Women, Advertising and Sports

There was a great article in Forbes by Janie Curtis about marketing towards women, which had a few statistics that I don’t think many in marketing consider. Quotes from her article:

• over 80% of all cross-category purchases are made by women
• where women are really undervalued is in categories that have traditionally been bastions of testosterone–automotive, beer, home improvement. Women account for 53%, 30% and 80% of sales respectively in each of these categories
• beer commercials [during the Super Bowl] were exclusively male targeted, even though a third of all beer is consumed by women, and when women did appear in the advertising they were portrayed as housewives or vixens

As a woman, and a huge sports fanatic, what she said seemed to ring true. Doing the math and using the NFL as an example, if 52% of the total population is interested in the NFL and 40% of those people are women, then that means the home improvement store advertising to women is advertising to about 21% of the population, a little less than 17% of which does the shopping.  On the other hand, if the home improvement store is advertising to men, then only a little over 6% of the shoppers receive the message.

Additionally, in a study by Big Research it showed that almost 62% of all women 18+ watch sports regularly, only 42% of all women 18+ watch soap operas regularly. And, unlike most other television categories, sports are almost always watched live. I see every commercial during Cubs, Badgers and Eagles games (thank you DirecTV), but I never see the commercials on General Hospital (I can’t believe I am admitting this), because I watch it at night thanks to the best invention ever, the DVR.

So the brands that stay away from sports because they are female specific goods, and conversely, the brands that advertise during sports that focus solely on males – both of these brands might be missing the mark. Interestingly enough, the WSJ reported that P&G, a brand among the first to focus on women, is switching gears to a new marketing strategy that is to be more gender driven in an effort to reach more men. Marketers should be wary of pigeon-holing their advertising to the assumed audience, and take a more creative approach. By questioning the traditional gender advertising and finding what appeals to both men AND women, your advertising can concurrently appeal to the majority of those who watch the programming, and the majority of those who do the shopping.