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Gender “Inclusivity” and the Super Bowl

Posted on | February 5, 2008 | 2 Comments

by Fara Warner

Two events in the past 10 days put me in mind of “gender inclusivity”—an idea that I put forward in my book, The Power of the Purse. The idea is that we have spent far too much time separating genders in our marketing efforts. That may seem strange coming from an author who writes at length about how to reach women. But sometimes—and increasingly more often with younger generations—you can succeed by reach both genders by being inclusive—as opposed to exclusive.

In late January, I spent two days with an amazing group of women as part of Yahoo!’s executive women’s retreat in Key Biscayne, Fla. To protect the private nature of the event, which allowed us to speak freely about issues facing these marketers today, I’m not disclosing the names of the attendees or the companies for which they work. The women are all at the top of their games in the hospitality, pharmaceutical, financial and consumer-goods industries, to name a few.

All of them are facing the same issues that marketers everywhere are: how do we use social networks to market?; how do we reach women consumers without pandering to them?; how do we break down the prejudice and stereotypes of upper management about what works in marketing and advertising?

I’ll write more in future posts about all those issues and how they connect to the global “power of the purse.”

But one conversation came back to me while I was watching the Super Bowl on Sunday evening. The conversation was about selling technology as gifts during the Valentine’s season. We are just about a week away from the day when men wrack their brains for the right present—flowers, chocolate, jewelry?

This marketer had seen an ad from her company that made her cringe after I gave my speech to the Yahoo! group. I said “pink is an option; it’s not a marketing campaign.” Later that day, she told me about a new print ad campaign her company had created to drive sales of electronics during the Valentine’s shopping bonanza. She said the ad featured numerous products laid out in the shape of a heart. The main colors: pink and black.

Hard to imagine that we are still doing ads like this, right? But as many executives at the Yahoo! event noted, many of their bosses okay these types of ads because they make sense to them. They are safe, if unimaginative. They don’t rock the cart and maybe they’ll sell a few phones or mp3 players. How do we argue against this? I ask you…those of you who are in the trenches…how do we make our bosses understand that these ads are as likely to turn off women as they are to sell products?

I don’t have a problem with pitching high-definition televisions, laptop computers, videogames and mp3s to men as gifts for the women in their lives or vice versa. In fact, I think it’s a perfect acknowledgement that technology is increasingly “genderless.” But why do we always default to wrapping this idea in a pink cart. That muffles the smart idea that someone inside a company had: that young women want a flat-screen television or smart phone as much as young men do

This brings me to the Super Bowl. The conventional wisdom tells us that it is a man’s event—no ladies please. But even a quick straw poll or anecdotes will tell you that conventional wisdom is very wrong in this instance—and has been for years. My mother and I watched the Super Bowl together—and couldn’t believe Tom Brady’s performance—without any man in sight. More qualitative studies over the years have shown that the Super Bowl is less about whether men or women are watching and more about the truth that we watch the Super Bowl together with friends. We watch together—inclusivity—not the old exclusivity.

That was obvious in the ads that ran last night. From Planters [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=idttEXlE0hA[/youtube]with its funny ad of a not-so-attractive woman who makes men swoon with her “cashew” perfume to the Sunsilk commercials[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn0wRU6WU0U[/youtube] that drove women to an online site, it’s obvious that some marketers are getting the idea of inclusion, instead of exclusion. Now we just need to stop wrapping the idea in pink.

Comments

2 Responses to “Gender “Inclusivity” and the Super Bowl”

  1. Andrea Learned
    February 6th, 2008 @ 2:01 pm

    I agree 100%, Fara, and look forward to hearing more about the global trends from you. As the Super Bowl ads get more gender-inclusive over time and possibly reflect marketing trends overall, we may have to find other things to write about. But, I feel confident we’ll manage.

  2. Luci Martin
    May 17th, 2008 @ 7:32 pm

    Fara,
    Is there a man in your life that offers his perspective to your ideas here? I know my husband is also clueless on Valentines Day as are most men I know, and they succumb to the “wrapped in pink” gifts because that is what hits them square between the eyes as they wander around the malls glazed eyed. There are a few wonderful exceptions out there, men that are so very different and don’t fall victim to the media frenzy in both gift giving or relationship expectations. I hope you have found one of those rare gifts to watch the Super Bowl of Life with!! You have so many wonderful insights to offer us… I enjoy reading your blogs as I work in a huge corporate american company of stuffed shirt men who still don’t get it.

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