Marketing to Women
November 02, 2005
Wow I never realised I was 'standard' but now I know I am, thanks to this great article on marketing to women. Andrea Learned, the writer, takes us through the 'common man's guide' to marketing to women. Download it here. (18 page pdf)
These can be summed up as follows:
1. Get to know them - update your research, the number of housewives has most likely decreased since your last research was carried out...
2. Stay in touch - keep in contact regularly. [I would add - Email Marketing is great for this].
3. Don't stray from the path - maintain and embrace brand authenticity.
4. Don't use 'talk' - see below:
- Car Talk - the writer looks at some car websites and concludes that they overuse flash which we women perceive as an unnecessary gimic. She also concludes that the car companies use sex very badly as an aid to the sales process.
- Geek Talk - I loved this section, I was nodding in agreement - she makes the point that women will always go for the lifestyle benefit first and then the tech spec. Eg. buying a computer, women will go for the fact that the model can handle email, internet surfing and bookkeeping online...and the fact that it's a model 2.G pentium 5, etc etc second. Digital camera companies take note. Women will buy for the quality and speed of photos your camera can take, not the number of pixels.
- Sex Talk - an example of a US wine that overuses inuendo is given and shown as a bit of a failure. Getting the level of sex talk right when marketing to women is a fine line between smutty and smarmy.
This article came to me through the Change This website, a site dedicated to bringing thought provoking manifestos to people who think as well as just consume!!