I saw a news story last night about a beach somewhere in Italy that is designated "Women Only - No men allowed". The women love it, the men hate it. I spent about ten minutes on the ABC News website just now looking for the story so I could provide a pointer and couldn't find it. Pity. Lots of ads all over the page but I couldn't find what I wanted, so the frustration of not finding what I wanted is non-consciously attached to the companies advertising on the page.I'm running into online advertising and branding issues a lot lately. Tomorrow's AllBusiness.com column is going to be about DeBranding because companies don't know their audience, my IMediaConnection is going to be a case study dealing with moving a brand into new markets and I received a bunch of calls and emails this week from various folks wanting information on these types of things.
Anyway, I saw this news story and was intrigued by it. The women they interviewed felt free, uninhibited, went to the beach to make new friends, talk, ... my god, was anyone paying attention?
Next they interviewed men who weren't happy because...umm...well...uh...there were all those women available to gawk at and the men couldn't get to the beach to do any gawking.
There are times I'm genuinely ashamed of my gender.
There were two kickers to this news item, though. One, the idea for a womens only beach was a man's idea (one of those obvious in retrospect things). Two, when that news item was finished and they came back to the anchor desk, one of the newscasters said he doubted that kind of thing would work in the USA (obvious in prospect).
Gender and cultural based marketing in less than 30 seconds. I was impressed.
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- BizMediaScience Cultural Marketing archives
- BizMediaScience Gender Marketing archives
- Gender Marketing Web Design Differences
- XChange on 20-21 Sept 07
- DC Emetrics Summit on 14-17 Oct '07
- Society for New Communications Research Annual Research Symposium & Awards Gala on 5-6 Dec 07 in Boston.
It is a natural fact that men will look at women, same as women will look at men...Nothing to be ashamed about. It is perfectly natural and healthy. Something to be ashamed about is setting up a society that excludes people and is not equal. I see a sign that says "No Men Allowed" the same way I see a sign that says "No Women Allowed". Both are wrong and should not be tolerated in an equal and just society. Equality is a two-way street. Keep that in mind.
Posted by: Anonymous | December 5, 2007 4:20 PM | Permalink to Comment