Marketeers don't understand women

Europe may be starting to catch on to the 'smart marketing to women' trend at last.

An interesting article on the topic appeared on express.be, one of belgium's leading online sources of business information, recently.

Although the article doesn't reveal anything staggeringly new on the topic of marketing to women, it does dare to address one of the most crucial elements of addressing women in communication: political correctness.

A touchy subject, you may think...Not true, and that's just what the article, or more correctly Phillippa Roberts, the author of 'Inside her pretty little head' wants us to understand. (Also see my post 'unashamedly woman', January 2007)

What Ms Roberts wants marketeers to understand is that political correctness toward women doesn't work when you want to communicate with women. Don't get confused...bear with me for a moment...
Political correctness, expressed in statements such as 'women are the same as men' are very, very, very passe. Women don't want to be 'the same as men'. Women want to be women. They enjoy being women. They want to be addressed as true women - in all their fullness, their complexity and their own right.

So how does one translate this to marketing, or communication?

Simple.

What do we want?
Let us enjoy being women. We like the fact that we have 32 pairs of shoes. We can laugh at sexy jokes just as much as guys can. We admit to crying over silly love-scenes in films. We know we really shouldn't have that third glass of wine, but oh what the hell! Oh, and we giggle with our girlfriends about men and sex too.

What don't we want?
We don't want to take ourselves too seriously all the time and we don't want to be portrayed as 'women trying to be men'. We don't want to be boxed into neat little categories like 'mother' or 'career woman' or 'housewife' or 'partner of'. We are all those things and more.

I couldn't agree more with Ms Roberts! Let's hope marketeers take us seriously. I'm certainly ready for a dose of realistic, good-humoured communication I can relate to!

...I feel a 'Women in the 21st century for dummies' list coming on...Watch this space...coming soon!