While technology enthusiasts and addicts checked out the latest and greatest at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, Ad Age was trying to figure out where and how women consumers fit into the rapidly changing technology market.
“Tech marketers traditionally focus on 25- to 40-year-old men, which is virtually everyone who comes to CES,” said panelist James McQuivey, principal analyst at Forrester Research specializing in the digital home.
The discussion put marketing technology to the sexes in two distinct camps: for men, the sell is more focused on product specs and status; while women are looking for the benefit utility gadgets can provide their lives.
“Men’s use of technology is much more predictable,” said McQuivey. “Women are much more sophisticated,” adding that there are, of course, overlaps but usually marked differences in the genders’ attitudes toward technology.
However, many technology companies are sticking to one-note, male-oriented marketing.
Consider Verizon’s Droid brand of Android smartphones. The launch campaign for the devices featured robots, space expeditions and uses a name licensed from Star Wars creator George Lucas.
“It’s almost as if the Droid message is: Women, do not buy this product!” said Liz Schimel, exec VP-chief digital officer, Meredith National Media Group.
“Women aren’t wowed by the gee-whiz of technology,” said Ann Mack, who oversees global trendspotting for JWT. “Women are looking for technology that’s simple and can help them manage their lives.”
Case in point: The iPhone may be the most-popular cookbook in America, said Schimel, who’s company publishes such women’s titles as Family Circle and Better Homes & Gardens.
The panel also commended marketers that have done a good job appealing to women. AT&T‘s Danielle Lee, director with the company’s Media Innovation Group, thinks a new smartphone on show at CES, Nokia’s Lumia with Microsoft’s Windows Phone software, will resonate with social media-consuming women since the phone’s contacts also pipe in Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn feeds.
Amazon and Barnes & Noble also have targeted women in their eReader advertising for Kindle and Nook.
“They took a whole home view of their products and their benefits,” said Schimel, noting it’s smart for them to go after Apple. “There’s a whole population of people who are not going to buy an iPad at that price point.” Forrester predicts Amazon will be the No. 2 tablet manufacturer behind Apple.
While CES is exploding with credit card-thin OLED TVs this year, Forrester’s McQuivey said there’s a huge opportunity for marketers of the hot new devices to target men and women.
Women buy and influence the purchase of two major technology categories, computers and TVs, half the time, according to GfK MRI’s Survey of the American Consumer from last spring.
“Will we see a man looking at this [TV] and see a status icon?” he asked. “Or a woman looking at it and seeing a more visually pleasing product for the home? It could go either way.”
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