Men Are The Future Of The Collecting Market

Furniture World Magazine

Women turn to decorating while men pursue collecting. Since the end of 1999 when Ty Inc. announced the retirement of all Beanie Babies, which they subsequently rescinded, the bottom has dropped out of the collectibles market. Total sales of the collectibles industry, one of the five segments of the gifts and decorative accents business, dropped 9.2% in 2001 to $6.5 billion in retail sales. This from a high of $7.9 billion in retail sales in 1998, according to a new market research report, Why People Buy Collectibles: Analysis of Collector Behavior and Their Drives and Motivations to Collect, published by Unity Marketing. "A key trend driving the decline in the traditional collectibles market is the shift in the con-sumer marketplace. While the collectibles industry has sprung up by largely serving a female audience, the collector market today is becoming more and more dominated by men with their different collecting interests and passions," says Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing and author of the new book Why People Buy Things They Don't Need (Ithaca, NY: Paramount Market Publishing, 2002). "Since the Beanie Babies craze died down, women have turned their attention to decorating rather than collecting. Many traditional collectibles companies have lost touch with the emotional lives of their consumers, as they turned away from buying 'knick-knacks' to decorative accents that make a style statement in their homes or provide an emotional lift like candles and special personal care products do. These categories are booming in today's gift market." This new research report is based upon a telephone survey among 2,000 representatively sampled U.S. households, making the results of the survey projectable to the entire population. "While women are turning their attention away from collecting, men have found today's new collecting marketplace served by online auctions like eBay well suited to their tastes. Collecting has always attracted speculators, but men today are finding that the Internet has introduced a whole new dimension to collecting. As a result, the male collector typically spends more than a woman on an individual collectible, buys and sells more, uses the Internet more, collects different things for different reasons." Unity Marketing predicts that men represent the future of the collecting market. "When we look at the demographic profile of the younger collectors, those under 35 years of age, they are dominated by men. Men tend to exhibit a different pattern in their collecting lives. They carry their collecting passions right from childhood through early adulthood and then on into maturity, while women tend to delay active collecting until they reach 35 years or so, after the children are out of diapers and in school. Men also tend to be more motivated by the thrill of the hunt than women do, and they also view their collections as more of an investment," Danziger explains. This new research report, Why People Buy Collectibles: Analysis of Collector Behavior and Their Drives and Motivations to Collect,examines in detail the consumer market for collectibles, what types of items they collect, their shopping and spending behavior and their expectations of future spending. Psychographic profiles of the five different segments in the collector market provides a deeper understanding of the desires and motivations that drive collectors to collect. Also included is analysis of key gender and generational differences in the collecting target market. Finally 14 key consumer trends that are shaping the collector market of the future are identified. This report is an invaluable tool for marketers and retailers that are interested in exploring opportu-nities in the collector market. Published by Unity Marketing, this 115+ page report is available from Unity Marketing for $1,250. Unity Marketing is a marketing research and consulting firm specializing in understanding consumer drives and motivations and their impact on shopping behavior. For more information, contact Pam Danziger, Unity Marketing, 188 Cocalico Creek Road, Stevens, PA 17578; telephone (717)336-1600; fax (717) 336-1601; Web site: http://www.unitymarketingonline.com. For more information on Pam's upcoming book, Why People Buy Things They Don't Need, see http://www.whypeoplebuy.com.