Marketing to Women Online

Humor and Stereotypes

Meet Kiki Melendez - This woman knows comedy.  A recent trip to see her show Hot Tamales Live really got me thinking.

What makes something funny?  How come some jokes make us laugh out loud and others leave us with no response at all?    I've found two key elements to humor:

1)  Surprise - We aren't expecting the punch line.

2) Truth - We recognize ourselves, our thoughts, our perceptions.   The funniest comedy is the most truthful.

So then, why is so much comedy based on stereotypes?   Look at all the comedians who are Asian, Jewish, African American, Gay.   They regularly use stereotypes associated with their ethnicity, sexuality, etc. in their material.   So if humor has to be true to be funny - does that make stereotypes true?

(yes, I'm going to pick a fight with myself here.   You probably know by now I think stereotypes of women are the number one cause for bad advertising)  Let's see whether I win or whether I win. (oh shut up.  No YOU shut up)

Your Customer's Language

So we're sitting around the dinner table with some semi-famous designers and my friend, who sometimes blurts things out without thinking - blurts something out without thinking.    She cleverly covered her tracks by commenting - "I sometimes suffer from Tibet Syndrome."

Tibet Syndrome?

Her quick-witted boyfriend jumped to her rescue claiming, "Yes, that's when you can't stop blurting expletives at the Dalai Lama."

My friend gave me a confused look.

"it's Tourrette's Syndrome" I hissed.

How are your customer's butchering your terminology?    I work with a lawyer whose clients often search on "statue of limitation"   not "statute of limitations".  But their in site search engine is set up to deliver relevant results even if the term is not entered correctly.

Persona Insights

One of the biggest problems in marketing to women is overcoming stereotypes.  One of the best ways to get past stereotypes is to create personas.    Personas let you see how your customers approach the buying process in different ways.    Personas let you see into deeper motivations of why people do what they do.

But one of the most powerful insights you can get form personas is what we at Future Now call the Angle of Approach.  How does a person first realize they need your product?    How do they describe this need/problem/ opportunity?   Understanding how they describe their need is absolutely necessary for creating scent.    It also helps you understand what kind of keywords they may be typing into search engines and what that keyword intent is.  In other words, what kind of information do they want to see when they type in that keyword.

But Angle of Approach also lets you know when that need may be most intense.   When you create personas, you get to see the persona's whole life, not just their specific interaction with your product.    This complete understanding helps you identify all sorts of opportunities.   

Proctor & Gamble took advantage of just such insight with their product Crest Whitening plus Scope Extreme Toothpaste.    What was their customer's Angle of Approach?  At what point was the need/problem that this toothpaste solved most acute?   The answer: Nightclubs.   

Father's Day - Hug Your Dad

I think it was the Doozy Greeting Card email that finally got to me.  They were promoting their new cute electronic Father's Day cards.   I felt my facade start to crumble.   Dad was such a sucker for cards.  Every holiday we'd get one present and, like, 27 cards from him.

At least twice I've heard Father's Day commercials and went - Shoot!  I haven't gotten anything yet.   Then I remember he's not here anymore.   He was bedridden much of end of his life, and I never really knew what to get him other than than music and designer pajamas.   

I know designer pajamas may have seemed a little extravagant.  No one really ever saw him except the family and an occasional caretaker.   But I just felt the guy deserved high quality PJ's.   We always told him how handsome they made him look and that always got a smile out of him.   (I know no brand wants to be associated with bedridden older men, but I still think there's a great commercial here somewhere).   

Why is it that you just don't see many commercials with 80 year olds unless it's some sort of retirement community or medical service?    I associate such positive images with my 80 something father.   We shared so much humor - truly.   He was joking with us right up to the very end.   

I'll never forget, in his last hospital stay, he was really out of it, mumbling incoherently, when he suddenly looked up at my sister and me and said, "Do you need money?"

What a dad.

I hope if yours is still around you give him a big hug, a funny card, and tell him he looks handsome. 

How to Tap the Power of Digital Marketing

A recent Advertising Age article headline declared "AAF Survey:  Industry 'Behind the Curve' in Digital Marketing."  The premise of the article is - while many marketers believe in the power of digital marketing, they aren't entirely sure how to tap into that power.

I thought I'd try to find an example of, specifically, online marketing done well.  I was hoping to find an example of online marketing to women done well, but couldn't find a good example.   So, for today, we're going to switch to online marketing to men done well.

