Men are different. So are women. Most of us have understood that by now. In this respect, Diana Jaffé's message is no longer particularly surprising that the consumer behavior of men and women also differs greatly. But there would be no need for a gender marketing specialist like Jaffé if the truth were not a little more complicated. And Jaffé would have nothing to do if all companies had already understood this truth.
The truth is: men and women think and communicate in fundamentally different ways. They like different colors, symbols and images, prefer different communication channels and therefore feel addressed by different products, services and marketing measures. Gender marketing works with this awareness. It aims to market products and services with a particular focus on gender. "Knowing where the needs and requirements of women and men are similar and, above all, different has an impact on the entire marketing mix," explains Diana Jaffé. One of the most serious differences between women and men is that women are empaths, men are systematizers. This means that women are interested in faces and focus on people, while men focus on objects, systems and functions. These preferences are innate. They are formed hormonally from the eighth week of pregnancy and accompany us throughout our lives - unless we undergo a sex change, including a complete change of our hormonal system. So not only our body, but also our brain has a gender. "This manifests itself in career choices, communication behavior and how we interact with other people," says Jaffé.
Take a closer look
But that's not all the differences. Women think first and then act: they are queens when it comes to weighing up and comparing, they simply want the best of a multitude of products and study the functional descriptions of individual appliances, for example, until they believe they have an overview. And then it's all about functionality, sensory impressions, colors, aesthetics and a good feeling in their stomach. Men act first and then think: it is usually enough for them if things fulfill their basic expectations. Only when it comes to status symbols and hobby items do men want to make the best choice. Then they try out the various functions of the tools thoroughly until they think they have understood the devices. "It's not worth explaining things to men," says Jaffé. "Men need to understand a product and how it works, that's what gives them their kick."
Paradoxically, however, it is often advertising that is aimed more at women that serves male analytical needs: For cleaning products, the chemical formula is explained; for mascara, it is explained why the special shape of the brush gives the eyes a special effect; for diapers, the extraordinary absorbency of the diaper core is scientifically demonstrated with a cross-sectional drawing. A woman is not at all interested in this. She wants to see results that express themselves in the form of emotions. That convinces her: The man rewards the sparkling clean floor with the desire to be allowed to take a shower, the look in the eyes puts the store detective at ease, and the dry bottom lets baby sleep so contentedly that mom has time for a little spin in the convertible. Clever advertising for women could be so simple. However: "Simply emotionalizing advertising for women, as has been propagated for years, is complete nonsense," warns Jaffé. "We know from brain research that women and men make equally emotional decisions and that people with impaired emotional centers cannot make any decisions at all. In certain product areas, men even behave much more emotionally than women, for example when it comes to cars or football."
The path to accurate advertising therefore requires more than a quick shake of the wrist. First and foremost, a close look: Who is my target group? What are their wishes and needs? And what are my competitors doing? Companies, marketers and advertisers need to know who they are talking about, for whom they are developing their products, services and ultimately campaigns and who is competing with them. Then they can also find arguments for why their product is relevant for their target group, why it not only fits into the lives of those being advertised, but why it absolutely belongs there. Ideally, this insight should already precede the development of a new product. Sounds obvious. But what Jaffé says is sobering: "I have yet to come across a company that has analyzed how many of its customers are female and how many are male, which products the female customers buy and which the male customers buy, and that has questioned why this is the case. This also applies to companies that have an excellent database, such as insurance companies or banks. Because so many key positions are held by systematic people, no one thinks to look at who exactly they are dealing with and take a serious customer-oriented approach. But that's where it should all start. People tend to draw conclusions about others from themselves. And when men make assumptions about women, we have a problem."
