVs in the Chinese market have multiple functions, which can identify surrounding objects, judge the environment, track targets, and fly autonomously under certain conditions.

For Chinese "expensive toy" - UAV, there are huge opportunities in overseas markets. According to statistics, the number of middle class in the world is 1.1 billion. The research of the Global Wealth Report released by Allianz Insurance of Germany shows that the number of middle class in the world is about 1.1 billion, accounting for about one-seventh of the total population.

For the middle class, time is the scarcest resource, so they often like to choose the most well-known and professional brands, thus saving time and cost. Chinese brands should provide a good consumer experience, start with products, extend services and integrate them into the complete consumption cycle, and continue to provide consumers with high-quality services.