The days of using pink to appeal to a female audience in marketing are long gone. Yet, many businesses and brands still fail to effectively target the demographic that holds the majority of buying power: women.
According to global consumer data company Rwazi's most recent report, "women now control over USD$30-trillion in consumer spending globally, and this is expected to rise to over USD$40-trillion by 2030."
As a marketer, you need to effectively reach this audience and break away from your traditional female marketing tactics.
Read on as media update's Saads Abrahams shows you how to effectively market to women.
Stop the stereotypes
Seriously, stop with the stereotypes and slapping pink on everything — not all of us like pink and everything pretty. We also aren't all doting housewives or retired ladies in the garden.
If you want to reach women in a more effective way, you need to break away from the stereotypes that have been around for aeons. Women are so much more than what we've always been portrayed as.
When marketing to a female audience, you need to keep that in mind.
An example of a marketing campaign that was extremely successful with this is the Always '#LikeAGirl' campaign that launched in 2014.
This campaign aimed to break the stereotype that the term "like a girl" was a negative association and was intended to promote gender equality and empower all females globally.
Not all women
A big thing that brands should keep in mind when marketing to a female audience is that you are not marketing to all women; you are marketing to your specific female audience.
Marketers need to think about the following:
- age
- lifestyle
- race
- financial status, and
- demographic area.
What female are you targeting? You cannot market to your intended female audience by putting them all in one box.
A brand that really considered specific female audiences was Nike with their 'Move without Limits' campaign. This campaign was aimed at women in sports who wear hijabs.
Be inclusive
Women come in all shapes and sizes, and so should your marketing efforts towards them. Being inclusive shows that you don't just care about one type of woman but all of them.
By being creative in your marketing campaigns, you are more likely to be successful because you are broadening your reach.
To be inclusive, think of:
- race
- age
- sexuality
- culture, and
- those who identify as a woman.
A brand that has successfully mastered inclusivity is Fenty Beauty — Rihanna's beauty brand, which has set the new standard of what it means to be inclusive.
Tell a story
We all know that women think differently from men — mostly because we embrace our emotions and don't shut them out. So of course, when you are marketing to women, it needs to be completely different than when you market to men.
Storytelling is a great way to achieve this; it helps your consumers
build a connection with a brand and
create a lasting relationship.
A brand that makes use of storytelling really well is
Dove. A specific campaign that they ran called 'Toxic Influence: Dove self-esteem project' is aimed at parents to help them "detoxify" their daughters' social media feeds.
Work with them
And finally, for any marketing campaign to be effective and successful — especially when targeting women — make sure you have females in your team.
Unconscious bias can be the death of you, so having a diverse group of women in your marketing team can make sure that you aren't subscribing to female stereotypes.
Do not only have women in your team; host focus groups with a multitude of women and get their opinions and thoughts on your campaigns to make sure that they will be received well by a diverse female audience.
What are your thoughts on marketing to women? Let us know in the comment section below.