LONG-TERM, ORGANIC, PARNTERSHIP. These are the three words that explain why your campaign(s) are not delivering the results - over time - that you had hoped for.
Reading the MobileYouth blog this morning, these wise words by Graham Brown really went straight to the heart of the problem:
"Marketing’s biggest weakness is its own soil – it’s inorganic. Marketing seeks short term results and as every caffeine fuelled overworked agency exec knows, short term is the client’s push-button.
TV doesn’t work like its used to but we’re still prepared to pour resources into the channel because it’s what we know, we have the relationships and we’re never going to get fired for committing the bulk of our budget to youth programming.
The future lies in a more organic process – one that requires nurturing the soil, one that requires innovation beyond the ability to wield buying power, one that requires marketers to think up why youth should consider your product the choice of their generation."
And even though Graham is specifically talking about youth marketing in his post, I believe the argument is as applicable to other consumer segments too - whether they be young career women or the 'Second Lifer' women of 55+.
Attention is a brands biggest cost. Demand far outstrips supply. Across all consumer segments.
The answer? Desire Paths.
Desire paths are uniquely individual, organic ways in which we navigate the interests and passions in our lives. Like a woman's 'web thinking', desire paths connect the dots in our lives.
We need to rethink traditional marketing models. We need to show some vision, some courage to break away from a model we all know is dying but which we cling to because it keeps the client happy (today) and delivers results (this quarter).
Food for thought...
Wednesday
Killing your campaign in 3 words.
Tuesday
A soft approach to a harsh topic.
There's been quite some talk about the video below. It deals with a harsh topic, in a very 'soft' manner.
Monday
Marketing to women: how to get it wrong twice - by HP.
Seems there is still a lot of misunderstanding out there about women's behavior as consumers and how we come to make the purchase decision we do. A computer, for instance, can be an impulse buy, according to HP. Or a handbag, for that matter. (read our review of the HP that thinks its a handbag here)
This article, titled "HP thinks it needs sell computers to women as if they were stilletos" shows how a company can get its female consumers completely wrong - twice in a row.
As so many companies will surely do in the coming months, HP is also trying to jump on the Sex and the City (2) bandwagon, hoping no doubt, that it will get them a little closer to there female customers. And they're doing it in a big way. In the coming months, HP will open a series of stores - pardon, boutiques - across the globe that will feature notebooks and mini-computers alongside handbags, shoes and jewelry to launch what the company calls its "spring collection", because as HP's marketing director (rightly) points out "traditional computer-electronics stores are not female friendly" and (wrongly) concludes "...in many ways computers are accessories. They could be impulse purchases".
Yes, computer stores are often not female friendly - because the staff is not trained to understand what drives women's purchases in this segment, not because they don't feature handbags and Manolo Blahniks on the same shelf.
No, we don't see our laptop as a handbag or an accessory that needs to match our shoes or our outfit.
No, a 700 Euro purchase will never fall into the "impulse buy" category unless you're Paris Hilton.
Yes, we actually quite a lot of research - online and by asking people we trust - about the computer we want to buy.
And no, I don't feel more comfortable shopping for that computer just because its surrounded by shoes and handbags.
Rule number one of smart marketing to women: don't dumb it down, which is exactly what you're doing by implying women want to shop for computers - on impulse - while they are surrounded by fashion.
Rule number two of smart marketing to women: understand your consumer. There are people out there who can help you. Do some simple online research, have a look at what the ladies over at Lady Geek have to say. It will give you a good start.
And with that, I hope its the last time we'll see you here in the Bad Marketing to Women Hall of Fame.
Friday
Why YOU should attend the JUMP Forum on April 29th in Brussels!
The JUMP Forum is the biggest single day event dedicated to enhancing the professional lives of women. Each year, it offers professional women the opportunity to attend workshops by top business leaders, network with other professional women and to think about and develop their careers.
Gender balance is above all a business issue. In a constructive and optimistic way, JUMP helps companies unlock the market and talent potential. It is simply a strategic and economic priority.
- To quota or not to quota? Europe's best practices on policies, quotas and targets.
- How to profit from a gender balanced business.
- Powerful strategies for your career success.
- How to find your true vocation.
- Using social networks to benefit your career.
Lieve Verplancke, Managing Director at Bristol-Myers Squibb Belgium
Dominique Leroy, CEO of Unilever
Monday
The Netherlands: not as liberal and emancipated as we think.
