Marketing to Women

GET THEIR ATTENTION: TELL YOUR AUDIENCE A STORY

"For people in the 50-plus group stories are an absolutely essential means of processing the events of their life. Unlike younger people, they have lived a story – and so they view all of life from a storytelling perspective."

— David B. Wolfe,
marketing consultant specializing in consumer behavior

Gert Boyle is mother to son Tim.

She's also the CEO of Columbia Sportswear.

One day she is discovered walking quickly down the hall to a company conference room. Standing in the door where son Tim is at the white board conducting a meeting, Gert puts something to her mouth. Using a primitive blow gun, Gert shoots Tim in the neck with a dart.

Tim falls unconscious to the floor.

The next thing you see is red parka-clad Tim lying on his back in snow at the top of a mountain. Pinned to his chest is a map with the words "You are here X" on it.

Just then a yellow helicopter lifts off and flies away with Gert at the controls.

A few seconds later, Tim's bright red parka reappears with the words "Tested Tough" across the front.

If you are lucky, you've seen this wonderful commercial on TV. It's part of the Tough Mother campaign for Columbia Sportswear.

And it's an excellent example of the power of storytelling to build and sustain a brand.

WHO TELLS GOOD STORIES?

Marketing to women expert Michele Miller comments on the importance of telling a brand story in her article, "Telling a Good Story," which was posted to the Inc.com website on May 1, 2007.

Miller writes, "You may have the greatest company in the world. But if you don't know how to convey that to customers, you may as well not exist.

"Every entrepreneur believes his or her business is remarkable. As I work with clients to uncover and determine brand strategies, they're always very eager to tell me about how special their business is. Most of the time, I reply by saying, 'You're right. You definitely have something unique to offer, and have a good operations system in place to deliver what you promise to customers.'

"'Then why,' they ask, 'are we struggling just to stay even, let alone grow?'

"'Perhaps,' I respond, 'you're not telling a good enough story.'

"When it comes to marketing your business in a powerful and meaningful way, you need to give serious thought to that which makes you stand out in a way no one else can – your brand story. Consider some of the most successful marketers in the small-business landscape today, and check out the stories they’re telling:

"The J. Peterman Company. Yes, there really is a J. Peterman, and the reason behind the clothing company's success can be found in a quote from J. Peterman himself. 'People want things that are hard to find. Things that have romance, but a factual romance, about them.' You're not buying an ordinary polka-dot skirt – you're strutting down the Boulevard St-Germain in Paris. The man's Estancia shirt tells a tale of wealth and polo ponies in Argentina. J. Peterman weaves a tale around each and every piece of clothing that is very compelling. Customers aren't purchasing outerwear; they're buying into a dream of adventure.

"Columbia Sportswear. In the mid-1970s, Columbia CEO Gert Boyle knew it was time for a change in marketing. 'I always thought our advertising was kind of weird, with the "engineered" and all that. Because the average person doesn't care anything about having something engineered. People care about having it fit well.' That was the beginning of Columbia's 'Tough Mother' campaign. Customers are convinced of the sturdiness of Columbia clothing, not only because of engineering, but Gert's stories about what she herself puts a piece of clothing through before selling it to the public. And what better guinea pig than her son Tim? Their most famous ad showed Tim (now the company's CEO) submitting to a run through the car wash to test a Columbia parka, at his mother's behest. Today, Columbia Sportswear is a $1.2 billion company. [Editor's note: You can view the "Tough Love" commercial described at the beginning of this article at YouTube.]  

"One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning. What is the biggest complaint about repair people? You have to wait around for hours and they're always late (that is, if they even show up). One Hour Heating and Air Conditioning took that bad rap and turned it on its ear. They don't market themselves as having 'timely service.' They actually guarantee 'Always On Time or You Don't Pay a Dime.' And they mean it. If the repairperson is not there within an hour of your appointed time, you pay nothing. Quite a powerful story, and One Hour can do it, because they have the operations system in place to back up their guarantee. It is now one of the fastest-growing franchises in the United States today." [Editor’s note: You can view One Hour Heating's "Free Furnace" commercial on YouTube.]

