Marketing to Women
Honda's Fit She's doesn't fit me.
Here’s a fascinating, female-driven development in the car world: features that prevent wrinkles (in skin, not clothes, though a car that magically keeps your clothes from crinkling would be a great feature, too, wouldn’t it?)
This new, cosmetically clever car is called the Honda Fit She’s (currently only available in Japan). According to this article, its windshield blocks 99 percent of ultraviolet rays, which can damage skin. The climate control system is called “Plasmacluster” and it’s mysteriously skin-enhancing as well.
I love this idea, not in small part because it acknowledges women’s auto buying power. (Women are responsible for 68 percent of new car purchases.) And as someone who has benefited from other woman-driven car design decisions—like kid-mollifying DVD screens, added storage space, driver’s side visor mirrors, and beaucoup cup holders—I’m all for a skin-enhancing drive. It even accomplishes every busy woman’s favorite time-saver: multitasking. Instead of spending an hour in a facialist’s chair, I could just drive my Fit She’s to a meeting and kill two birds with one stone!
So, here’s what I’m not crazy about when it comes to the Fit She’s—the color.
Yup, it’s pink.
The car is also offered in brown, black and white, but its flagship model—and the only one you see in its marketing material—is a frosty, coral-pink.
Yes, I know pink can be powerful and I know real men wear pink but pink is also problematic. It’s every princess-obsessed little girl’s favorite color. It’s soft and sweet and infantile. And on a car, especially one named Fit She’s, it’s a man-repeller
That makes it a missed opportunity. I know plenty of men who enjoy extra cup holders and visor mirrors. They would also love a car that helps stave off leathery skin. But I don’t know a single man who would be comfortable driving a pink “for her” car. As a professional woman who’s well beyond her tween years, I don’t think I’d feel comfortable driving it either.
I’m bewildered by this method of catering to women. It ghettoizes us and alienates men. It’s the exact opposite of what we try to do here at Brogan & Partners. We are marketing-to-women experts but we don’t believe in “divide and conquer.” In fact, we know that thinking like women—and knowing how women think—is an important part of reaching both genders. Taking both genders seriously is a must, too. We do. Maybe the 2014 version of Honda’s skin-saving car will try to also.
Marketing to women that connects, example 9: Dove.
Some marketing goes beyond building brand awareness, but builds something more: a bridge to change the culture in which we live. The Real Beauty Dove Campaign did exactly that. They took a brand that was just a generic soap that had been around for ages, and reinvented it for a new generation. But before they introduced the line of shampoos, they got into the heads of women. After conducting a global research study, they challenged the idea of beauty. They championed a new idea of beauty. And in doing so, changed the way we thought about beauty, the Dove brand and ourselves.
I remember when the video, Evolution, went viral. It was so powerful; I immediately shared it with my friends and my daughters. I remember how the print in its raw, in your face state, stood out amidst the beauty ads in magazines. And I marveled, as a marketing to women marketer, the social and cultural effect the campaign had. It made me proud of being in the business to see a company do something so noble as they did through their campaign, their social mission films and their commitment to redefine beauty and boost the self-esteem of young girls.
But lately, as Dove abandoned the “Real Beauty” campaign, for something less controversial and more “fresh,” with the “Go Fresh” campaign, it honestly bummed me out. They were just like any other brand in the category. And while they stayed true to their social mission with programs like “The Dove Mission for Self-Esteem,” it seemed like all the progress they made just evaporated. Gone is the emotional connection, the cultural phenomenon, the brand that went beyond, and all we are left is just the product shot on limbo with cucumbers. It’s disappointing that a brand that connected so deeply at one point with its audience is now so unconnected and simply just selling soap. It may be clean. It may be safe. But I prefer the Dove that got its hands dirty making a difference.
Want to see more, check out my first post in my series 20 examples of marketing to women that connects.
Marketing to women that connects, example 8: Evian.
Evian has tapped into a brilliant and creative 
campaign that is a great example of marketing to women that engages online. The brainchild: babies. Now early in my career, I learned if you really want to break through, it’s a cheap trick to put a dog or a baby in your commercial. With it’s “Live Young” campaign, Evian campaign, gives new life to the baby angle.