Shave times two
The secret of products and advertising that meet the needs of both men and women is a perfect fit. For example: men buy wet razors. Women do too. For the same purpose. Does that mean that men's and women's razors look the same? Not at Gilette. Men's razors are made of metal or plastic with a metallic look, silver, chrome-plated or black and are called Power, Fusion, Gamer or Mach 3. Women's razors are coated with soft plastic, light green, light blue or pink and are called Venus Divine or Embrace. Anyone who is honest has to admit that the functionality of men's and women's razors is exactly the same, even if manufacturers and advertisers claim the opposite. Nevertheless, business is booming at Gilette. Because men would never bring one of the bright blue Ladyshaver to their weather-beaten adventurer's face, and women won't let a cowboy stubble trimmer anywhere near their freckled legs. It's not just gender marketing that has worked for Gilette. The completely different needs of the male and female target groups were already present in the minds of those responsible during product development, pricing and sales. That's exactly how it should work.
Bosch achieved a similar feat with the launch of its 300 gram, handy and quiet Ixo cordless screwdriver. The device was not sold 300,000 times a year when it was launched in 2003, as is usual for such tools, but - take a deep breath - 1.5 million times. With around 50 percent of buyers being women. How was that? Bosch had recognized a new trend: Women no longer leave drilling, screwing and working to men, they want to do it themselves. They also like to decorate and design. However, conventional, heavy drills with a lot of thrust and a nasty, high-pitched drilling noise are not suitable for small female hands and sensitive female ears. What's more, they are completely oversized for the planned tasks. The Ixo filled a gap in the market and is now in its fifth generation. However, the patented cordless screwdriver was and is not only bought by women, but also half of the time by men. This is because Bosch avoided making a cardinal mistake: simply downsizing the "men's drill", giving it a pink casing and selling it as a women's drill. "Following a broad-based market study, Bosch focused strongly on customer needs without wanting to develop separate product ranges for men and women," explains Jaffé. Instead, they wanted to offer a product that specifically meets the needs of both men and women. This strategy fits with the fact that Bosch advertises its products very differently in women's and men's media, i.e. in a target group-oriented way. "The success proves Bosch right," says Jaffé. "This example gives the lie to all those who claim that you can't make products that appeal equally to men and women and then advertise them to both men and women. Bosch has even managed to do this in an area that is anything but typically female."
Well-intentioned, stupidly done
These positive examples make us forget for a moment that the majority of companies still completely disregard the gender factor in their marketing measures. Advertising and marketing today are predominantly geared towards men. Exceptions are special segments such as decorative cosmetics, which are by definition a bastion of women. Even advertising for particularly attractive lingerie often seems to be aimed more at the men of creation - even though it is the ladies who are supposed to buy and wear the lingerie. There is a simple explanation for this very masculine look in advertising: most campaigns are made by men. Admittedly, quite a few women work in advertising agencies and marketing departments. However, those who ultimately decide which advertising measure is implemented are usually men. "The oft-repeated argument that advertising is often done by teams of women simply doesn't hold water," says expert Jaffé. "After all, these women are already trained by men and only present proposals that they know their boss won't immediately reject because they don't work from a male perspective. There are various reasons why advertising ultimately becomes male. It starts with the fact that many marketers and advertisers talk about the customer who supposedly wants this and that. But they have no idea who the customer is, what gender they are or what their needs are. This was the case 20 years ago and has not changed to this day. Even companies that know for a fact that 100 percent of their customers are female still talk about the customer. It's amazing that it never occurs to them to change the wording at least once. Because that changes a lot in people's minds."
Over 70 percent of all new products flop. The reason for this is often that companies do not communicate in a way that is appropriate for their target group. "52% of the world's population is female and has little or no interest in technology," Jaffé points out. "Anyone who wants to appeal to these 52% and makes 'technology' their message is completely missing the mark." Sportswear manufacturer Nike, for example, launched its global "Men vs. Women" campaign in 2009. Equipped with a small running computer that records distance, time run and calories burned, male and female hobby joggers were to compete against each other. The values of all runners taking part in the competition were added together on a website belonging to the campaign to create an overall female and male value. Nike clearly defined female runners as a very important customer group - but obviously without knowing them. In its campaign, the company forgot that most women are much less competitive than men. It came as it had to: significantly more men than women took part in the contest, the men had an easy win, and Nike's brand disaster was perfect.
