Deconstructing with Della: Gender Based Marketing
May 15, 2017 |
| Harley-Davidson print advertisement targeting women. |
One of my favourite radio programs is Terry O'Reilly's Under the Influence on CBC. He talks about all things marketing and deconstructs ad campaigns. Recently, he did a show about gender based marketing looking at products such as Barbie, Easy-Bake Ovens and the like. The focus was how products get repositioned to appeal to opposite genders. The story that got my attention was the re-focus of Harley-Davidson motorcycles to attract women.
As Mr. O'Reilly says, products tend to be gender neutral, it is the marketing that targets men and women or boys and girls. Harley claims to have 62% of the female market but does not release numbers. In the last ten years the number of women owning motorcycles has increased 35%. In 2014, Harley launched two motorcycles for women and started changing how they communicated to them with events such as female ride day. Today one out of every 10 of those Harley motorcycles is sold to a woman. They think this will save them from losing market share to competitors such as Suzuki or Yamaha.
That campaign got me thinking about how many communication campaigns are gender biased or insensitive to a wide range of audiences. The world has changed and marketers and ad agencies who ignore the genderization issues, do so at their peril.
But what about everyday communications? A business colleague recently complained on Facebook about security questions from her financial institution that seemed intent on pigeon holing her into a life not relevant to her world. I still hear media interviewees refer to the "she" or "he" pronouns when the situation could include either genders.
Unilever conducted a global study and found nearly 70% of the 9,000 men and women surveyed believe the world would be a better place if children were not exposed to gender stereotypes in media and marketing. It also found 67% of women feel pressured to "get over" inappropriate behaviour.
From the many studies I have read, it seems that millennials are far less prone to gender generalization. This population segment has grown up in a more liberal society making them more conscious of other people's feelings. Yay! One study blew apart the antiquated idea that women were intimidated by car shopping. Especially, among millennials.
About time. No matter what you do in your business or personal life, I think we all need to do our bit to change our language to reflect our society. It should not be that difficult.
And, we have not even started talking about how to include the people who identify as Gender Fluid or use non-binary pronouns like "they" and "them".
But what about everyday communications? A business colleague recently complained on Facebook about security questions from her financial institution that seemed intent on pigeon holing her into a life not relevant to her world. I still hear media interviewees refer to the "she" or "he" pronouns when the situation could include either genders.
Unilever conducted a global study and found nearly 70% of the 9,000 men and women surveyed believe the world would be a better place if children were not exposed to gender stereotypes in media and marketing. It also found 67% of women feel pressured to "get over" inappropriate behaviour.
From the many studies I have read, it seems that millennials are far less prone to gender generalization. This population segment has grown up in a more liberal society making them more conscious of other people's feelings. Yay! One study blew apart the antiquated idea that women were intimidated by car shopping. Especially, among millennials.
About time. No matter what you do in your business or personal life, I think we all need to do our bit to change our language to reflect our society. It should not be that difficult.
And, we have not even started talking about how to include the people who identify as Gender Fluid or use non-binary pronouns like "they" and "them".
Posts
0 comments