Marketing Along the Gender Line

They make up more than half the world’s population and represent billions of dollars of buying power, but marketing to women is still a challenge even for the brightest minds in mass media and consumer business.  Furthermore, many women say that they feel underserved in today’s consumer market.  As psychologists look deep into the female psyche to discover exactly what women want, everyone seems to be coming up with their own “revolutionary” insights.  Have any of these proven successful?

The simple answer is yes, sort of.  Women are a diverse market and cannot be stereotyped into one category or another.  Those in the marketing world tried to do this years ago and failed miserably.  Mass media have played a huge role in perpetuating—and at times changing—female stereotypes, and offer a number of unique case studies into popular culture.  Television shows are a great example of this phenomenon. 

Oprah Winfrey, a hard -working news anchor turned international media mogul, is a role model for men and women alike (although most of her audience is women).  She is compassionate, honest, and generally optimistic about the future of our planet.  By supporting the arts and charity organizations around the world, she has gained the respect of her colleagues and the millions of viewers that watch her show religiously.  She tackles serious social challenges and brings real emotion to her live audience.  This makes for great entertainment and appeals to male and female audiences around the globe. 

At the other end of the entertainment spectrum is the insanely popular Sex and the City sitcom.  The show takes a comical and sensational look at what it’s like to be a single woman in New York.  Raunchy and brutally honest, it’s the perfect example of how style and sex continue to sell in today’s world.  This also makes for great entertainment.

The point is that there is no universal formula for appealing to women.  Some women think that Oprah perpetuates outdated stereotypes of the “homemaker” woman and marginalizes females as emotionally fragile creatures.  Others find Sex and the City to be grossly misleading, highlighting only the most superficial and materialistic interests of the female gender.

These shows are successful not because they appeal to all women, but because they appeal to a particular personality with unique values and interests.  Entire teams of researchers are dedicated to studying these personalities.  Surveys are distributed and interviews are conducted as every corner of the television market is explored.  This is then the foundation for the show, and advertising campaigns worth billions of dollars are aimed at real people rather than female or male stereotypes.

In marketing along the gender line, the age of “just going pink” is officially over.