Yeah, I guess technically I am a ‘soccer mom.’ I'm a mom, and my oldest son plays soccer. But does that phrase conclusively define who I am, and what I want to buy? Hardly.
I recently chatted with Michele Miller and Holly Buchanan, authors of the new book “The Soccer Mom Myth,” about what marketers are doing right and wrong in their efforts to connect with women. Miller is a partner in the Wizards of Ads marketing firm; Buchanan is a senior persuasion architect at Future Now Inc.
VIVEIROS: Has the term ‘soccer mom’ become a catchall for marketers when describing women?
MILLER: Definitely. For so many companies, marketing to women doesn't work. They fall into that trap of thinking because someone matches a demographic [that person] will buy a certain way. We see it across the board in advertising, marketing and definitely politics. Pick up a newspaper and read about ‘security moms.’ It's an easy way out.
BUCHANAN: There's a TV show out now called ‘The Secret Life of a Soccer Mom’ where women who gave up a career to have kids get a chance to go back and pick up that career to see what their life would have been like. The backlash against the show has been amazing. They're pitting stay-at-home moms against working moms. Look at comments about the show and you can see just how widely varied these women's priorities and lives are. They are such a broad, diverse group. To think they all live the same way is crazy.
VIVEIROS: Why is it so difficult for marketers to speak to women?
BUCHANAN: Marketers still think of women as a niche. They don't understand, so they look to a stereotype to try and label them. For that matter, they still believe all Latinos and African Americans think alike. They don't understand how diverse this ‘niche’ is.
MILLER: It's also generational. Women who might have been defined as being a ‘soccer mom’ 15 or 20 years ago are very different in our culture today. Take Latinos. You have some who immigrated here. Then the next generation was born here. They speak English and Spanish. They may have values from both societies which are very different from each other. Again, it varies by generation. Women are very different at the age of 30 today than they were years ago.
VIVEIROS: Do women respond to Web sites differently from men?
BUCHANAN: Yes. The University of Glasgow in Scotland did a study and found that women responded better to sites designed by women and men responded better to sites designed by men. I think we're designing sites and writing copy that we personally like. The creator's bias is still making its way into Web sites. The other thing we see is that people think women shop the same way online as they do offline. Research shows that's really not the case. They don't browse for hours. They really are task oriented.
VIVEIROS: What mistakes are Web designers making when marketing to women?
BUCHANAN: Marketers default to pink, thinking all women will love it. Women are polarized by the color pink. Some like it, some loathe it. I always say design with colors that represent your brand. If you're a bank or financial institution going for trust and solidarity, go with blues and grays. If you want to seem holistic and grounded, use earth tones and greens. Marketers also think women want these print-like wallpaper backgrounds, which make it nearly impossible to read the text. The sites are almost unusable.
VIVEIROS: Where do you like to shop?
BUCHANAN: I like sites that have a plain, simple design. Many are so cluttered they give me a headache.
MILLER: I shop on Apple all the time, and I'm on Netflix constantly because of the customer reviews. And it's easy to develop a relationship with sites like Zappos, because they think of convenience and the little details.
