Search Results for 'battle living room'

Goodbye Men, Hello Ladies

Published on January 9, 2009 in Articles, Electronics, Games and Home Entertainment. 1 Comment

Jerry yang, Yahoo’s ex chief exec announced that the advertising industry was facing the toughest downturn in decades. The age of extravagance is gone. The age of the hangover is here. No more big marketing budgets with money to trial and test cool ideas. Its about ROI. Its about bold, strong brands having a clear positioning. Tough times need solid, focused leadership, a lesson that Woolworths learnt the hard way.

Napoleon declared the essence of strategy is sacrifice. Never has this been more true than in the current climate. And the sacrifice should be allocating marketing spend to men- a well saturated market. Lad’s mags are already pregnant with tech-brands competing for their attention. Women are the financial opportunity and Jupiter estimate marketers are missing out on £0.5billion by not marketing to women.

Out of every 10 gadgets, 4 are bought by women. And no before you ask we are not talking about fridges and washing machines. More women than men play games between the age of 24-35 than men now And we are not just talking the Sims. World of Warcraft now has 50% female players.

The research I conducted with Jupiter highlighted (now Forrester), ownership is on a par with men in most categories. Couple that with the fastest growing segment on social networks is married women with children. And according to an N-vision survey, December 2008, approx 40% of women are transacting on the Internet (ie spending money rather than just using the Internet for communication, information and entertainment) compared to 30% of men. Hence, Women are no longer a niche audience – they are the budget-holders and drivers of growth.

women-are-no-longer-a-niche-market1

The editor of marie claire is right when she says:

“When it comes to tech brands and women, technology companies are in the same place the cars industry was 20 years ago.”

With the exception of Nintendo and it’s Wii, Apple, no other brand is talking the female language. I agree with Hilary Chilura when she says:

“Like nervous teenage boys at a junior high-school dance, tech marketers haven’t figured out how to talk to women”.

Ask any family who was in charge of buying the Christmas gifts, and you’ll find out its women not men. Women are not only buying technology for themselves, but as the Chief Household Officer, are buying for kids, husband, gran and friends. Women are in charge of the house, but more importantly are in charge of the living room (see Battle for the Living Room) where many of the technology lives: PVR, console, HD TV…. In my house, its my husband who lives in ‘his’ world but its me who lives in the ‘real’ world. I am deciding what we should cut back on, how much we can save and what we will buy when it comes to technology.

If tech brands want to be successful, they should focus on women at the expense of men. Women are no longer ‘the Second Sex. ‘ Rather the most profitable sex.

The Battle for your Living Room

Published on December 4, 2007 in Articles and Electronics. 1 Comment

broomstick.jpg

I read an interesting article in this week’s International Herald Tribune about the growing purchasing and influencing power of women:

The Consumer Electronics Association in the US estimates that this year women will make 40% of consumer electronics purchases in what is a $200 billion industry. Indirectly , as spouses, girlfriends, significant others, daughters and mothers, they will influence another 21% of purchases, making their total involvement a whopping 61%, up from 57% in 2004.

That is a lot of buying power considering the average US household has 25 electronic devices. Many of the highest ticket items will reside in the living room such as the HDTV, PVR, Console, stereo and this is in the most part the terrain of the women. As the design of electronics gets better and better, women are more interesting in choosing the electronics and styling is a big part of this. I say part, as many of the electronics fall into the ‘colour’ or ‘fashion’ trap by thinking design=colour=pink and that women have no interest in performance and software.

And as Elizabeth Kelan, co-author of this blog, discusses the retail experience in the IHT article “…Walking into an electronics store is like walking into a men’s locker room. But slowly, progress is being made.”

Sony, despite being late into the flat panel market, is doing some ground-breaking stuff that goes beyond the superficial. They have clearly identified the financial gains to be made if executed well and have set up a gender steering committee of its’ top European executives to revamp product lines and better connect with women.

sonyremote.jpg

The new Bravia’s remote contol (on the left) has been designed to enhance a living room coffee table. The TVs have a single cable for all electronic communication. Not only that, they are redesigning their retail outlets in Switzerland to include couches and offer child care services (that would be heaven for me and most mums) and their staff are being trained to ask about interior design tastes and wishes. As Nichola Hinton puts it, “The Bravia is essentially a piece of furniture.” Where women largely control the home, in particular the living room, and what goes into it, this is a very wise strategy.