This is Q6, "Men and women see the world differently – react to colors differently and color imagery differently. What have you learned about that with regard to e-branding? (eye-mind-brain systems are so different…..)" from AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorklund. Ms. Bjorklund interviewed me on NextStage's five year study of the best uses of colors, color imagery and color iconography in marketing. This study contained NextStage original research and research from others. The posts in this arc provide content that didn't make it into the podcast, just as the podcast has content that isn't provided in this arc.
You can hear the entire podcast at The Best Way to Use Color and Imagery to Improve Your Marketing. I'll be including a bibliography in the last post in this arc.
I’ve learned that this question can get me into lots of trouble when I’m speaking at conferences. We discovered in our five year study – and we’re continuing with this research, by the way – that women are universally better at identifying b&m brands online than men are. There are anthropologic and neurologic reasons for this and I can really bore you to death with it if we have time.The nutshell for marketers is that women can tolerate greater variation in offline and online brands than men can. I’ll ask right now that your listeners and everybody else forgive what is going to come across as a chauvinistic statement; women see a b&m brand modified for online and are basically being asked by an old friend, “does this dress make me look fat?”
Now the other half of the audience can despise me; men see a b&m brand modified for online and ask their old friend, “what happened to you, buddy?”
These two responses are so different and speak at such a high level to gender marketing differences. Women are being asked by their friend if their friend is still acceptable. Men are questioning if the old relationship still exists. The difference is “I need your help” versus “You’re different. Can I still trust you?”
The best thing to do when transferring a male-oriented b&m to online is to make as few changes to the brand/logo as possible. You can go nuts with the rest of the page because once men realize it’s their same old friend they’ll get in the car and go for a ride with them. Altered brands/logos can stop the male audience from even getting in the car.
Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.
Links for this post:
- The AllBusiness.com's Chris Bjorklund Interviews Joseph Carrabis on Color Use in Marketing arc
- The Best Way to Use Color and Imagery to Improve Your Marketing
- Gender Based Marketing Blog Posts
- Gender Marketing Web Design Differences
- NextStage Trainings
- Tips for Your Next Website Redesign
- Usability Studies 101: Follow the Eye
- IMedia Brand Summit on 9-12 Sept 07
- 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.
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