Who Is Your Marketing to Women Authority?
Who, or what, really sold you on the marketing to women (aka M2W) opportunity for your business, and does that sales pitch need to come from a man? I could say I’m about to get up on my soapbox, but it is not that I’m angry about it – just endlessly fascinated. You see, from my own beginnings in the field, I have watched, listened and wondered at how the concept first arises and then becomes a serious commitment for companies or organizations.
From what I’ve observed, women seem to be the ones who strongly advocate for it with male bosses, and tend to feel up against a brick wall until some random point is finally heard. Even with plenty of brilliant female marketers making the case, those male bosses may continue to call M2W a “women’s thing” (so they stay out of it, and perhaps approve a few budgets for “initiatives”). Thus, I’ve been exploring what makes men actually absorb and become engaged by the M2W opportunity (and, as so many of you well know, it is a BIG one). Must the case be delivered by men?
An email conversation with a male friend and marketer got me thinking again. There are now a great selection of M2W books written by a woman or two (the one I co-authored, Don’t Think Pink, is included, I hope) and those authors and many other experts who have yet to add their books (I hear rumblings of many to come) are extremely knowledgeable and credible. And yet, if you go back and read Tom Peters small booklet on this topic (copyright 2001), Women Roar, he tells a story that could easily be the case today. To quote Peters (keeping his emphasis and the now beyond-dated references):
“It’s early 1997. I am keynoting that First Annual MacDonald Communications Marketing to Women seminar, in Manhattan. I finish my talk, head down the aisle and off to my next gig. Someone accosts me. She is one of the top half dozen executives at BankAmerica. I know her. She’s Kathleen Brown. Former elected treasurer of the State of California. (By some measures, earth’s sixth largest economy.) Former gubernatorial candidate, who ran a close election in an impossible situation against a popular incumbent. (I knew her from that campaign.) “Tom,” she says, pulling me aside, “would you do me a favor next time you’re in the Bay Area?” “If I can, of course,” I say. KB: “I’d like you to have dinner with me and David Coulter [CEO of BankAmerica, prior to NationsBank merger].” “Sure, but why?” I say. “I’d like you to tell him what you just told this group,” she says. Me: “Me? Why me? You were the treasurer of the earth’s sixth largest economy. You’re one of the most powerful women in one of the most powerful single ‘nations’ on earth. I’m just a consultant. Why me?” I repeat. The reply (of course): “He’ll listen to you.”
It is now 12 years later, and I’m guessing Peters still has examples he could share of otherwise very successful and smart businessmen who gloss over M2W until they hear it from him. Now, a new book by Michael Silverstein (with two co-authors) has just been published and another is on its way from Paco Underhill. Do/will those books really introduce new insights/knowledge, or is it that the packaging might be more to a man’s liking? Will pulling in Silverstein or Underhill to speak at a corporate event hold more weight than a woman – Marti Barletta, for example? Will their books somehow get more play in the business press?
Generational differences are the one thing I see that may bring about a big shift on this front. I am watching closely and studying up. But, already my conversations with Gen Y men have been enlightening. Their backgrounds have been less artificially or environmentally “gendered.” They don’t recognize a lot of what has been so frustrating for those of us who are, say, 40+.
Here’s the truth: marketing to women expertise in all forms, shapes, ages, colors and sizes should be sought and leveraged by every single wise marketer out there – male or female. Whomever advocates for pursuing the women’s market opportunity should be heard, applauded and rewarded. Don’t wait for Tom Peters to tell you like it is.
Marketing to women is quite simply gender neutral good business.