MICHELE MILLER'S STORYTELLING ADVICE

"If you had to tell your story, what would it be? Would it have the right balance of fantasy, whimsy and fact? When creating your story, remember to:

"Be authentic. The examples above are success stories because they draw from the 'heart' of the company – J. Peterman's love for storytelling, Gert Boyle's tough nature, and One Hour's commitment to saving the customer time. Anyone can make up a story, but the customer's innate sense of authenticity is what transforms a story into a brand message. Spend a good deal of time looking back at your history and personal values in determining why you're even in the business you're in. What's your passion, and how can you tell customers about it?

"Be consistent. It's not enough just to tell a story; you must live it everyday through everything you do. I've written about the fact that every touch point of your business is a marketing opportunity. Columbia Sportswear wouldn't be the success it is today if the company talked about toughness, and then the zippers on their parkas disintegrated after a week. One Hour knew it had to have its operations structure in place to deliver on its promise of timeliness. From message to delivery to customer service, every element of your company has to align with your story.

"The companies we call 'super brands' use their unique (and sometimes personal) story to connect with customers in a way that makes them feel special; customers feel that they're in-the-know about who the brand is and what it offers. Do your customers really know you?

"And does the message get reinforced in everything you do? You can tell, and deliver on, a good story, even on the smallest of marketing budgets. It's a remarkable marketing strategy for a remarkable business – yours."

Michele Miller's article is available on the Inc.com website.

You can learn more about marketing to women expert Michele Miller by visiting her website. Miller's "Notes on Marketing to Women" blog is available here.

ANDREA LEARNED ON STORYTELLING

The power of storytelling was the subject of the article by Andrea Learned, "Marketing via Stories: The Selling Power of Narrative in a Conceptual Age," which was posted to the MarketingProfs.com website on March 20, 2007.

Learned writes, "As A Whole New Mind author Daniel Pink puts it, we have entered a new era: a less linear and more whole-mind/holistic 'conceptual age.'

"As we live our personal lives with a better understanding of how interconnected everything is, our work as marketers should also be addressing that fact in the way consumers take in our messages.

"In this more full-service, conceptual age, storytelling – in its many forms – is one of the most powerful tools for presenting the truths of your product, service, or brand. Whether a story is about the internal/corporate experience or the customer's experience, it has the incredible ability to give context to the facts of daily life.

"These much richer narratives, in turn, help brands more emphatically interconnect with the buying minds of their customers. There is simply more for them to hold onto.

"Let's say your brand's laptop has amazing amounts of memory and incredible processing speed, and it's Wi-Fi ready and weighs less than a feather. That is all well and good, and makes for a nice bulleted list of features.

"However, what if you've got a customer (let's call her Nancy) who recently bought the laptop, and it has changed her life? What if she shares a bit about why she was looking for a new computer, how her life goes from home to work and back, the way the laptop has to fit into the bulk of other items she carries around with her, and so on?

"In the television or print ad campaign, we'd see a woman who might look a lot like someone in our car pool and hear her use a few key words that we know she got from her kids, just like us. We'd be more engaged with the product because we'd feel a little like we actually knew her.

"As marketers, we need to present universal truths with which our customers can more easily identify. Sharing the stories of our customers, employees, or related communities (people who benefit from our brand's philanthropy, for example) is how consumers discover those Truths with a capital 'T,' as screenwriter/Story author Robert McKee so aptly sums up:

"'Fact – no matter how minutely observed, is truth with a small 't.'
Big 'T' Truth is located above, beyond, inside and below the
surface of things, holding reality together or tearing it apart,
it cannot be directly observed.'
[Editor's note: There's more on Robert McKee in the sidebar]

"A marketer's goal is to deliver the capital T. Through story you can present the above, the around, the inside and the way beyond mere facts – making the specifications of your products and services significant and compelling."