Please, it’s water. Talk about a parity product. It’s a challenge to find that differentiator or to at least create one. But Evian makes the message memorable and expands on it through modern media vehicles. Using traditional mediums mixed with online video, user-generated engagement, Facebook and microsite, Evian breaks through with the video below but extends it all around the web and world. While it appeals to all people (as most marketing to women creative should), I think it especially appeals to women. We are the ones changing most of the planet’s diapers. We are the ones buying most of the face cream that fights crow’s feet. We are the healthcare decision makers who are trying to find new ways to keep our families healthy. Evian message resonates with us. It’s simple, clean and good clean fun. If you want a laugh, just add Evian to your Facebook newsfeed. 59 million likes can’t be wrong!
Want to see more, check out my first post in my series 20 examples of marketing to women that connects.
Marketing to women that connects, example 7: Google Chrome.
As the highest users of social media, according to Mashable, women are the audience people want to connect with to spread the brand love. And one of the most brilliant campaigns of the decade (in my humble opinion) is the Google Chrome campaign. Showing the audience the web is what you make of it, it uses a kaleidoscope of experiences to demonstrate the capability of Google Chrome, while at the same time pulling on our emotions. To our generation, the web is the new fabric of our life. Through it, Google inspires a younger generation with “It Gets Better”, shows us how together we can “Make It Happen”, and documents the love and wonder years of “Dear Sophie.” In the latter, I thought it was especially clever to make the author of the web diary a man instead of a woman. The fastest way to a mother’s heart is through showing a father be a great and sensitive dad. Which just goes to show, that the best marketing to women creative is not always with a woman as the hero. It’s what works and emotionally connects.
Want to see more, check out my first post in my series 20 examples of marketing to women that connects.
Empowering women through social media (and more): Are you with the league?
Have you heard yet about The League of Extraordinary Women? I can’t tell you how excited I am about it.
The League - a list compiled by Fast Company magazine - is made up of 60 high-profile women who are doing amazing things for women (and girls).
Some of the heavy hitters on the list:
- Coca Cola’s Charlotte Oades, who directs the company’s 5 by 20 initiative, which aims to support five million women entrepreneurs worldwide by 2020.
- Asenath Andrews, principal of Detroit’s Catherine Ferguson Academy for pregnant teens.
- Holly Gordon, whose 10x10 film and social action project follows ten girls in ten different countries where fewer than 50 percent of girls complete primary school.
- Melinda Gates, who is directing her foundation to raise $4 billion for birth control for 120 million women by 2020.
Of course, we’ve seen lists like these before. Magazines (the good ones anyway) love to celebrate people who do good in the world especially when so many of those people are glamorous (Tory Burch and Jennifer Buffett) and/or famous (Alicia Keys, Laila Ali, or America Ferrara) and/or powerful (Hillary Clinton, Maria Eitel, Pat Mitchell).
But Fast Company is doing more than just praising these movers and shakers. They’re trying to turn the notion of helping women into a movement, one that will literally save the world.
Their Twitter campaign, #imwiththeleague, is generating statements like this one by Scott Tanksley: “#ImWithTheLeague bc I want my kids’ world to be more than humanity at 50% of its heart, mind & soul capacity.”
And this one by Christine Osekoski: “#imwiththeleague its time that strong women truly come together to support each others’ initiatives to empower all women. Let’s do it!”
Let’s do it. While the women on The League’s list have connections, money, and power, they still can’t do their jobs without the rest of us. We all have to get involved. Alicia Keys, who is in The League for co-founding Keep A Child Alive, which supports HIV-affected families in five struggling countries, wrote about this in the June 20th Huffington Post: “What people often assume is that in order to make change a reality, you have to have some kind of superhuman quality and power inside of you. You don’t have to be a politician, or a scholar or a singer or a celebrity to recognize a problem and work towards fixing it by empowering others around you to take up the fight.”
Another thing that’s hit home as I’ve read about the League of Extraordinary Women, is how many of its organizations focus on educating, protecting and helping young girls. One of the most inspiring of these is The Girl Effect, founded by the Nike Foundation’s Maria Eitel.
