Not Just for Kids: An Educational Approach Markets to Women
My mom and a few of her 60- and 70-year old friends recently went to the Toledo Museum of Art’s Louis Comfort Tiffany exhibit (which just closed). When I talked with her a few days after that visit, she raved about how much she learned and how great the handout was. Being a Tiffany fan since my days working in the craftsman style furniture/home realm in Oregon, I was intrigued - so my mom put it in the mail to me.
Now that I’ve seen it, I’m guessing the eight newsprint pages of content made a high learning curve topic accessible for many museum visitors. It included snippets such as: "So What Makes Tiffany Glass Cool? and "Fine Craftsmanship Mixes with Mass Production," as well as, "What About Women?" - where I found out that: "Tiffany felt that females had a sharper eye than their male counterparts and were offered jobs inspecting, sorting and packing finished glass." (This was in the early 1900s!)
For my mom and her friends, the handout contributed to their learning adventure and helped them absorb and retain more from their time spent. And, it kept their interest and got them talking about the show to friends (as well as daughters).
The interesting thing (and perhaps you could see this coming): the piece was produced/intended for educational purposes to distribute to children’s groups. But, it wasn’t until I saw the crossword puzzle and maze on the final page that I realized it.
Marketing implications? The handout wasn’t "selling" the exhibit, so much as enhancing it for an audience
that might be hard to hook or keep interested. It delivered the facts of Tiffany and the glass-making craft in a way that was accessible to exhibit attendees, young and old, male or female. Whether there is an underlying commercial intent or not, well-crafted educational pamphlets like this get people buzzing - especially women, who love to share positive experiences - about perhaps otherwise hard to describe, high-learning curve topics, products or services.
People don’t lose their interest in learning after childhood. It’s just that very few organizations see value in taking the time to develop an educational approach. Perhaps high learning curve industry marketers, in particular, should take a cue from the museums of the world, and come up with creative ways to educate consumers about the what/why/how of their businesses. That may be just what customers are waiting for, but don’t think to ask, in order to make a purchase decision.
What makes your industry fascinating? What are the insider tidbits of
knowledge that might intrigue your customers? Is there a way to create
an educational "fact sheet" for your product or service (either to put
online or develop into a hard copy)? How might you present it for an audience of schoolkids? There may be lots of ideas in there.
P.S. It is fun to announce that the foreign rights for a Korean translation of Don’t Think Pink have been sold. Spanish and Japanese translations already exist.
P.P.S. I will be attending the Marketing to Women conference in Chicago next week. Any of you who will also be there - please look for me and say hello!
Photo details: Tiffany window, Reid Presbyterian Church in Richmond, Indiana