Many countries look to the Netherlands as the example of liberated thinking. A country where "live and let live", tolerance and a willingness to discuss (and embrace) everything from recreational Cannabis use to televised pornography is part of the fibre of the nation's national identity. Everything, it seems, but opening the corporate Old Boys Club to include women. That, until today, seems to prove a bridge too far.
A study just out spotlights the dismal situation:
60% of the top 10 companies in the Netherlands do not have a single woman in their Executive Committee.
Giants such as Shell, ING, Philips, Akzo Nobel and Heikeken don't have a single woman on their boards.
Even worse?
Of the 4 women who do actually sit on Executive Committees, 3 are in line/operational roles, 1 in a staff function. The harsh truth of this reality? One women alone on a board will never have enough weight in the group to affect change. There is a rule that says you need 3 people in a group of 10 to affect change.
3 in 10. Not 1 in 10. So those 4 women are in effect, "invisible" committee members: present but unable to make a fundamental difference.
This situation needs to change. Urgently.
Today, more than 50% of all college graduates are women.
Research has proven that gender-balanced companies perform better than those who's boards consist only of men and that the current economic crisis probably wouldn't have been as fundamental had more women held executive positions, participated in more key decision-making.
Women need to be encouraged to participate at strategic level. Our future - not just women's future - depends on it.
Tuesday
What she's not telling you.
I've written before about the questionable validity of results obtained from focus groups (you know, those demographically aligned groups of strangers we put behind one-way mirrors to fiddle with and discuss our products or ideas). Then along comes the book "What she's not telling you" and confirms what we have always dreaded: our focus group research is worth Nada. Zero. Nil.
Because the participants (women, in this case) weren't telling the truth (but that could go for men too).
Recommended reading BEFORE you finalize and test that one winning 'big idea' on yet another focus group:
"What She’s Not Telling You: Why Women Hide the Whole Truth and What Marketers Can Do About It."
Thursday
Tuesday
Man Should Be Brave.
I couldn't resist posting this ad from the French Connection campaign.
I posted it on my Facebook account and immediately got tons of positive responses - from women. They love this ad!
Why? Because it adheres to two the core values of smart marketing to women: be real and be brave.
We all agreed: "Brave men" are men who dare to be silly, funny, poke fun at themselves and who don't take their male egos too seriously.
We also liked the "realness" of the image. A guy with a beard, in a plain t-shirt proudly (not arrogantly) looking ahead. No airbrushing, no impossibly high cheekbones or six-pack stomach. No obvious marketing blah-blah or overtly irrealistic promises.
Just simple, tongue-in-cheek humor.
Great marketing-to-women, kudoz FC!
Getting it wrong for Valentine: Back into the doghouse!
Valentine's Day - the American way.
Remember the JC Penny "In the Doghouse" campaign of last year? (We wrote about it here).
The retailer has continued the successful campaign with an ad for Valentine's day called "Return to the Doghouse". Reading the adwomen blog this morning, I found out that the creative team behind the new ad, made by Saatchi and Saatchi NYC, contained no women. (The creative director of the first ad, Aimy Valentine, was not involved in the making of this ad).
The ladies over at the adwomen blog are right to pose the question: do we think it's noticeable that there was no women on the creative team for this ad? I'll let you decide that for yourself...
Valentine's Day - the British way.
And then there's this campaign, called "HardChorus" by Puma. As you know, this year Valentine's day fell on a Sunday, which in the UK means football. Puma found a very creative, tongue-in-cheek way to defuse the age-old field of tension between women and football. Enjoy!
Monday
To our moms we'll always be kids.
I just discovered this new ad by P&G that ties in with the winter Olympics taking place right now.
It's a great example of a very simple yet very effective ad that targets women - be they mothers or not.
As you'll see in the video below, the ad centers on the concept of Olympic athletes always remaining kids to their moms.
The ad works beautifully for a few reasons:
1. We can all relate to always being a kid in the eyes of our parents.
2. The Olympic athlete that is also just someone's kid: it's a disarmingly gentle concept that stands in stark contrast to the cut-throat competitive nature of the Olympics.
3. Many different types of women will be able to relate to it, for even if they are not moms, they are still someone's daughter.
4. It's human, it's honest, it's simple, it's real. And those are just about all the qualities most of us (women as well as men) are attracted to after years of global capitalism and consumerism-at-all-cost.
