“We’re Focusing On Marketing To Men!”
I’m a woman. I buy things. I write about marketing to women. I advise clients on marketing to women.
But, one thing has always bugged me. People, including many marketers, talk about marketing to women as if we’re one big group of pink ‘n white sameness. Then they wonder why their programs don’t work.
Try this: say “Marketing to men is a great opportunity!” out loud. Doesn’t that sound silly? If you think like many do about women, that would mean:
All women love to shop = All men love to hunt
All women buy shoes = all men buy guns
All women love the color pink = All men love the color blue (of course, they’d NEVER say “love” and a significant percentage of them are color-blind anyway)
All women cook = All men work on cars (This would be a big surprise to my last three boyfriends and my Dad. I can at least identify the oil filter…)
All women are heterosexual = All men are heterosexual
All women want to get married = All men don’t (In reality, men really like to be married; in fact, they pair up and remarry more often and faster after a relationship ends.)
The way to get any woman to buy is show them a picture of a baby = The way to get any man to buy is show them a picture of Pamela Anderson.
So, if they’re all alike, you’d pitch the same product in the same way to George Bush as you would to George Clooney. You’d send the same press release to both Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly. You’d send out an email blast that would include both Rush Limbaugh and Al Franken. You’d send the same political contribution solicitation letter to both Sean Hannity and James Carville (well, at least Clooney and Carville would understand the multi-syllable words…)
Doesn’t “Marketing to Women” sound silly now?
One thing that IS true about ALL women (at least those of us with an IQ higher than warm guacamole): We HATE being treated as if we’re all the same.
Related Posts:
Pssst. Want Me To Buy Something?
Marketing Stereotypes: Old Ladies and Libraries
The “I Hate Pink” List
My guest posts at Lip-Sticking:
Marketing To Women: Fallacies & Follies
Will Women Buy Sex
The above image is Mel Gibson from an old movie, What Women Want. While I’m not totally thrilled with some of the women characters (it’s Hollywood after all), it is very funny and there’s a lot of truth in how they portray women thinking. And watching Mel hop around a bathroom putting on pantyhose is a laugh-out-loud moment.
Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, marketing to women
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June 26th, 2008 at 7:45 am
I have read your blog for a while now and you have mentioned this topic over and over again in various ways. Maybe you have had a different experience than I but any marketer worth their salary knows that marketing to small groups is the best way to increase your ROI.
But you act as though saying marketing to women is the end all of horrible things to say, when I have to strongly disagree. The idea that a marketer is saying they want to market to women is a starting point. From there they move on to select smaller groups to market to.
Now if your message is that you should not consider groups like women or men then I am strongly confused. Because there is infinite evidence showing great differences between the way men and women shop. So ignoring those differences would be fatal.
So my point is what are you trying to say? What do you really mean by saying this so many times?
I apologize if this comes off as forward I intend no hostility.
June 26th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Pearce,
Thanks for commenting.
“Marketers worth their salary know…” Well, actually, there are many marketers that cost big money and don’t produce results (both in a company and as contractors).
And, many don’t know, particularly if they don’t “do marketing” for a living - that’s why people like me - and Holly Buchanan and Yvonne DiVita and Michele Miller and Andrea Learned…and, and, and…write about the same thing “over and over.” (same goes for people like Tom Peters, Seth Godin, and the crew at The Future Now.)
I’m not suggesting that “marketing to women” is wrong or evil. What I’m saying is you can’t generalize. It is “small groups” with which you can be most effective. Many don’t make that step from the general to the specific. They do a few lazy things like paint a product pink or surround it by babies in an ad and consider it “done.”
And, I just gotta ask, You say, “Now if your message is that you should not consider groups like women or men then I am strongly confused.”
What other groups are there???
P.S. Your comment reads a lot like splogging - but I’m giving you the benefit of a doubt.
June 26th, 2008 at 4:05 pm
splogging - That is a new word for me. I looked it up and it seems to mean that I copy and past content to get hits. Which is true and untrue any good blogger makes comments on other related blogs to get visitors. But your blog is not exactly related and my blog is only temporary so a lot of visitors does me no good. Now, if you are accusing me of plagiarizing then that is another story. Which would actually be quite insulting.
I want to reiterate that I again intend no hostility. I have been in marketing for less then 6 months. It took me less then 6 hours to understand how not targeting specifics is a waist of time. With that in mind I find it hard to see how others don’t understand that. It seems your experience greatly differs so I can see how you would be frustrated by poor marketing.
I can not be the only one who reads your blog, has read “The soccer mom myth” and reads Grockdotcom.com. So maybe I am not the only one who has heard that message too many times. As a suggestion maybe you can spice it up with example’s so you get the same message across from a different angle. Take for example Bryan Eisenberg, he is always preaching, “Always be optimizing” but it never feels like he is saying that.
And one more thing which I hope you don’t get to annoyed with. What if your audience are those who already understand that message. Just something to think about.
June 26th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Pearce,
Here’s the great thing about blogs - if I’m boring you - you don’t have to read it. And several of the posters over at GrokDotCom (including Holly who co-wrote The Soccer Mom Myth) read and recommend my blog. So, it’s a matter of choice and personal taste. I read and link to their posts - they read and link to mine, as do several other marketers, such as Michele Miller (co-author of Soccer Mom Myth). I find it helpful to read others perspectives and examples even when I already understand, for example, “always be optimizing.” Helps keep the ideas fresh and makes me more valuable to my clients.