According to the site’s homepage, the Girl Effect is “the unique potential of 600 million adolescent girls to end poverty for themselves and the world.” This amazing infographic further illustrates how a society’s health really does begin or end with its girls. In other words, to make this world a better place for all of us, we need to get girls and women to a better place; to a place where they are safe, educated, have control over their bodies, and have equality with men in the workplace, in the boardrooms, in governments, and at home.
I believe in this. I’m with the league. How about you?
Making shade.
Listening to a friend’s house-decorating stories often means enduring a litany of woes: the rug that was too scratchy, the paint color that was too bright, the upholstery that cost a fortune, and on and on.
But my cousin, Elizabeth—who’s sprucing up her new house in Atlanta—called the other day with a happy decorating tale.
It’s also an example of some great marketing to women.
Elizabeth had an enormous window in her stairwell that needed covering. She found the perfect solution at The Shade Store—a pretty roller shade made of grasscloth. Being a green type, she liked that the shade was made from organic materials and had a natural look to it.
I wasn’t familiar with this company but from what Elizabeth told me, it sounded great. The website tells you how to measure your window, customize your window treatment, and install it by yourself. Skilled customer service people will walk you through the process if you need extra help. For a busy working mom like my cousin—or myself, for that matter—being able to order and install a quality window treatment without having to hire (and meet with and pay) a decorator is a great time-saver.
Elizabeth and her husband loved the shade, her neighbors were grateful for the privacy, and that was that—or so they thought.
A couple weeks later, Elizabeth received a “Give a Tree” card from The Shade Store. As a thank you for her business, the company (through the Arbor Day Foundation) had planted a tree in one of our fire-depleted national forests.
What a great business move.
Since The Shade Store uses a lot of natural materials (organic ones, to boot), planting trees is a great way to promote its own brand.
It’s also going to help sales. The Shade Store’s products are naturally going to attract plenty of green customers. (Incidentally, a majority of those will probably be women. According to She-conomy, women make 85 percent of all consumer purchases and more than 50 percent of women say they want more green choices.) These customers are going to love the fact that The Shade Store gives back in the form of tree planting and they’re likely to give the company repeat business because of it.
It worked on my cousin. She’s now considering using the company for window treatments in her front room. I’m sure I’ll hear all about that decorating venture, too. But given the Shade Store’s inspiring business model, I don’t think I’ll mind.
Lowe's knows women.
As I embarked on my first do-it-yourself project of the summer I came to a crossroads – which store do I buy my paint and sandpaper from, Lowe’s or Home Depot?
I went into both stores and came out surprised at how much Lowe’s understands women and what they want from a home improvement store. The store is brightly lit, well organized and clean. Their signs are complemented with pink backgrounds and the outdoor furniture section includes cute sun hats. Right in the front of the store is a huge display of cleaning products and laundry detergent. The paint department is covered in bright colors, floral prints and hearts (literally). All of this combined creates something much different from Home Depot’s warehouse set up.
This women centric attitude seems to be carried by each of the stores’ employees as well. At Home Depot, I was scoffed at in the paint section when I asked the difference between semi-gloss and satin finishes. At Lowe’s the woman employee complimented my shoes and asked me what project I was working on.
Lowe’s knows me and they know women.
According to Marketing to Women by Marti Barletta, women like to browse while shopping and Lowe’s provides aisles and organization perfect for that. They also put things together to create entire rooms so women can see the big picture. Finally, they take into account that women want bigger aisles for strollers and carts and keep things on lower shelves so women can reach products easily. On the other hand, Home Depot creates an environment that centers on a man’s way of thinking. Men like to walk into a store and pick up a tool quickly and efficiently. Home Depot’s aisles cater to this way of thinking.
Lowe’s doesn’t stop at creating a woman friendly environment in stores, the emphasis on women continues throughout their advertisements. Their commercials are bright, colorful and fun. They show women doing projects that real women aim to complete. Once again, in contrast, Home Depot’s ads show things that men find funny like construction projects gone awry.
There’s nothing wrong with Home Depot taking the rugged approach, but since women make 80% of home improvement decisions, I think Lowe’s is making a great decision in reaching out to a target that is less thought of in the home construction market.
What do you think? What other brands are excelling in reaching women in a male dominated industry?
Bring Facebook shopping with you.
I stared at two pairs of wedges for about twenty minutes unable to decide which to buy until a woman came up behind me and said, “Definitely go with the yellow.” That’s exactly what I needed and what most women want while shopping - a reassurance that they are making the right decision.