Axe Body Spray  - launched into a mature 2.4 billion market just four years ago, Axe deodorant has taken leadership of the category.   So what's Axe's secret?   I believe it's smart marketing.   (I've never tried the product, um, since I'm not a guy, so I can't speak as to the quality of the product itself)   But Axe seems to know who its audience is, where its audience is, and what matters to its audience (young men). 

They've done an extraordinary job of turning that knowledge into sales.    So how did they do it?  I believe a large part of it is due to their online marketing efforts.  Where so many others failed, Axe has been successful.   Here's why....

   

Waiting for Your Cat to Bark

You have a killer product or service.  You know you’ve got a competitive edge.  You know if people just knew about it, understand how it could help them, they’d buy tons of what you have to offer.  So you hire an ad agency, spend a lot of money, and run a wonderfully creative ad campaign.  And an amazing thing happens……nothing.

You spend thousands, even millions of dollars creating a brand that’s “women friendly.”   You tout your contributions to breast cancer funds.   Your advertising shows women enjoying your products.   You “break the mold” like the advertising for the “right hand ring” touting women’s strength and independence.    Yet the very audience you want to attract ignores you and all your perceived good deeds.

You create a website with stunning graphics, cool gadgets, and do usability testing out the wazooo.   You’re convinced visitors will love your new website.  You watch the conversion rate numbers anxiously awaiting the increases you’re sure will come.   Yet you find after all that time and effort, you’ve barely moved the needle.    

What’s going on?  What the HECK is going on here?   

You’ll find the answers in “Waiting for your Cat to Bark – Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing” by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg and Lisa Davis.

I don’t talk in this blog all that often about Future Now and my family there.   Bryan and Jeffrey pretty much saved my soul when they rescued me from the radio/ad agency world and introduced me to the wonderful world of the Internet.   

Over the last 3 years I’ve shared in the privilege, honor, intellectual discussions, screaming matches and massive headaches of the creation of Persuasion Architecture TM.   I’ve watched the transformation of what was a largely intuitive process done mainly inside Bryan and Jeffrey's heads, into a full fledged persuasive system.    I’ve watched the development of everything from the software to the thought processes.   It’s been an amazing thing to behold, to see the maturation of Persuasion Architecture TM and the results it’s generated for companies all over the world.   

In Waiting for Your Cat to Bark, you’ll learn the incredible power of Persuasion Architecture TM, and how to apply it to your own efforts.

If that doesn’t sound exciting enough – let me put it another way.  You’ll understand why that advertising campaign you thought was so great didn’t increase your sales.  You’ll learn why your efforts to create a certain “brand” didn’t resonate with your customers.   You’ll learn why your wonderful new website didn’t generate the results you wanted.   

This is NOT just a book for web marketers.  These principles can be applied to every area of your marketing efforts.   I guarantee you will learn something about your customers, your business and yourself.

Take advantage now of a special offer on Waiting for Your Cat to Bark.   

Why Women Comment Less on Blogs

Why do men comment more on blogs than women do?   That’s the question Ann Handley at Marketing Profs asked in this blog post.

She was referring specifically the comments on her blog, but wow what an interesting discussion it sparked on the differences between men and women and posting blog comments.

I spent quite a bit of time reading through the comments on Ann Handley’s blog and an especially spirited discussion of the subject on Pickled Politics blog. 

Here’s what I found were the most common factors as to why people feel men comment more on blogs than women do:

1 – Biological differences – Testosterone in men and Cortisol in women may contribute to men’s desire to engage in conflict and women’s desire to avoid it..

2 – Behavioral differences – society has different roles and expectations for the sexes.  Men and women often have different communication styles.  This may affect why they post comments and what types of comments they post and are attracted to.

3 -  Time – women say the number one reason they use the  Internet is to save time.   They say they simply do not have as much time to read and or post comments on blogs

4 -  Stereotypes -  gender stereotypes of both men and women seem to be playing strong parts in the responses readers have come up with to explain the lack of female blog commenters. 

5 – Audience mix – your blog subject matter or business industry may simply have a higher ratio of men interested in or working in that subject.

6 – Hidden/mistaken identity – women sometimes hide their gender for fear of everything from not being taken seriously to personal safety. 

I’ll explain a little more about each and include actual comments (which were just too great to be missed).