Philips: Women, Consumer Electonics and.. Crystal?
The evolution of marketing to women (aka M2W) has been fascinating to watch. Fifteen years ago, the default M2W approach was pink, pastels, "for women," and so on. As ten years passed, brands got savvier and you could see more relevant features, benefits and stories in marketing efforts. These days, a lot of brands have realized the financial power of women even more. Still, while some marketing professionals are fine tuning very transparent and appropriate campaigns, others may be going overboard in a sort of retro, "pink thinking" direction.
I guess there is a pendulum swing to everything.
One example of "you were doing great, until…" was in the latest news from the Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas. As reported by Michael Kanellos for a CNET blog, Andrea Ragnetti, the new CEO for the Philips Electronics brand (her predecessor was male) has announced a more women-focused product line called The Design Collection.
I have long been a big fan of their "sense and simplicity" tagline, and the description of Philips’ new Ultimate Dream TV in that blog post, makes it sound sleek and sexy and very much what a lot of consumers (not just women) would love.
But, what’s this other product mentioned therein? An "active crystal USB drive" shaped like a heart? (Kanellos took a great photo for his blogpost.) According to the Philips statement in the post:
"The Active Crystal range combines high fashion design with the best in
technology, creating a fusion of fashion and function,"
Did women in their focus groups or other research mention that they needed fancy colors and cute shapes for their USB drives? Or, is Philips, like a fair number of other consumer electronics brands out there who are mainly doing the right things to reach women, taking a sort of odd sidestep? Is a heart-shaped, crystal-encompassing USB drive relevant to the core female technology consumer, or do I detect a few assumptions that absolutely any product + "fashion" = a surefire hit with women (that is worth manufacturing)?
Like "cutesy" wine bottle labels and pink toolboxes, it might make a sort of jokey, one-time gift for a few people, or serve as a pre-Valentine’s Day present (with the real present not far behind, one would hope). On the other hand - from a company like Philips, which otherwise seems to have figured out how to serve and market to today’s women very well, it is an oddity.
Would that new female CEO or any of her friends (if they didn’t have a Philips connection, that is) buy one of those drives themselves? And/or, was the press about it just what Philips sought to get CES women’s market attention? Who knows.
Fashion has its place, and can certainly accessorize boring old technology products at times, but a lot of women have their practicality limits. Many potential female customers could end up just thinking the crystal drive silly - and perhaps think slightly less of the larger brand because of it.
For Philips, the fun and excitement is actually in products like that Ultimate Dream TV - which may not "feel" women-focused enough on paper, but believe me, represents a few years of investment in understanding what women really want. It sparkles in just the right way.
Note: Thanks to Melanie Notkin for the tip.
January 13th, 2008 at 12:47 am
You know, they just can’t help themselves. Putting color on tech gear is great but to have a heart as a usb…… please.