Are brands scared that embracing women will alienate men?

If you’re reading this blog, you already know why most brands should devote more attention and resources to women, including Boomer women. You’re equally familiar with the reasons they don’t, mostly based in stereotypes (women don’t make purchase decisions, women never change brands, etc.)–stereotypes that have been proven untrue by important research over the last 10-20 years. But it’s always possible to find new ways to defend unjustified stereotypes, and a recent article revealed one new to me: marketing to women might offend men.

Our friends at M2W Essentials recently featured an interview with a marketer for Jack Daniel’s about that brand’s newfound interest in its women consumers. It is good news when mainstream, premium brands recognize the importance of women consumers, and while I briefly wondered why a brand that decades ago penetrated emerging markets like Turkey had just now recognized the value in more than half of the US. marketplace, I was pleased. Businesses like VibrantNation.com need advertisers like Jack Daniel’s!

But what really struck me in this interview was a single phrase in the following sentence:

“Advertising [for Jack Daniel's] has been delivered via male-targeted vehicles…. As a result, Jack Daniel’s marketing activities to women have been limited to those females who participate in these lifestyle events. What is important, is that when marketing to women, we develop advertising, programs and drink strategies that are not only relevant to women and true to the brand’s core values, but do not alienate our male consumer franchise.” [My emphasis added. Click here to see the entire interview.] 

Let me say, first of all, that I understand the world of brand marketing enough to know that no brand should promote an ad that offends its core consumers. But if the advertising is done well (and as this brand manager says, in a manner that is “relevant to women and true to the brand’s core values”), is it possible that it could alienate men?

Not likely.

I know no evidence that good marketing to an important demographic (this interview states that women are responsible for 21% of the U.S. consumption of Jack Daniel’s, which probably undervalues the role they play in making household decisions to purchase this expensive brand) will alienate the core consumer. In fact, it seems more likely that advertising to women in a manner that conveys fear of “alienating” men will not work.

How do you feel about a friend whose “embrace” of you is always conditioned by his or her fear that showing excessive attention to you might “alienate” others? Does this work for marketing to LGBT consumers? To Latino consumers? Why should it work for women?

There are two answers to the fear that marketing to an important subset of your market might affect your relevance with others.

The first (and this is obviously self-serving): market where the subset goes but not others. Venues like VibrantNation.com can offer a place to speak to women in a manner that is authentic to your brand but does not impact messages delivered elsewhere.

The second answer is even more important. Why do marketers think that advertising to women that is relevant to both women and the brand’s core values could possibly alienate male consumers?

Do marketers think that their male consumers have no women in their lives? No wives, mothers, daughters, sisters, female friends? Do they think their male consumers are alienated by these women’s values? These men do have women who matter to them, and they understand that a brand that speaks to those women in a manner that is “relevant and…true to the brand’s core values” is doing the right thing.

For all I know, Jack Daniel’s has marketing plans that will succeed beautifully with women. Given what women–and especially Boomer women–are used to from marketers, it would be hard to fail. But the brands that will really succeed with women will be the brands that embrace women proudly.

Conclusion

In corporate America, women still report being relegated to minority status, limited in numbers and assigned disproportionately to “women’s” tasks like…marketing to women. These companies (or their male leaders) may themselves believe that paying “too much” respect to women may alienate their male colleagues. But companies that embrace women without that fear do better in our diverse culture. So do brands.