Brands opt for gender marketing to attract consumers

Basic differences in perceptions of online media by men and women have added a new segmentation to digital marketing that could prove a huge opportunity for brands to communicate better with their consumers.

Gender marketing, the latest favourite subject of Andrew Robertson, President and CEO of BBDO Worldwide, will add a new "w" to the world wide web, that is, world wide women's web.

Speaking to Emirates Business, Robertson, presented a strong rationale for considering a gender-specific communication as a way to become more competitive in the consumer-driven markets.

He said physiological differences – a more developed emotional centre in women and a more developed logical centre in men – lead to different ways of perceiving online media.

The web can be utilised in various ways to relate to those different perceptions. In that sense, said Robertson, the web was designed for men by men. "Its women-specific capabilities, much similar to a woman's mind with all its interconnections and links are not yet developed or exploited.

"This is a great opportunity for brands to make use of the digital media to create more rewarding experiences for both men and women."

BBDO, an advertising agency network, based its exploration of gender marketing on various indicators. "Unlike the 'Dell' experience, a failed Dell attempt to lure female consumers, online marketing for women is not about pink and a female name," said Robertson. Major differences of perception among men and women lie in motives unique to each gender. Women, for example, are more interested in building relationships, more into reality and focused on the journey rather than destination. They always need to be able to connect, share, empathise, listen and receive advice.

On the other hand, men are about scoring, fantasy and are more focused on destinations than journeys. This is why, said Robertson, 70 per cent of modern men believe they would not know how to entertain themselves without the internet, while 56 per cent of women think life would be "impossible" if they were not able to use internet to connect with their family and friends.

As a simple demonstration, Robertson, browsed through the statuses of his Twitter friends. Men on Twitter would always write a statement. Women have a larger tendency to ask a question or to convey a feeling that draws empathy or compassion.


How does the study of differences in perceptions of online media by men and women work in marketing?

The potential and the opportunity created by the way the digital world works means that you can really create experiences that are more special for men and women. Until now, there may have been some things that have happened intuitively similar to the UK's Topshop, for example.

TopShop [a chain of clothing stores] had a Facebook page where women would choose their items and offer them for vote among friends. Knowing that women like to shop with friends and are keen on receiving others' opinions, the TopShop idea was brilliant.

Yet, I don't think that someone sat down and noted the difference between men and women and designed the page based on it. It may have been women who came up with this idea, and it happens to be an application from a retailer, meaning that they must have a keen understanding of how women shop.

They have seen all that and what they did is simulate that behaviour easier, faster and bigger online.

I haven't seen many of those, though. There are lots of games, and applications that work for men, I don't think the women side of it has even begun to be exploited. That said, 63 per cent of Facebook users are men, with a growing membership of women, aged above 55.

Another example is Blogher.com, a blogging community for women. This community currently has more than eight million members. It exists and couldn't exist without the digital blogsphere. This is a great example of this potential, it can even be an opportunity for advertising.

What is the goal intended from the study of differences in men and women?

I think that you can create a deeper, more meaningful relationship with women for brands, which will in turn strengthen the relationships that those women have and to those brands and eventually that will increase the business. I think it is just a huge opportunity for brands to do things that are a lot harder in non-digital media and are particularly invaluable to women.

In our region, aside from the UAE and Saudi Arabia, internet penetration is still relatively low. With such an expanded capacity of the web, digital marketing seems a great option, but would it make the same sense with the limitations of the markets in the region?

Digital marketing is not an exclusion of all else. At BBDO, we do one or two thought pieces a year to help understand consumer behaviour better and what it means for our clients.

Exploring the differences between men and women, using the internet and analysing their implications, would be valuable to our clients, and to us. Once we have gone through this, I'd like to think that someone else in our agency who is trying to create an experience for men would do it differently from the way they would to create an experience for women.

The internet, however, provides a much easier way to develop applications that attract both men and women. It is great to have games and ideas based on men's concepts such as scoring, having destinations or collecting information in a linear way. The internet can do it much better and faster. At the same time, if you want to create a more lateral, more connected multiple mission experience for women, you can now execute that in a way you couldn't before.

How is that potential reflected on business growth, reinforcing brand loyalty etc?

Well, the challenge we all face in the communications business is the attention economy. Everybody have so many million things that they can spend their time doing. We have to earn the right to communicate with them, earn their engagement is a magical ability to attract and then hold the attention of an audience, while you give them some information, or a demonstration, or an experience, that changes what they think, feel and most importantly what they do. That is the job and that is what we are about.

The more powerful you can make those experiences the more engaging you can make them, the more you are going to change consumer behaviour.

So if you are able to create an experience for men on the one hand and women on the other that they find very rewarding because it entertains them, it makes them feel good, gives them the information they need and the experiences they like.

They will develop a much stronger relationship with the brand, and as a result build business. These are insights that help create better work and change the behaviour of our brands' consumers, faster and more. When you say what is the potential, I don't know, it is a whole lot better than before we did the work.

In the region, women perceive themselves and are perceived in light of a different set of cultural values, when compared to other markets. How does gender online marketing overcome such obstacles?

You might be limited in what you can do in terms of execution, but I bet that the insights into the different motivations and behaviour of men and women which are then multiplied by the potential of the digital world are exactly the same in a place like Saudi Arabia as those in other parts of the world because the brain physiology knows no culture. That difference is way beyond culture. It is evolutionary. What you are able to do with gender marketing and the way in which you are able to expose it will vary, the fundamental drivers and insights. I am betting, will be the same.

I have to believe there are great opportunities in gender marketing and if they are more than what they used to be yesterday then that is an improvement.

Do you see the future in digital marketing?

I have a loathing of the word traditional because I think you only make something traditional by treating it as such. You can be very radical in the way you use old media. So I refuse to use words as classical traditional or new or old to refer to radio, print or TV.

Everything is going to be partly digital, for sure, just as billboards are now being transformed to digital screens. Now is that digital media or a billboard? Television used to be just a means to distribute video. Video now exists in so many distribution formats, many of those are digital.

But the important thing is the content, the potential to add value to the consumer of that particular consumer system.

So I believe that almost everything is going to be digital eventually. I am a big believer in the power of the content. That is the thing that has the magic to secure and hold attention and has the power to change people's opinions.


The difference

Andrew Robertson of BBDO said there are three fundamental differences between men and women. Men are more about scoring, fantasy and destination. "This is why, men enjoy online games much more than women. In fact, 84 per cent of virtual reality players are men."

One survey revealed 63 per cent of women in the UK complain that men spend too much time playing online games.

Women are about relationships, reality and journeys. They are more interested in checking emails, interacting with friends and family members and blogging. Twenty-five per cent of women said blogs have reduced the time they spend on reading magazines.

Robertson also noticed that 63 per cent of Facebook users are men.

"According to our study, more women post profile pictures on Facebook with friends

(19.8 per cent versus 8.9 per cent of men). About 18.8 per cent of women post pictures with objects of importance almost four times as much as men (5.7 per cent). "This is an additional sign that women want to stress their relations and friendships."

They want to be perceived as fun-loving (36.6 per cent of women) and happy (13 pr cent), he said.

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