Do Kiwi Men Really Know What Matters?

Media Release November 2012

Do Kiwi Men Really Know What Matters?

With a proliferation of questionable products aimed at men, including manscara, guyliner and strange waxing procedures, one could be forgiven for assuming that Kiwi men have lost sight of what really matters to them.

Speight’s, one of the longest serving New Zealand beers, asked men aged 18-65 across the country what really matters to them. The survey revealed some surprising - and mostly heartening - results.

The vast majority of Kiwi men are pretty clear on what matters to them, with 65% rating family as most important. However, somewhat dubiously, respondents rated money and friends as being more important than love, although love did feature as being more important than work or beer.

A staggering 97% claim they would pay the correct amount of money when buying from an honesty box – showing that the Kiwi tradition is alive and well, while 84% of Kiwi men would stop to help a stranded motorist on the road - although it would pay to have a breakdown outside of Otago, where only 76% of respondents would stop to help – below the national average!

Bucking the trend of proving themselves as being a nation of helpful, courteous men, almost half of the respondents wouldn’t offer to help their neighbour build a deck, with the lowest neighbourly comraderie being recorded in the West Coast with only one in four respondents saying they’d offer to help with the building.

When faced with a particularly tricky predicament to truly test their resolve about what really matters, Speight’s asked Kiwi men if they would choose to take a last minute ticket to an All Blacks game over a previous engagement with their wife and her friends.

Just over a quarter of Kiwi men would choose to go to the game (with two respondents even choosing to fake an illness and then sneak out), however, the majority (59.1%) would forfeit the tickets in favour of keeping their word and going to the wife’s planned dinner.

Southland men were the only group to pick going to the game (50%) ahead of the previous commitment (33%), proving that the rugby matters more to them than harmony on the home front.

Anna Gestro from Speight’s says, “It’s good to see most Kiwi men have their priorities in order. Some of the regional trends are a bit unexpected though!”

The best regions to be stranded in a car are Waikato, Nelson and the West Coast, with 100% of men saying that they’d stop to help. Surprisingly, Auckland men are more likely to stop for a stranded motorist than men from Northland, Taranaki and Otago.

While Waikato, Tasman and Otago men are least likely to buy enough beers to share with mates, choosing instead to buy just enough for themselves. The best place to build a deck is the Hawkes Bay with 73.7% of Kiwi men offering to help their neighbours - and if you’re stuck at work late to finish a presentation, men in every region apart from Gisborne would stay back to help (33% of Gisborne men would leave work on time anyway!).

“The Speight’s survey is a small insight into the Kiwi male psyche, but it’s heartening to see that in a world full of choices and short on time, most Kiwi men have their feet firmly on the ground and know what really matters most to them,” says Gestro.

Along with being interested in the modern Kiwi male, Speight’s has also revamped its packaging to reflect the look and feel of a modern day beer. Check out the new-look bottles in supermarkets and liquor stores.

www.speights.co.nz

ENDS

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