Drop the labels: a how-to for marketers wanting to woo women
Don’t call them mums or main grocery buyers. Getting women to part with their dollars may be harder than men who don’t mind being stereotyped but it can be done. In a piece that first appeared in Encore, Moensie Rossier tells us how.
Becoming a brand that’s relevant to women, and is not just parasitic upon them, starts with discovering what they care about. Brands that master the craft ultimately create long-term relationships and drive sales. But, of all the audiences, and despite being targeted heavily, women often prove the most elusive. While men mostly embrace, or at least shrug-off with some banter, their stereotypes around beer, mates or sport – women hate being lumped together.
A 40-year-old woman could be married in suburbia with a university-aged teen, a toddler and grandparents under one roof, or she could just as easily be an independent single with no responsibilities living the life of a cashed-up teen. The only thing they have in common is their resistance to being put in a box and an insistence that there’s more to them than meets the eye. How we come to grips with this enigma is a weighted question to the tune of $514bn dollars – that’s 80 per cent of the $642bn Australian household annual spend, which women control.
So what are the secrets to getting Aussie women talking about your brand?
So mums don’t want to be talked about as mums. Except for BWM’s own 1000 Mums campaign which “taps into the thrill of shopping”:
“The 1,000 Mums campaign invited real mums into the store to guess prices and watched them celebrate as they realised prices were so low”
I’d find it hard to be more stereotypical and talk more down at someone even if I tried…
“Women, particularly mums, are a pragmatic lot because they don’t have time to waste”
What is this but a sweeping generalisation? It is also far, far away from the truth, I’d love to know what your source is.
“We still want to look good in a red dress, but we also want great abs for the selfies we post on Instagram”
Lots of genuine insights here…
I don’t think “People against Dirty” can be called an idea. OMO’s “Dirt is good” on the other hand…
I would have thought mum’s liked being referred to as mums and are proud of it (I know my wife is).
and
I’ve never heard of a marketer or brand refer to a person as a main grocery buyer. They may use the term internally, but that doesn’t mean they are using the term externally.
“Women are goldmines for a brand yet many don’t get it right. Understanding women and connecting with them in a meaningful way can create the strongest of advocates. Trigger the right conversations with women and fame is your brand’s for the taking.”
This article is one of the things that really turns me off about planning – very obvious stuff delivered with an overly earnest zeal.
Why have you lumped all women together? Can they all be spoken to in the same way? How convenient! I always thought we were all the same now a ‘planner’ has confirmed it.
Sorry, in my opinion, there are too many quantum leaps, generalisations and daubs of outright bull dust.
Many Mums are proud to be called Mums and even to be aligned with other Mums. Women are women and ( as a whole) do not fit any one stereotype and neither do men.
Male sexuality is fairly easily defined and rather simplistic in comparison to female sexuality, which is much more complex and expansive. Beyond this and a narrow band of ever changing psychology, there are only trends and social patterns to guide marketing.
BTW, the term “Main Grocery Buyer” is just another example of those who are scared to death of stating that, in most cases, Mum still does the grocery shopping.
All this crapp began with some idiot suggesting that house wives are engaged in menial work, as if the honourable and vital business of caring for a home and family were some how demeaning.
All these criteria (with absolutely no substantiation) could equally apply to men.
Waffle.