MARKETING TO WOMEN

While products designed for women used to be VERY pink, luckily brands are now waking up to the insight that women actually do not want to surround themselves with pink furniture, pink bicycles, pink cars, pink appliances and so on. Although my four year old daughter of course insists on having virtually every item in her room (as well as her complete wardrobe) in pink, I myself are not a big fan of typical female designs, and many women with me.
If you’re still considering painting your women’s products pink, I strongly urge you to first read Don’t think pink from Lisa Johnson and Andrea Learned. They see pink products as a result of working with old stereotypes about women: ‘Pink products just scratch the surface of women’s desires and often miss the mark altogether’. Typical pink female products can feel patronizing to women. Therefore, Johnson and Learned advice brands not to use a visible approach towards women, that is a product or campaign that makes clear it’s targeted to women only. The best way to resonate with women is to market transparently, in a way that works with women but does not single them out as a special species.
The Female fever issue from Trendwatching lists a number of not so typical products designed for women, such as construction apparel several motorcycles for women (also note the Harley Davidson page on women and motorcycling), although even most of these products turn out to be pink…