What women want - failing to engage women is costing brands £774B
According to the latest research report from Kantar “Brands across the UK are risking their customer relationships and impacting their brand value by failing to correctly reflect, represent and champion women in their marketing and advertising efforts”.
The cost to those less progressive brands is an eye-watering £774B compared to their their more inclusive rivals who are championing women in their content. It seems that brands who promote gender-balanced content are winning not just the hearts and minds of their consumers but their purses too. Women are voting with their spend by favouring brands they feel support them and don’t negatively impact their self-esteem. Brands are being challenged to understand and support their customers and champion the causes that genuinely matter to them.
The research makes compelling reading for brands wanting to sell to women and there are valuable lessons to be learnt from those failing to deliver inclusive and supportive content as well as notable successes. Wherever your brand stands on the spectrum there is no room for complacency.
Here at The Behaviours Agency, we think this is part of an even larger opportunity for brands after all creating advertising that is more engaging for women is a huge opportunity but it is only half the story. As we highlighted in our guide to Gender Equality in Advertising, August 2018, it is not just our depiction of women that is alienating potential customers: men can be equally disengaged by stereotypical advertising. Between 2015 and 2016, a third of gender complaints made to the ASA were by men.
As brands and advertisers we will inevitably look to simplify things and stereotyping has definitely played its part, today we need new positive brand images that reflect a more complex and engaging consumer if we are to succeed.
As an agency, influencing behaviours is core to what we do and applying Behavioural Economics to marketing communications is a natural progression. If you are interested in understanding more about how we do this get in touch now.
Find out more about the connection between consumers and behavioural economics in our latest report on the top trends driving consumer behaviour. Download it here.