Best Practices In Marketing Show A Woman’s Influence
These days there are many great sources for studying up on the best practices in marketing – and two of my favorites are published via The New York Times: Rob Walker’s Consumed column in the magazine and Stuart Elliott’s Campaign Spotlight. Neither of these guys writes a “marketing to women” column per se, but 100% of the time the successful brands they cover are using strategies that reflect a woman’s influence.
I’ve long believed that a great way to teach marketing to women is to start by taking a hard look at plain, old excellent marketing. The idea is to make reaching the women’s market less “a whole new thing,” and more a focused version of what a lot of skilled marketers do already. Start with the common ground or the existing “good” of previous marketing efforts, and re-build from there. Remember: women are not from outer space, they are just tough customers.
Below, I offer the latest from Walker and Elliott as examples, and note key marketing to women influences in the campaigns:
1) Rob Walker’s column on Naked Pizza. Women’s market influence: there is more than one consumer entry point, from just wanting good tasting pizza to seeking full-on explanations and long blog posts about the ins/outs of nutrition and food supply. This serves the pizza buyer, male or female, who is more linear (“just give me the pizza already…”) as well as the one who is taking a more holistic view of the product/brand and experience (“wow, this really can be healthy for my family and I love learning more about nutrition!”). It is typical of a woman’s buying process to be more holistic and to appreciate a variety in depth of information – but delivering such is really a best practice in marketing, in general.
2) Stuart Elliott’s piece on Cloudveil’s new ad campaign. Women’s market influence: The humor appeals to anyone who has or aspires to have an outdoor sports obsession so strong it gets in the way of other life obligations. The effort also offers up an easy solution for making amends. Outdoor sports fanatic clothing is not gender-specific but passion-specific, so the Cloudveil tone appeals to both men and women. And, though tongue in cheek, the campaign really does offer a solution for the time-starved consumer. (Usually, the time-starvation comes from daily responsibilities and obligations and is considered an especially big issue for multi-tasking women. But, THIS time it comes from the choice of a man or woman to do something fun instead!) Getting the humor right and providing a “solution” are best practices in marketing that are extra effective with women.
These campaigns – and all good campaigns that have some foundation in marketing to women truths – reflect an awareness of how THE CONSUMER thinks and goes about making a purchase decision, as opposed to what great features and specifics the BRAND wants to tell the world about. Old-fashioned and ineffective marketing was not guided by the consumer much at all. Twenty-first century, effective marketing is being guided and inspired by how women – or the toughest customers they represent, male or female – make purchasing decisions.
Go ahead and dig around in your own best practice history. I bet you’ll find some marketing to women basics therein – like offering several layers of information (rather than assuming there’s one) to educate about a fairly complex product, or connecting your customers to one another around a shared passion or shared sense of humor.
My point is: who cares if serving a “women’s way” was part of the plan? The resulting best practices in marketing are the kicker.
