Overall, men are substantially increasing their average dollar basket size across all channels – especially in grocery where they have increased spending by 56 percent over a five year span.  And while a high percentage of dollars spent by men are in predictable categories such as alcoholic beverages, grooming care and pre-shave products, more than half of the principal male’s shopping basket consists of items that indicate they are shopping for the family, such as canned seafood, refrigerated juices, lunch meats and dishwashing aids. 

As a result of this growing trend, marketers need to evaluate the importance of men’s purchase volume for their brand and those of competitors and determine whether their current media mix reaches these purchasers.  By learning more about where and what these consumers buy, they will be better able to guide brand positioning and media targeting to capitalize on this target when they are in the aisles.

Read more about male shopping patterns in the current edition of Consumer Insight.

Dollar sales of hair preparations such as gels, pomade and waxes slowed but continued four years of strong growth.  In 2008, dollar sales were up a modest 1.8 percent after growing 13.5 percent in 2007, 13.4 percent in 2006 and 7.7 percent in 2005.

Sales of men’s hair spray continued to collapse: they fell 7 percent in dollars to $14.1 million and a decline of 7.2 percent in unit volume.

This report was originally featured in the January issue of Facts, Figures & the Future, a monthly e-publication focused on delivering the latest consumer data and trend information to members of the Food Marketing Institute and clients of Nielsen. Facts, Figures & the Future is published by The Lempert Report/Consumer Insight, Inc. and is sponsored by the Food Marketing Institute and Nielsen.

In August, videos at JohnMcCain.com attracted more female than male viewers for the first time, Nielsen Online reported Wednesday.

Women accounted for 58% of all unique video viewers on John McCain’s website last month — up from July and June, when they made up 48% and 37% of unique video viewers on the site.

The increase in women video viewers at JohnMcCain.com came during the same month that McCain selected Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.

Barack Obama’s website drew consistently large percentages of women video viewers during the summer months, according to Nielsen. In August, 63% of all unique video viewers on BarackObama.com were women.

Video streams at BarackObama.com increased 155% in August — up from 502,000 streams in July to 1.3 million last month. During the same time period, the number of unique video viewers on Obama’s site increased 173% — from 302,000 in July to 824,000 in August, the month of the Democratic National Convention.

Video viewing at JohnMcCain.com also showed modest increases in August, according to Nielsen. Video streams grew by 16% over the previous month — from one million streams in July to 1.2 million in August. Meanwhile unique video viewers on McCain’s site increased 5% — from 452,000 viewers in July to 475,000 in August.

Most overall online video metrics, including unique video viewers, total video streams, and streams per viewer, were either flat or down slightly from July to August, according to Nielsen. Time spent per person viewing online video increased nearly 8% from July to August.

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Silicon Alley Insider.

Forbes’ story cited data from Nielsen Mobile showing that men are more likely to surf the mobile Web and watch mobile TV, while women take more photos, send more text and multimedia messages, and download more ringtones than men. 

The story also noted that women, who see their phones as extension of their personalities, are more likely to personalize their phones, while men treat their phones as a tool for keeping up with news and work email.

Learn more about mobile usage gender gaps and read The New York Times’ coverage of Nielsen’s findings.