Brand messaging focusing on women is “stuck in the past”

RetailWire has an article today about marketers being out-of-touch with who’s actually doing the shopping. While in the past, it was almost a mantra that “women drive 80% of purchases,” marketers are waking up to the fact that this just isn’t the case anymore. From the article:

It’s the conventional wisdom touted daily via a thousand PowerPoint slides in a thousand new business and campaign pitches: Women drive 80 percent of consumer purchases.

And it’s simply not true anymore.

Yet dozens of studies have searched in vain for the equivalent rethink of gender stereotypes in advertising. In a recent meta-analysis of 64 advertising content studies, sexist stereotypes dominate: Women are three times more likely than men to be depicted as a product user vs. an authority figure; four times more likely to be shown in a dependent role; and 3.5 times more likely to be in a domestic environment, rather than a work environment.

In an increasingly egalitarian consumer culture, in which gender roles are less rigid, more fluid and constantly evolving, brands must work harder to understand how this impacts emerging demographic groups… Perhaps, if more brands do, the lag in what’s happening in the real world — 50/50 parenting, stay-at-home dads, husbands that make the grocery lists and do the shopping — will start to be accurately and authentically represented in the marketplace.

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This is what a lot of us have been saying for years around here..! Men shop, and they shop a lot too. Last month, coupon and promotion firm Inmar noted that 40% of men are the primary grocery shopper in the household.

And honestly? I have to confess that anytime I read statements like these…

JCP’s CEO Ron Johnson: “She prefers a sale. At times she loves a coupon and always, she needs a reference price. Whether there’s a manufacturer suggested price on a branded item, a comparison on a private label item or a sale, she needs to feel she added value to her family through the saving she got from being a savvy shopper.

I cringe. Badly.

Remember, Jewel-Osco’s former CEO Craig Herkert’s failed “Project SHE” in 2010? He felt those big, scary Jewel-Osco stores were too intimidating for l’il ladies like us, taking away 25% of the groceries it previously stocked so women wouldn’t face “too many choices.”

It failed. Badly. And yet, at the time, their party line was “Our consumer data indicates that 80 percent of our shoppers are women.” No mention of the many men who shop.

It’s good to see marketers are finally waking up.

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