A few years ago, Mercedes had actually tapped into a new, affluent female target group for its CLS. With a clever commercial in which a bellboy named Olivier drives the CLS of a female hotel guest and breaks dozens of women's hearts before the owner in a business suit takes the keys from him, the company succeeded in getting women excited about the elegant yet sleek car and its features. The CLS was bought well by women. Older, male Mercedes regular customers bombarded the company with protests, Diana Jaffé knows. They didn't want to see their cool, masculine engineering brand as fresh, casual and feminine as in this commercial. As a result, Mercedes masculinized the CLS again. In the current commercial, a half-wild dropout suddenly steps out of his log cabin, clean-shaven and wearing a suit, because he has seen a CLS on some country road. Since then, he has only wanted one thing: to get out of the forest and drive a CLS. Oh well. Women still appear at Mercedes. In the commercial for the SLK, for example, there is one who behaves like a guy, races bikers and even gets into trouble with the police. Machos, i.e. systematic men, are sure to love that. Women, on the other hand, drive other cars. A pity, really. Because Mercedes could have filled a gaping hole in the market with a vehicle for the style-conscious career woman. "Women will soon realize how important a company car is when they have to climb the career ladder and assert themselves against their predominantly male colleagues," says Jaffé. "Mercedes could have occupied this field with an elegant alternative to all the other luxury cars, which are simply aggressive." A missed opportunity.
Coffee with a Porsche feel
Of course, there are products and services that men are more interested in per se than women, and vice versa. But with the right marketing idea, marketers could perhaps even sell vases to men and weapons or high-pressure cleaners to women. Jaffé is also convinced of this: "With the right marketing, you can quickly sell something to people. The only question is how useful it is. Because it's hardly worth the effort if the customer is gone forever after the purchase because they've realized they've bought rubbish."
But there is also a wide range of products in which both men and women are equally interested. Here it depends on the marketer's judgment and skill whether he or she succeeds in tapping into one or more loyal target groups. For example, what should a coffee machine that is bought by women look like? And what would one that is bought by men look like? "As in many other areas, there are far too many comparable and constantly new products when it comes to coffee machines," says Jaffé. "Nevertheless, a coffee machine from Siemens with a Porsche design has been available for many years. Siemens has obviously found a design and a brand partner that triggers desire among men." A coffee machine for women is a more difficult task. After all, a technical device is never particularly feminine, and all machines are user-friendly these days. Jaffé: "A coffee machine for women would certainly have to be easy to clean hygienically and meet high standards in terms of design and materials. Women's haptic sense is finer than that of men, they like to touch things. Such an appliance should therefore appeal to the sense of touch - an aspect that is hardly ever taken into account when developing products today. You have to be careful with colors, because the appliance has to fit into different living environments. A targeted design language would therefore be more promising."
Competition against emotions
Anyone who had hoped that there were ten golden rules of gender marketing which, if quickly applied, would ensure the success of any product with men and women will be left disappointed and somewhat perplexed. Not only are the needs of women and men too different, but the inclinations and preferences within the sexes are also too variable. After all, there are old and young, affluent and less affluent, singles, married people, etc., among both women and men, who also go through different phases of life with changing needs in the course of their lives.
Nevertheless, there are guidelines that you can follow if you want to promote men and women in a targeted manner. In her new book, Jaffé has compiled a few that will make the path to successful gender marketing less rocky. At the top of the list: Women are focused on people, men on things. For advertising, this means that women rarely respond to pure product presentations. A naked cell phone, a car, an iPod, a drill - that doesn't appeal to women. At most, women will be taken in by product images if they depict objects of high aesthetic value: Flowers, for example, works of art or jewelry. Otherwise, women prefer to see people who demonstrate the feeling they would have if they bought the product. Men, on the other hand, love cut-outs. They want to see the product they are supposed to buy, preferably in full size. Faces and people only distract them from the essentials. However, according to Jaffé, there are two cases where it can make sense to use celebrities as advertising media for men: If they are either supposed to illustrate the value of an item, like Roger Federer did with his Rolex, or if the well-known face is supposed to enhance the value of the item on sale, like George Clooney, who gilds Nespresso capsules with his charm.
