MARKETING TO WOMEN

Sorry, this entry is only available in Nederlands.

Fara Warner describes some really interesting cases in her book The power of the purse

Some of the cases are really well known, ie the De Beers right hand ring campaign, but it’s still fascinating to read the story behind it. For those who have missed out on this excellent example of female marketing: De Beers, a leading diamond company reacted to declining marriage rates due to women’s growing economic self-sufficiency. Traditionally, a woman would wait for the white knight to come and give her a diamond engagement ring, but these messages of love were not attainable for every women, and besides that was seen as patronizing by women who are now earning their own money. However, many women still stick to the traditional idea of a diamond engagement ring, so DeBeers came up with the concept of the right hand ring - a ring for women to buy as a present to themselves and a sign of empowerment, with copy that read: “Your right hand is a declaration of independence. Your left hand lives for love. Your right hand lives for the moment. Your left hand wants to be held. Your right hand wants to be held high. Women of the world, raise your right hand.” Right hand rings became a hit.

Warner stresses the fact that De Beers had watched the tension between tradition and empowerment and created a strategy to adapt to the new situation of women. That is also the case with the other examples in her book. Her core argument is that women are not a minority, but in fact the majority of consumers and companies should formulate their own answer to the new position of women in society. Warner: “succeeding with women consumers is no longer a nice-to-have accomplishment that makes management feel as if it is doing a good thing for a minority market. It’s no longer about putting women in advertising or even making products that fit women better. Instead, the constant drive to adapt to women is a must-have for a profitable future”.

But how? Well, there’s no recipe. Women are quickly becoming an ever more important economic force, but they come in many different versions, sometimes further apart from each other than from men. Women can have many roles, making the picture even more complicated. If I look at my own life, I am a marketing professional, a mother, a marathon skater, a shopper and an ‘Amsterdammer’ all in one day. On the internet, I can address all these roles and due to my economic power and financial freedom no role really defines the whole of me.
The most interesting observation of Warner is that these successful cases of female marketing were not about creating a women’s brand, but about ‘finding the relevance (…) to women consumers”.