Campbell’s Speaks to Men – and Women
A Brandweek story on the revamped marketing effort of Campbell’s Chunky Soup is a great follow up to my recent post about Blue Nile. The soup category is one that, like engagement rings, represents a gender split when it comes to defining the core customer. In the case of canned soup, women do a lot of the buying (and are starting to do more of the eating), but the end users who need to be satisfied by such a meal most often are still men. The conundrum: to market to women, solely, or to market to men?
The answer: it’s not an either/or question. Rather, think of the interests/influences on today’s soup buyer and soup eater (who may, of course, even be the same person in this heavily unmarried world). No matter who is in the buyer/eater role, soup consumers are all still looking for healthy and convenient nutrition, and possibly also looking for a bit more big picture corporate social responsibility. Those things aren’t “genderfied,” are they?
Rather – as the Brandweek author (who is unattributed) writes:
In addition to reaching out to its core male consumer, Campbell is running Chunky soup print advertising for the first time in women’s magazines, such as Cosmopolitan and Woman’s Day, and featuring the product in ads that will air as part of female-oriented television and radio programming.
“Women not only make the majority of purchase and meal decisions for the household, but they actually consume about half of the Chunky soup that is brought into the home,” said senior brand manager Douglas Brand. “We took a fresh new approach with our media plan to speak to both men and women. People can expect to see Chunky ads during NFL games and in many other surprising places.”
Yes. It’s a whole new world, especially for a lot of traditionally male-oriented brands. But, the answer is not to start from scratch, or to look for the black and white solution. Instead, get comfortable with the gray areas. Try mapping out your unique layers of buyers and consumers to develop a hybrid of good, old-fashioned (relevant) marketing strategy. The key to marketing to women – being guided and inspired by the customers you seek – should always be your bottom line, no gender about it.