Surprisingly, Facebook is here to help. According to Mashable, in Brazil, the social media powerhouse is unleashing a program that puts Facebook likes on the top of hangers in the fashion retail store, C&A. Every time someone likes a product in C&A’s online store, the number on the physical hanger goes up.
This is a win for all types of shoppers. If you want what’s popular, you can pick up a hanger with a ton of likes. If you like to be different, you can go for something with less online prevalence. You no longer have to feel anxious shopping on your own.
You can see social media being integrated into the real world all over the place now. There have been plenty of online campaigns where people vote online for a new clothing design and the winners are produced and sold. One of our favorite examples is Bobbi Brown bringing back lipstick shades on Facebook.
What do you think about social media entering your everyday world outside of the internet? Do you think this is an effective way to market to women or is Facebook out of place?
Innovative healthcare marketing example #12.
Memorial Hermann will be doing more than putting pins in patients today. They will be pinning a live brain tumor resection. Brain surgery on Pinterest? Yep. I'm not sure if it's the right social platform - it's not where I'd go to get up to speed on leading brain surgery centers - but it's certainly innovative. As is the hospital's social media machine.
This Texas hospital performed the world's first live-tweeted open heart surgery a few weeks back. When this reaped 125 million views via Twitter, Storify and media coverage, they decided to go for it again. Adding in Pinterest.
Today's brain surgery will be performed by Dr. Dong Kim, the surgeon who operated on former congresswoman, Gabrielle Giffords. While surgeries have been tweeted in the past, this will be the first to share the feed from the surgeon's fiber optic microscope. Real time pics and videos will be posted on Twitter, YouTube and Storify.
According to Nielson @Plan, homemakers index 204 on Pinterest, meaning they are 104 times more likely to be on this site. So Pinterest definitely reaches the female healthcare decisionmaker. But will she want to look at photos of brain surgery while hunting for recipes and fashion tips?
(Image from IdeaStream.com)
Time will tell. I think one thing's for sure. Memorial Hermann is living up to its themeline of "100 Years of Patient-Centered Care and Innovation." Not only with its team of expert docs, but its team of social media experts.
What do you think of surgeries on Pinterest? Is it over the top? Or is this hospital ahead of the curve?
Target does it again with The Shops.
You can probably tell that we’re big Target fans here at Brogan & Partners. Forgive me for visiting the subject once again, but Target keeps stepping up its game, especially when it comes to marketing to women. I just can’t ignore it.
Their latest bit of brilliance? The Shops at Target. These are five actual “Main Street” type of shops—from a Boston dog bakery to an Aspen cosmetics boutique—that will be reproduced in Target stores.
I can’t tell you yet if I love the shops themselves. They don’t debut until Sunday, May 6th, but I already know the online marketing is breaking new ground for the store.
While we’re accustomed to Target partnering with cool designers like Missoni and Dwell Studio, these lines’ online presence blends right into the rest of the Big Red Dog website.
The Shops part of the website, on the other hand, looks completely different.
It starts with a chic storefront window that you really want to peek through. Then the page for each shop features the brick-and-mortar version’s colors, fonts, and vibe. The page for the Miami clothing boutique, The Webster, for instance, is sexy and lit up in neon. Privet House’s page evokes the cozy Connecticut housewares store with a fresh, green color and a romantic tree.
Here’s the best part: there’s a short documentary film about each shop. The videos are sweet, slickly produced, accompanied by jaunty xylophone music, and narrated completely by the shops’ owners, with whom we’re on a first-name-only basis.
“When people walk into Target and see our collection,” says Diane, co-owner of The Candy Store, “you’re going to feel like you’ve walked into our small store in this little neighborhood in San Francisco.”
Her other half, Brian, adds, “We want to bring a little piece of the boutique experience to Target.”
In other words, Target is letting us know: We know you’d rather shop local. We know you’d rather have unique, boutique goods, rather than Big Box ones. We also know that’s hard to do if you live in a distant suburb or you don’t have the time or money for boutique browsing. So we’re giving you with the next best thing.
With their adorable online presentation at least, I think Target is doing a pretty good job of it.
What do you think of Target’s new marketing approach?
