They know what men want.

Specifically, they know what American men aged 18 to 34, the target market for advertisers the world over, want to buy.

From electronics to clothing, music to basketball shoes, sex on the fifth date to advice on whether to wear sneakers with a sports coat, they know what men will pay for - and how to get their attention, too.

Esquire Editor David Granger, Ludacris, JWT Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Marian Salzman, and other market experts broke down the demographic for advertising leaders from around the country last week at the Marketing to Men Executive Summit at the MGM Grand.

According to the experts, at the heart of understanding the American male is understanding the profound crisis he's in.

"It's not a good time to be a guy," Salzman said.

Granger said the American man's crisis is characterized by an achievement gap between young men and, well, everyone else - especially women.

Women are outpacing men in high school and at universities, at both undergraduate and graduate levels. Men are more likely to be in Special Education classes or lag behind classmates in reading level; and five years out of college they already make less than female peers.

The largest recruiter on college campuses is no longer Boeing or another high-tech or engineering firm, but car rental company Enterprise. It staffs its service counters with eager-to-please young salesmen in shirts and ties, with degrees hanging on the walls at home.

Meanwhile, the age at which the American boy becomes the American man grows older each year, as even "men" in their late 20s and 30s play video games and spend more and more of their lives on the Internet.

That's where Ludacris, who was in Las Vegas Monday for the Billboard Music Awards, comes in. He's there to sell them rap records, video games with his mug and his rhymes, and his own line of clothing.

"Men are very emotionally attached to the things we want," said Chaka Zulu, Ludacris' friend and manager who cofounded DTP (Disturbing the Peace) Records with the rapper.

The marketing picture won't always be so rosy, though.

"Young men are slowly going to become an increasingly less attractive demographic to us," Granger said.

But there is hope for the future of selling pricey goods to young men - a particular kind of young man.

"The average American man doesn't exist anymore," Granger said.

Instead of an average man, there is the top 10 percent of men and then all the rest. This is caused in part, Granger said, by the shrinking of the middle class and an increasing wealth gap between the highest wage earners and the rest of the pack.

So the upper 10 percent has a huge impact on the consumer market, and is, in fact, the new target market.

With their high salaries and emphasis on goods as a way to attain happiness and fulfillment, now is a great time to be selling goods to what Granger called the "High Normal Man."

While the fathers of 18- to 24-year-old men put their families first and sacrificed their own wants and needs, the young man today gives himself permission to spend on luxury goods.

Granger said this has created a "large shift in the way American men spend."

So the message to retailers and marketers: take advantage of the sunset of the average man, then refocus on the "high-normal man."

Here are a few ways to avoid offending him with the advertising message, according to Salzman: