It must be said – the recession hit us all hard. We’re not as wealthy as we used to be, and won’t be as prosperous as we hoped we would. In particular, the 2008 recession hit men the hardest, and left more men out of work than women. What did this mean? This means that more men were taking on home-keeping tasks like shopping, cooking and cleaning.

Julie Murphy, an account planner at Midan Marketing, conducted numerous focus groups and found that those men who used to go to work, hit the gym and come home to a hot meal are now taking on the roles that are more traditionally hefted upon women (validly or not).

In search of some sort of trend, Midan Marketing found that 47% of men in the US are buying most of of the groceries and doing most of the cooking in their homes. They then decided to call this group of men “Manfluencers™” – because of their newly found influence over household buying decisions.

Marketers have latched onto these findings, and have already rolled out several new products that are specifically targeted at these house-husbands. This has extended to ‘frozen yoghurt for men’ which was immediately christened ‘broghurt’.

Whether or not this will work is yet to be seen, with many in the industry feeling skeptical. Don’t men tend to emulate their wives’ shopping habits. I mean, when men shop, don’t they think, “Damn. If I were my wife, what I would I buy?”. Some men share this sentiment.

Adam Carstens, director of research at Hult International Business School, says:

I’m not grocery shopping to bolster my manhood—I’m grocery shopping because I want to eat something,

[Source : Quartz]