Times Are Changing – 15 Tips For Gender Marketing.

Successful gender marketing requires one thing above all: instinct. Afraid of burning them, many companies tend to refrain from gender-specific brand management and thereby block potential opportunities for new customer groups.

What Is Gender Marketing?

Gender marketing is a whole range of marketing strategies aimed at addressing the individual needs of female and male customers.  Gender marketing is based on the perception of differences between the sexes and the idea that the consumer behavior of women and men differs significantly.
Since the term often has female connotations, it is also referred to as “Female Commerce,” “SheCommerce,” or “Marketing to Women.” The male target group is also often neglected in specialist literature. Still, it is here in particular that new product worlds are being developed, making it necessary to address male consumers in a new way.
So much for the definition of the term. But what should you, as an entrepreneur, pay attention to now?

Gender Marketing: 15 Tips For Your Business

Communication

Gender marketing involves more than coloring it in “pink” and “blue.” Rather, the potential of all communication levels of a product should be exploited (e.g., name, word sound, design, material, etc.)

Point of sale

The place of sale of a product can also be decisive. Pay attention to gender-specific point-of-sale design and gender-specific advertising campaigns.

Target Audience

No conversions without an audience. Use the results of well-founded market research to determine the actual needs of your target group rather than to develop past their needs. Creating personas is helpful in this context.

Strategy

The line between gender marketing and sexism is often very narrow. Therefore, when setting your strategy, consider different needs and avoid concepts like “pink it and shrink it = female.”

Company

Successful gender marketing depends on many factors. Acting authentically here helps to dedicate yourself to the topic in advance. What role does the topic of gender images play in your company? How much space does it take up in your entrepreneurial personality?

Usage Behavior

Consider the media usage behavior of your target groups and personas. This can vary greatly depending on the time of day, end device, usage time and click rate during working hours.

Speech

Step away from clichés and experiment with humor, inspiration and emotion on the one hand or information and competitive situations on the other to convey gender-specific content.

Appearance

Be sensitive. The boundaries between gender marketing and “LGBT marketing “are often not always clear. Without the necessary instinct, you quickly risk finding yourself in a shitstorm.

Individuality

All over one comb shear? Please do not. A woman is not equal to a woman, just as a man is not equal to a man. Professional gender marketing is based on differences and individuality. This is what gender-sensitive communication is all about.

Similarities

Important: gender balance. Often the most promising concepts are those that try to get both genders on board. So less “typical woman” or “typical man,” but products that highlight and implement the common needs.

Specifics

Gender marketing also means consistently focusing on gender-specific characteristics and locating your product in the corresponding product worlds.

Risk

Dare. Many companies like to market their products to their specific target groups in order not to take any risks. Potentially usable customer groups should be more noticed. Aligning with new target groups is challenging but can open up new market niches.

Added value

Rethink. Many companies make the mistake of labeling the same old product “for men” or “for women.” This is usually noticed negatively and brings no real added value, neither for your company nor for the new target group to be developed.

Personality

Sales talks at the point of sale. Personal contact should also not be underestimated in gender marketing. Therefore, Good sales staff training also includes appropriate education about the different communication levels of different genders. 

Diversity

Women are interested in shoes, men in cars? The traditional boundaries have long since stopped working. Rather, diversity is mixed with findings from psychology and brain research. Therefore: gender marketing means individual marketing.

Conclusion

Does gender marketing even fit into a modern image of society? Doesn’t it reinforce binary role thinking and gender cliches? Not necessarily. Although the role-typical categorization of man and woman, on which the gender marketing approach is based, repeatedly causes criticism, an adept approach to diversity and individuality can be part of effective corporate communication.