HOW STORIES WORK FOR OTHER BRANDS

"Consider five ways story has worked for other brands:

"1. Context: Story gives facts context and delivers the whole package with emotional impact (every marketer's dream). For example: What is the context for a condominium development's selling points, especially when the core audience is young professionals? Check out this 'soap opera' [and click on the 'watch donovan life' link in the left margin] to see how real-to-life great location, gorgeous interiors, and fun neighbors can become.

"2. Common ground: Stories are slices of life that can subtly reflect bits and pieces of common ground between consumer and brand. Take Kleenex, for example: Most people give tissues little thought, since they consider it a basic household product to pick up at the grocery store. However, the fairly recent Kleenex Let It Out campaign gives tissue users shared emotional experiences (discussed on a blue couch in the middle of a city park).

"You feel as if you know those stories, and possibly those people, and so feel as if you share common ground with them and so 'fit' as a Kleenex brand customer.

"3. Brand intersections: In this more holistically thinking world, a consumer's buying path may be complex. Stories give you a way to show consumers that there are more places than they may have imagined where their lives and your brand intersect. The current ad campaign for Kashi natural food (cereal, granola bars, and more) shares the stories of its employees, for example. The consumer gets a view of the employee’s life (one guy is a surfer) and motivations for work. [Editor's note: You can view seven Kashi TV spots here.]

"4. Increased relevance: By paying more attention to the stories surrounding your brand and taking place in the daily lives of your customers, your marketing is naturally more prone to relevance. The story told quickly in a Ford (Bold Moves) ad for its Freestyle model demonstrates that the brand understands today's reality: Modern divorced families are figuring out how to continue to do family outings together.

"And in a fairly recent True Stories campaign, Hitachi's ads (and the more complete versions on its site) use video interviews to show how relevant Hitachi's connectivity technology is for a wide range of different organizations/customers.

"5. Future chapters: Start gathering and telling stories now and you will have those initial narrative threads to which you can always refer for continuity in messaging. Certainly, for the short-sighted, story could be just a one-time or occasional campaign-scale trick, but marketers with a clear long-term approach will reap the benefits of filling in the back story, presenting new chapters, and sharing follow-up spin-offs for years to come.

"Advertisers have indeed been using story to some degree for a while, but they have not been much concerned about weaving them in and around their customers for more effect. Things need to change.

"In a world of abundant commoditized choice, the traditional linear methods of brand differentiation are becoming less effective. Storytelling, done well, offers many more forms of persuasion – highlighting the common ground and finding the key intersections for brand and consumer.

"One final suggestion: Don't treat storytelling as a contained project with beginning, middle, and end. That's the information age whispering in your ear. Rather, start looking for the stories and prepare the way before you need the consumer's attention. That's the conceptual age talking."

Marketing to women experts agree that storytelling is the most effective approach to writing copy if you want to connect with today's busy women.

DIVINE CAROLINE

Want to try your hand at storytelling?

Are you interested in learning how women tell stories?

Or, are you looking for a place where you can work on improving your storytelling skills?

There's a unique women's website dedicated to storytelling. It's divinecaroline.com and the company's tagline says it all: "Life in your words."

The purpose of this website is to give women a place to come together and express themselves. Women – and men – are invited to join. Membership is free. As a member, you are invited to submit as many stories as you like…the subject matter is almost unlimited. And you can read the stories written by other women.

You can learn more about the divinecaroline website here.

It's an excellent resource if you are contemplating a marketing to women strategy for your bank.

MARKETING TO WOMEN HELP

If you're not comfortable with developing a marketing to women strategy for your bank, everything you need to know can be found in three, easy-to-read books.

By reading both the first and second editions of Marti Barletta’s book, Marketing to Women - How to Understand, Reach, and Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market Segment, you will be equipped to develop a marketing strategy that will resonate with women – including PrimeTime Women.

In her second edition, Barletta chose ACTON Marketing's creative work as a case study in Chapter 7, under the subhead "Communications Elements." You'll find the case study on pages 141-147.

Marti Barletta's third book is PrimeTime Women: How to Win the Hearts, Minds, and Business of Boomer Big Spenders.

All three books are currently available in hardcover at Amazon.