Good for you if you got in six hours what many don’t ever get.
As for my being frustrated with poor marketing - I’m a marketing troubleshooter so my audience is people who want to learn, look at things differently and grok different perspectives. And, I also learn from fellow bloggers and commenters.
Good luck with your web business.
June 27th, 2008 at 4:11 am
There is only one way to replace prejudice, mention the truth until it actually hits home. Cognitive research shows that once people make up their minds they tend to close their minds. So keep doing what you do. It’s excellent.
In fact one way that is used to silence those telling truths is to suggest they are ‘obsessive’ when they repeat a message over and over again - because it is not heard. Then they will pretend you are ‘boring’ and ‘irritating’ because you tell the same story over and over again as if they didn’t hear you before. In fact, you mention it over and over again BECAUSE they dismiss it.
Unfortunately these people are costing themselves a lot of money, because their view of women is indeed very unappealing to most women. One other prejudice I’m fed up with: Who invented this lie that you sell products to women by showing women half dressed behaving ’sexy’? That’s what MEN want. Just like you don’t sell a product to men by displaying other men ‘wiggling their buts in front of the camera’ as it were, you can’t expect women to feel pleased about a product because some other woman is displaying herself in a sexual manner - it’s simple … heterosexual women (the group these marketeers are normally aiming to reach) actually don’t find women attractive. Talk about boring .. that is boring.
June 27th, 2008 at 7:53 am
I do love a lively discussion! so I wanted to just jump in on two points -
There are a lot of smart marketers who understand not all women think alike, don’t have the same needs/values, and will not respond to the same message. But there are still MANY marketers that think of “women” as a small niche. (even in cases where they are the majority of their customers) Yes, it’s very important to understand the differences between men and women. Absolutely. That’s step one.
Step two is - among the women you are trying to talk to, what are the differences? That’s something I still see many marketers struggling with, in theory, and even more so in practice. How do you speak to different segments of your female consumers? OR, as we say at FutureNow, how do you speak to different personas?
Pearce asked for a specific exmaple - I have two women friends who own Mini Coopers. One fell in love with it for its minimalistic qualities. She is big on eco-friendly/green products and feels the Mini is a perfect reflection of those values.
My other friend thinks its a sporty fun look and a great drive. It matches her individualistic values and image of herself. She likes it for the “status” driving a BMW vehicle gives her.
Two women bought the car for very different reasons based on very different value systems.
I think it’s important for Mary and all of us to continue pounding this drum. It’s still too easy, and too common to see marketers treating all women as one “segment.”
June 27th, 2008 at 9:05 am
Thanks, Holly. Great example. And, then there’s me: I love (lust after) the Mini-Cooper for BOTH reasons. So, what’s a poor marketer to do!
And, I go through the whole rationalization process about once a month re why the Mini-Cooper would be a great purchase, with different reasons, down to it’d fit better in my garage. Oh so logical, and ultimately oh so impractical. My boring old Jeep heap is long paid for; I don’t drive it that much since I don’t have a commute (and can walk to many things in my area); haul a lot of stuff, including huge bags of soil and rock; and I can still fit it in the garage. But, I know if I ever test drive one of those little darlins’ (especially the convertible model with stick shift), I’ll be hopelessly lost and will throw ‘em the Jeep keys with nary a backward glance…so, I avoid driving by the M-C dealership…;-)
June 28th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Well, I’m not sure the idea of marketing to men sounds THAT silly but, yes, I wholeheartedly agree with your point that understanding the customer can’t stop with the single, and basic, demographic category of gender. Both sexes are far more complex than that. You’re right again when you suggest too many marketers stick with the stereotypes. The good news is, in this age of ROI, there’s new and positive pressure to take the time and spend the money to determine truly relevant (and therefore more effective) messaging.
June 29th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Hey, what a great discussion and my kinda topic.
I think you must have hit a nerve, Mary, to have gotten these comments. What made me laugh is in all the years I’ve been reading your blog, you give example after example in specific blog posts.
I think blogs are excellent examples in themselves, since different types of readers are drawn to different types of posts. I’ve been experimenting myself lately, trying out different writing styles and topics to register reaction (has to do with the direction of my next book). It’s amazing (and sometimes even predictable) what will ring someone’s bell, while ticking another person off.
Believe me - I’ll be banging the “marketing to personas” drum for a very long time. And while it took me a little longer than 6 hours to figure out everything there is to know about marketing, I still feel I’m ahead of just about everyone else… except us geniuses!
July 1st, 2008 at 7:50 am
this is interesting (forgive my typing, I have a dislocated shoulder and typing hurts)… I can offer a story: just last week I spoke at a book club locally (lucky me, they were discussing my book on marketing to women; Dickless Marketing - which is to say, market to Jane not Dick, for the uninformed). Anyway, here’s one question that came up, “How can companies in this day and age still think bikini clad girls will sell cars?”
Why did that question come up? Because the woman asking it felt marginalized by the commercial she was talking about…and she was astonished that anyone in today’s market wouldn’t understand that woman buy a LOT of cars, hence…the bikini clad babes just weren’t doing it for her.
Therein lies the reason for this blog, for Michele Miller’s blog, for my blog, for all the books on marketing to women, and all the attention given to this topic. Marketers still don’t get it: more than 80% of the goods and services in THIS COUNTRY are bought by or influenced by, women. Of all ages, interests, and mindsets.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, when you market to a woman, you are marketing to all of her friends and family. But first, you have to identify and understand HER.