Of course you all know about the theories behind John Gray’s best-selling book “Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus.” Men and women have decidedly different ways of viewing the world–which are important to keep in mind when targeting members of one gender over another.
Fran Lytle, a brand planner at G&M Advertising in Short Hills, NJ, runs a seminar she calls Marketing to Women, in which she studies this in detail. Lytle believes that to effectively sell to women, you need to make an emotional connection, to win them over by telling a story they can relate to.
The difference between the ways the sexes think has been imprinted on our subconscious since prehistoric times. Men learned to compare. As hunters, men developed cognitive reasoning and comparison skills. This helped them make sound judgments out in the field, where it was all about winning or losing: “That tiger and I both have eyes on the wooly mammoth. Should I kill the tiger and then also the mammoth, or shall I take a pass? But weak men are repulsive; if the others see me flee, they might look upon me as a sissy. Ayheehahhh! Here I go to kill the tiger!”
Men who showed good skills were honored and looked up to: “See how Hugar killed that tiger? And the mammoth too! It was amazing! Now we have two meats to bring back to the tribe. Hugar is a hero. He is to be honored!”
Or, if the outcome wasn’t so good: “That weakling thought he could fight a tiger. Now tigers think that people are enemies and are weak. He is forever to be cursed!”
Women, meanwhile, learned to connect. There was a lot to do back at the camp: raising the kids, cleaning, getting grains and berries, cooking and trying to convince their husbands to stop trying so hard to be so damn macho.
Women learned ways to get along. They found it made more sense to share responsibilities than to compete. At the watering hole, time went faster and it was more fun chatting, sharing stories and cave-keeping tips with the other women than suffering all by yourself. It wasn’t about who was the best washer–it was about getting things done with less effort. Group success was valued over the glorification of any one individual.
We haven’t come all that far, have we?
If we extend these “men compare, women cooperate” ideas to the world of commerce, we might say that selling — “buy this, because it’s not that” — is a masculine sort of notion. When selling, we ask our customers to apply cognitive reasoning to arrive at the best choice.
Marketing, on the other hand — being patient and caring and making yourself attractive by understanding the prospect’s needs and looking for an emotional connection — might be looked at as a feminine sort of idea.
But all is not black and white (or all masculine or feminine) when it comes to building a good brand. Great brands are a healthy integration of both genders.
I’m going to go out on a limb to suggest that the healthiest and most attractive specimens of any species possess both feminine and masculine qualities; a combination of both emotional sensitivity and solid, cognitive reasoning — all wrapped up in a package that is both graceful and soft, yet powerful and strong.
And I’ll also go so far as to suggest that a strong brand needs to be all of those things, too.
It must appeal to his feminine side with a story that’s attractive and emotionally compelling, and to her masculinity by having benefits that are cognitively better than everyone else’s. Package your product with quality and beauty — and deliver unmatched performance.
Integrate all of these qualities and you’ll not only become a hit with those on the earth but with those on Mars and Venus as well.
Allan Gorman is owner of Brandspa (www.brandspa.net), a Montclair, NJ-based branding and creative consultancy. He is also the author of a new book, “Briefs for Building Better Brands.”
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