Strong Enough for a Man
Talking gendered products with Harry Beckwith. Beckwith, bestselling author of Selling the Invisible, has worked with such Fortune 200 clients as Microsoft, Target and Wells Fargo. His five books on marketing have sold over 1.2 million copies in 24 languages.
Q: What’s your take on “pointlessly gendered” products?
A: I’d go with the term “artificially gendered” to begin my critique. There is a point to gendering products: it’s to target a segment. Virginia Slims were a gendered product — another of Philip Morris’s huge stable of cigarette brands. But the product had a trait aimed to women: a longer and thinner cigarette that had, to some eyes, the graceful lines of an Audrey Hepburn.
Q: How about something like Men’s Bread, a product of French Meadow Bakery?
A: Men’s Bread is meant to connote a heavier, robust bread that contains more calories than a weight-watcher would choose. Well, women are far more likely to watch their weight. If men paid equal attention to keeping trim tummies, “fat slob” would not instantly connote “guys.” Women — and good for them — are much likelier to count calories. It is beyond dispute.
Q: Futuro makes wrist supports with different packaging and colours for men and women. Why not specify size measurements on the box instead of employing such terms as “for her?”
A: I’ve worked closely with the 3M Futuro product. I promise you that the engineers developed two different wrist supports for a very good reason; 3M researches this stuff as if the planet’s survival depends on it. Most men like a kick-ass looking support that matches a Harley, and men don’t mind looking injured. In fact, they think it’s cool. Most women want a support that looks unobtrusive and doesn’t fit so stiffly.
Q: Still, some of this stuff seems pretty out there.
A: What is weird is us. And marketers just play to our weirdness. Sometimes, the results look silly because, again like us, marketers are silly, too. Plus there’s a huge market for bad taste and even one for hideous, you-must-be-kidding taste.