Oh Grow Up! Brands Need to Mature With Their Customers.
Do you really know the women who are buying your brand? Or, have you made up some imaginary profile from which you determine your next steps?
Nancy Franklin wrote a great New Yorker piece (August 13, 2007) about Lifetime Television, its "product" - in terms of its Sunday show line-up particularly, and its audience. She couldn’t think of any women she knew that would find the shows relevant and pointed out that the programming seems to be unified around the looming danger or death scenario. Franklin puts it very well with this observation:
"There is often more to the shows and movies on Lifetime than you might guess from the descriptions, but for many people the channel is still a puzzlement at best; its slogan might as well be ‘Television for women who aren’t like any women you’ve ever met in your life.’"
She goes on to write how it seems to be "an endless loop of victimization followed by empowerment" with a few third rate sitcoms mixed in. Yikes.
I have had a similar experience with the channel, and don’t personally know any women who are dedicated watchers - but they must be out there. The Lifetime web site states that it serves 93 million households, which - as we know - doesn’t necessarily translate directly to the number of households actually turning to the channel.
Nevertheless, I definitely consider Lifetime a successful, established media company - which means they have the budget and the tools to conduct quality research. But, could it be, for your own brand as well as Lifetime, that the women initially targeted have changed or that the landscape of available similar products (such as television programming) is much more vast than was the case when your great idea or product first came to be? Yes, and yes. The quality research needs to continue as women, technology and what’s available to them as savvy product and media consumers is ever-changing.
For instance: Way back in 1984 when Lifetime launched, there was no real history of the television/cable industry committing to the women’s market. So, stepping out and claiming that space - and promoting the "for women" angle really made sense, and certainly inspired women to give it a look. (Bravo! oops.. that’s another channel…) Over time, however, more television and cable channels have evolved to do a much better job appealing to women as well as men. Since the mid-80s, as well, television advertisers have grown to be very savvy about focusing on women with their campaigns. And, finally, women have also gotten choosier about their television watching since then - because they can be! There are a lot more forms of media "distraction" available and television has to be pretty darn good or "entertaining" to draw in viewers. (There’s no accounting for the popularity of reality shows - by the way.)
Anyway…
It may just be a case of a fuzzy-shade-of-pink-thinking (as opposed to bright pink) - in that Lifetime is obviously successful reaching some women, but to reach even more, they should make sure they are talking with real women today. The channel will likely not further grow their audience by basing programming decisions, for one, on assumptions and stereotypes from the days of doom, gloom and female victim-empowering yore.
Here’s a thought to ponder: What "has always worked for women" probably never did.
Whether you are a cable channel or a brand manager, make sure you grow up alongside your audience.
