Happy Women’s Day! Now…Go Think Like a Man. #BicFail

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  GUYS, if you are considering a popular (albeit somewhat over-used) empowerment message for women in your next marketing campaign, please take note: Women do not aspire to be a man, act like a man or think like a man, but merely to be respected as a human.  Bic found this out after posting the above ad to their Facebook page on National Women’s Day in South Africa. In response to the immediate backlash from hundreds on social media, the ad was quickly removed along with all of the irate comments and replaced with an apology. Or rather, their “first” attempt at an apology: We would like

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Big Food & Women Go Together Like Oil & Water

Grocery store produce

Women control 93% of the $1 trillion spent on food purchases in the U.S. annually, and they are chomping away at Big Foods. These are the women who as early as 2008 were saying they wanted healthy attributes, guarantees of freshness, safety and pure ingredients, according to a comprehensive study fielded by Boston Consulting Group and published in the book, Women Want More by Michael J. Silverstein and Kate Sayre. It was revealed that women also wanted to make connections with food producers who ensure social responsibility and encourage philanthropy. And women across all of the lifestages and demographic segments studied, said they would trade up

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Nissan Beefs Up Manpower to Reach the Female Consumer

Showgirl

LITERALLY. Male marketers, a word of advice. If you are charged with effectively connecting with the female market, consider putting female marketers in charge – not short dresses. While this might be appealing to men, the majority of women will assume your car cannot stand on it’s own. That you need gimmicks to attain their attention. Quit trying to market to women through male lenses. According to Marketing Magazine, Nissan’s global marketing chief Andy Palmer said: “The rise of the ’empowered female’ is the biggest consumer trend affecting its worldwide marketing plans.” Palmer went on to say that Nissan is reshaping

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7 Epic Ways That Volvo’s Semi-Truck Ad Appeals to Women, Thanks To Jean-Claude Van Damme

Aside from the obvious fact that this video is simply incredible and may likely be the best ad of the year – if not the decade, it is also an excellent example of how to effectively market to women. I don’t exactly need a semi-truck, but Jean-Claude Van Damme makes me want to buy one – from Volvo. Actually, there are some pretty strong arguments for the trucking industry to target female drivers. For instance: There is a shortage of truck drivers. The number of female truck drivers has increased 50% since 2005 and continues to rise. Of the more

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Could Toys That Ignore Gender Stereotypes At An Early Age Change Society as a Whole?

That’s a question that Nanda Sibol, Director of Brand Strategy in the San Francisco office of Anthem Worldwide poses in the article below titled, Pink or Blue Branding: Changing Gender Norms. The three-to-six years toy guide from ToyInfo.org, supports this thought process, noting: “After the age of three, children begin to play actively with each other. Preschoolers and kindergartners are masters of make-believe. They like to act out grown-up roles and enjoy costumes and props to help them bring their imaginations to life.” When I asked Ms. Sibol why this topic was of such strong interest to her, she responded:

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When Marketing to Women, Citibank® Climbs to the Top

I love this rock climbing Citibank commercial! But every time I watched it, I kept wondering: Is it REAL?, and WHO in the world is singing that song? So, I finally looked it up. Yes, it is real. It’s filmed on a rock called “Ancient Art.” Located just outside of Moab, Utah, the single rock formation is shaped from hundreds of years of wind blowing sand across and around the spire in the desert. The commercial features two real-life professional climbers: Katie Brown and Alex Honnold. They are not “actors” nor “stunt” people. They’re both accomplished in the sport of

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Guys, When Marketing to the Female, Don’t Dumb it Down for Women, Man Up For Men

Kathy Oneto, Vice President of Brand Strategy at Anthem Worldwide will be speaking at the M2W (Marketing to Women) Conference in Chicago in late April. You do not want to miss it. She will be presenting findings from a study recently conducted by Anthem about: Marketing to the True Motivations of 3 Genrations of Women Below is one of the thought provoking papers she has drafted from the findings, titled “Who’s ‘Manning’ the House: Bridging the Gender Divide,” that she was willing to share exclusivly with us. In it Kathy explores the possibility that to solve the problem of marketing

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John Carter Goes to Mars. But Don’t Tell The Women

Below is an excerpt from an article in Newsweek & The Daily Beast titled, “Disney’s Quarter-Billion-Dollar Movie Fiasco.” In it, Chris Lee, examines marketing missteps for the not yet released movie, JOHN CARTER – originally titled, John Carter of Mars™. “Although the character has been known as “John Carter of Mars” and was envisioned as a movie trilogy under that name, Disney marketers dropped the “of Mars” part because of industry-think holding that female movie fans are more likely to be turned off by such overtly sci-fi elements.”  Right…… and I’m sure I won’t even notice the crater-like topography or the elusive

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On A Painting It’s Art. For A Car Commercial It’s CREEPY.

CREEPY was the first word that came to mind as I watched Toyota‘s new “Family People Person” Prius commercial. Next was “disturbing” and then “I don’t get it.” (I actually do “get it” now or rather, I get what they are “trying” to say after it was explained to me in the “Making of Toyota Prius Family People Person” video.) And while I “get” the Andre Martins de Barros artful concept they were  mimicking, I still think the spot is disturbingly creepy. Toyota and Saatchi & Saatchi are, no doubt, attempting to further exploit the success of their 2010 and 2011

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Pink Done Right Equals PANK® And Male Marketers Should Pay Attention

The segment of women who do not have children is growing and so too is their voice thanks to Melanie Notkin, founder and CEO of SavvyAuntie.com. Notkin has coined the name PANKs® (Professional Aunts No Kids) as well as created this online community to provide a place for aunts to share their passion and love for their nieces and nephews. Membership, in the thousands, continues to boom and some companies are listening. I asked Melanie to write a guest post providing more insight into this unrecognized and misunderstood market. Boy, did she deliver! Read on for updated stats, how Sears

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