The Expert Panel: Biggest Trend in Marketing to Women?
And, the biggest trend in marketing to women as we enter 2009 is… drumroll please… putting out a press release about forming a women’s market expert panel. Does that really deserve fanfare?
To me the news occurs when said organizations or brands can point to a successful six-month old (or older) marketing campaign that truly and effectively resonates with women. That’s when publicity for their panel – and how it guided them to the crux of the matter - makes sense.
Agencies and media conglomerates are not dumb. They have seen the writing on the wall (it has been there for at least ten years…) and they all want to claim that they’ve got the women-powered edge, as in: “We are the ones who REALLY understand the female consumer!” But, what does that prove? That you can compile a list of recognized names who gave you the OK to use their names in your publicity.
Hmmm. The state of the marketing to women pursuit is pretty dismal if the brands and media organizations are still just waving the flag – saying, or publicizing that they are all about women, by women and for women. But, the proof should be in the pudding. With all the great marketing to women books, blogs, speakers and consultants out there – we should all be able to get much deeper than flag-waving.
Don’t get me wrong. There is indeed good intention behind forming an expert panel. Still, it seems to me that brands and marketing agencies continue to insulate themselves from the real expert panel – the women who buy what they pitch – by doing so. Those women come first. Experts then fit very well at the next level of work – in shaping the women’s market research or interpreting what female consumers are doing or saying. Finally, the combined effort of a consumer advisory panel AND an expert panel should be considered the gold standard, and will deliver results deserving of huge fanfare.
The biggest trend in marketing to women should not be expert panels that can help brands better connect with women as consumers, but panels of those women themselves. Businesses and organizations, large and small, still have so much to learn – directly from the source.
*This post was inspired by this Ad Age story by Brian Steinberg, “NBC Taps Leading Women To Offer Advice to Marketers.”