Arguing with women using figures, data and facts usually backfires. They don't want to know how much horsepower a car has, they want to feel what it feels like to drive this car, they want to find out how the car suits them and their life. Attributes such as "cute", "round" and "the perfect shopping cart" are rather inappropriate, even if they may well apply to a car like the Renault Twingo. Women prefer subtlety. Men, on the other hand, love values that demonstrate performance and power. Plain and simple. A high engine speed, lots of horsepower and plenty of decibels stand for power and strength, for aggressiveness and assertiveness and really warm the hearts of men. Even when men use cosmetics, they are not concerned with beauty, but with youthfulness, performance and assertiveness. Competition is omnipresent for men.
Women talk, men too
Jaffé's comments on the role of social media for men and women are also fascinating: "Women communicate symmetrically, men asymmetrically," she explains. "Women build relationships through speaking and seek dialog; for them, communication is something very unifying. For men, communication is a way of consolidating their status and setting themselves apart. They communicate one-sidedly and like to trumpet their achievements. Men think that anyone who listens is one step lower in the hierarchy." Men therefore primarily use the public sphere to present themselves. They like to tweet and write comments in online media much more often than women. This allows them to spread their opinions without having to expect much resistance. Women tend to use dialog-based media such as Facebook, blogs and discussion forums and also seek advice and tips there, which men almost never do.
What does this mean for marketing? That a company must choose different channels depending on whether it wants to appeal to women or men. "Absolutely," says Jaffé. "We all know the old discussion about who talks more, men or women. The truth is: both talk the same amount if they can speak in their preferred setting. The preferred setting for women is the private sphere, for men it's the public sphere. This also applies on the Internet. Men see no reason whatsoever to become active in the private sphere, because they have no direct benefit from it." Is that why men are horrible? "Only from a woman's point of view," Jaffé qualifies. "From a male perspective and also from an evolutionary biology perspective, this behavior makes perfect sense. Anyone who only ever looks at the opposite sex from the perspective of their own value system must find it hideous or simply stupid." It's no different for men with women. But rather than judging the behavior of the opposite sex, it would be more helpful to try to understand it. Perhaps this would not only increase sales and marketing success, but also reduce the divorce rate.
"When it comes to gender marketing, it is crucial that you don't get carried away with clichés or things that work in some markets," warns Jaffé. "Pink, for example, has a different meaning in the USA and Asia than in Europe. You also make a mistake if you think that women only look at the design, that they want frills or other frills." It is better for a company to look at the quality features of its product, usability, manageability and weight and ask itself whether the different physique of a woman compared to a man, her brain architecture and her social behavior are relevant for the product. If not, that's fine too. "Gender marketing is not the answer to all marketing questions," says Jaffé. "But it will be impossible to imagine marketing without the gender factor in the future."
Anne-Friederike Heinrich
In a nutshell
Diana Jaffé (41) was born in Latvia and grew up in Israel and Germany. She studied business administration and communications and has worked in marketing since 1990, including for Adidas, Allianz Versicherung, Langnese, Jenoptik, Bankgesellschaft Berlin, Deutsche Bank, Documenta, ARD, Deutsche Welle and the German Federal Ministry of Economics. In 2001, Jaffé founded Bluestone AG in Berlin, which advises companies on all aspects of gender marketing, and became Europe's first gender marketing expert with her own research. She also coined the term "gender marketing". American marketers have been practicing "marketing to women" since 1989, but it is only aimed at women. Gender marketing, on the other hand, deals with both genders, and the comparative component is a central aspect of this discipline. www.bluestone-ag.de
