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The Economist :: Marketing to women :: Hello, girls

Another good article from The Economist:

Recession-hit companies target female customers

Never mind the fight to get people to open their wallets in the recession—some companies are taking a different tack, and trying to get customers to open their purses instead. In America, where female consumers make more than 80% of discretionary purchases, companies have started tailoring their products and messages to appeal to women, in an effort to boost their sales.

Frito-Lay, a snack-food company owned by PepsiCo, has launched a campaign called “Only In A Woman’s World” to convince women that crisps and popcorn are not just for male, beer-guzzling sport fans. OfficeMax, America’s second-largest office-supplies company, has redesigned its notebooks and file-holders to appeal to women and has run advertisements that encourage women to make their cubicles more colourful. For the first time, McDonald’s was a sponsor of New York Fashion Week in February, promoting a new line of hot drinks to trendsetting women.

Eric Almquist, head of global consumer insights for Bain & Company, a consultancy, says he is surprised it has taken a recession to get companies to focus on women. After all, it is hardly news that they control the vast majority of consumer spending. (They buy 90% of food, 55% of consumer electronics, and most of the new cars.) But the recession has prompted companies to rethink their approach. SheSpeaks, a marketing consultancy that helps companies including Citibank and Philips reach women consumers, has tripled its number of clients since the recession began. Some women’s magazines, too, are benefiting as companies that had never before expressed interest in advertising with them are now doing so.

Aside from their greater purchasing clout, women are valuable customers for three reasons. First, they are loyal, says Marti Barletta, author of “Marketing to Women”, and more likely to continue to buy a brand if they like it. Second, women are more likely than men to spread information about products they like through word of mouth and social-networking sites. Third, most of the lay-offs so far in America have been in male-dominated fields, like manufacturing and construction. This means women may bring home a greater share of household income in the months ahead and have even more buying power.

But marketing to women may not work for every company. In particular, for firms (such as some carmakers) with brands that are regarded as strongly male, “gender bending”, or trying to attract the opposite sex, could enhance short-term sales but cause a longer-term decline. Jill Avery of the Simmons School of Management in Boston researched this trend with cars. When Porsche released a sport-utility vehicle designed for women, sales temporarily increased, but men started to move away from the brand, on the basis that it had compromised its masculine image. But in this recession, having a tarnished brand is better than having no brand at all.

Source: The Economist

Posted in Articles.

The Economist :: Television in Brazil :: Soaps, sex and sociology

A classical lesson of tele marketing (or shall one better confess of propaganda):

Do women who watch telenovelas have fewer babies (but more men)?

The glamorised world portrayed on the nightly telenovelas (soap operas) on Brazilian television is, superficially at least, about as representative of the country as a whole as Marie Antoinette and her shepherdesses were of 1780s’ France. But they are all about aspiration. About 40m people watch the mid-evening novela from Globo, the leading network. The action often takes place in Rio de Janeiro, where Globo is based, among families which are smaller, whiter and richer than average. New research suggests that by selling this version of the country to itself, Globo has boosted two important social trends.

The soaps blossomed under Brazil’s military regime of 1964-85. The generals subsidised sales of television sets to build a sense of nationhood in a large and then largely illiterate country. National news was meant to do the job, but the soaps got the audience. Their scriptwriters and directors, many of whom were on the left, saw them as a tool with which to reach the masses. Their plots often tilt in a progressive direction: AIDS is discussed, condoms are promoted and social mobility exemplified.

How much impact do the soaps have on real life? As recounted in papers from the Inter-American Development Bank, researchers tracked Globo’s expansion across the country and compared this to data on fertility and divorce (“Television and Divorce: Evidence from Brazilian Novelas,” by Alberto Chong and Eliana La Ferrara (January 2009) and “Soap Operas and Fertility: Evidence from Brazil,” by Eliana La Ferrara, Alberto Chong and Suzanne Duryea, October 2008).

The results are most striking for the total fertility rate, which dropped from 6.3 children per woman in 1960 to 2.3 in 2000, despite contraception being officially discouraged for some of that time. This was because women moved to cities and opted to have fewer babies. The papers argue that the small, happy families portrayed on television contributed to this trend. Controlling for other factors, the arrival of Globo was associated with a decline of 0.6 percentage points in the probability of a woman giving birth in a given year. That is equivalent to the drop in the birth rate associated with a woman having two extra years of schooling.

The effect on divorce was smaller, but noticeable. The researchers found that between 1975, when divorce was first mooted, and 1984 about one in five of the main characters in Globo soaps were divorced or separated, a higher percentage than in the real Brazil. These break-ups were not just a result of machismo: from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s about 30% of female lead characters in novelas were unfaithful to their partners. The researchers find that the arrival of Globo in an area was associated with a rise of 0.1-0.2 percentage points in the share of women aged 15-49 who were divorced or separated. The authors reckon that watching “empowered” women having fun in Rio made other women (a few of them anyway) more independent.

Other research shows that divorce and lower fertility are linked to less domestic violence. So the influence of soaps may be far more positive than critics of their vapidity claim. If Globo could now come up with a seductive novela about tax reform its transformation of Brazil would be complete.

Source: The Economist

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The Process (a.k.a. Designing The Stop Sign Video)

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Posted in Jokes.

Vestas

Vestas has launched a new campaign for its wind power solutions. Simple and up to the point. Well done!

Clean

Competitive

Fast

Independent

Predictable

Predictable

Posted in Lessons, Photos. Tagged with .

HSBC passport

Since the very beginning of its existance, HSBC was a truly international bank. In 2004, after the EU enlargement, it didn't miss an opportunity to catch up with the market when hundred thousands migrants stormed the United Kingdom from all over the Europe and other place of the world too.

The bank had launched its "HSBC passport" campaign targeting newcomers and offering them a decent and fast service, while other British banks just missed the clients frustrating them with monthly delays and so typical and apathetic service.

The ads greeted the visitors from the very London airports down to the City. Right approach, right niche, and right execution. No wonder, HSBC is now on the top of the bank branding ladder despite all the turmoils and credit crunch.

Posted in Lessons, Photos. Tagged with , , .