12
No advertising love for single women
A screen shot from a Lowe's commercial shows a single woman with her to-do list.
To view this content, Javascript must be enabled and Adobe Flash Player must be installed.
TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: The Census Bureau says women control something like 80 percent of all the household spending in this country. Retailers and marketers being fairly quick on the uptake, they have geared a healthy proportion of the ads we all see to women. Ads that are pretty heavy on images of motherhood, family and happy couples. Unless, of course, they are cat food commercials, which seem to be almost entirely the province of the single woman.
Thing is, more women are single now -- getting married later, if at all, or becoming single again later in life. Ashley Milne-Tyte would sure like to know why more marketers haven't caught on to that.
ASHLEY MILNE-TYTE: I was watching TV the other night when this Lowe's commercial came on. It shows a bubbly, 30-something woman in her gleaming new home... alone. No handsome husband or adorable kids in sight. She's discussing her to-do list.
LOWE'S AD: Somehow, updating the bathroom, it just hasn't gotten crossed off. I'm a grown woman, and I was scared of my own bathroom. Until I went...
OK, I won't admit to being scared of my bathroom. But I will admit to enjoying the ad. I felt a little glow of pleasure at the thought of that woman happily laying tiles and spreading grout. So how did a cynic like me get gooey over a home improvement commercial?
Melanie Notkin says I finally felt included. She's CEO of SavvyAuntie.com, a Web site for women who don't have children.
MELANIE NOTKIN: America seems to talk to all grown-ups as we're part of an intimate family of a mom, a dad and kids. Single people tend not to be spoken to or tend not to be part of the conversation.
Notkin says most advertisers actually have no idea how to talk to single women.
NOTKIN: When they want the visceral feeling to be happiness, they're going to show what we qualify as a happy lifestyle, which is family. And people often assume that women who are not married are terribly unhappy.
That's what was nice about the Lowe's commercial. The woman was excited about her home, happy and independent. Given how many single women there are, I wondered why so few ads are aimed at us -- 44 percent of women over 18 are single, 2 percent more than 10 years ago.
Tracy Chapman directs strategic planning at consultancy firm Just Ask A Woman. She says advertisers want to pitch their products to a broad audience without offending anyone.
TRACY CHAPMAN: They need to justify why they would go after this specific target. I think they want to reach as many women as possible with the amount of money that they have.
But ad industry veteran Stephanie Holland says that's misguided. She's executive creative director at Holland and Holland Advertising. She says instead of going for one-size-fits-all, advertisers need to target different types of women or they're wasting their money. So why don't they? Because, Holland says, so many decision makers at brands and ad agencies are men.
STEPHANIE HOLLAND: Men have a difficult time distinguishing even among moms, much less coming in and understanding the single female.
She says marketers are missing a big opportunity to target people like me. She says they just need to work on making that connection.
HOLLAND: An understanding of where you are in life as well as tons of other people as single women, and making you feel good about it. And that's what's gonna make you feel good about the product.
Take this upbeat approach from Chevrolet. A young woman, fresh from a first date, is picked up by a friend who whisks her away in a bright red Chevy Malibu. They hit the open road.
CHEVROLET AD: He said he was a professional student. No! Of life. Oh, I'm so sorry. Single lane ahead. I'll be in that lane.
In other words, girlfriends rule. At least for now.
I'm Ashley Milne-Tyte for Marketplace.
Pages
I went to the home depot the other day because I was looking to <a href="http://www.wholesalekitchencabinetsandvanities.com">buy kitchen cabinets</a> for my new home. And as I was on my way out, I was approached by someone asking me to take a survey for the upcoming election. It seems to me that at least they are trying to understand the voters.
Business advertising firms are not the only people missing out when it comes to factoring in this category of consumers. Politicians could stand to get the message as well. Even progressive politicians cater their messages towards "the American family" with little notice of the millions of single adults who also care about our country and may very well be registered to vote.
The increase in the proportion of non-married women to married women over age 18 during the last decade is not necessarily surprising...
But to what do any recent studies/surveys attribute this increase?
Do a greater number PREFER to remain single, as a lifestyle? And to what proportion is this choice ENABLED by increased economic independence?
I'm encouraged. Maybe someday they'll even refer to us as "women" not "girls." It seems the words "woman" and "women" stick in men's throats. To many of them, including the men who write the cop shows on TV, whether a female is 4, 14, 44 or 64, she's still a "girl" to them. Maybe directing advertising to single "women" will change that. I can only hope.
Here is a great clip on this subject, it speaks for itself.
http://www.theonion.com/video/stouffers-to-include-suicide-prevention-ti...
The single consumer is a huge and underserved market segment. www.singleedition.com has been addressing this issue and the real life needs of singles, beyond just dating, for several years now. Check it out.
Great Marketplace story. It really addressed an issue that needed to be addressed. I am one of those persons who feels left out when it comes to the way that TV commercials as well as TV shows and even radio commercials and shows, just do not address me. When commercials depict women (whom are apparently single and without kids) driving cars or doing anything adventurous, there is an implication that the female driving a car or doing anything adventurous is trying to attract a man or may not be married yet but is dating and not trying to stay single. I think that that stereotype is presumed to be the only one opposite to a married mother ( as a married mother is commonly depicted in TV commercials). How about women whom carry out their lives doing things and buying things and experiencing things without there being any "purpose" whatsoever of dressing up, driving a fancy vehicle, being stylish, or getting attention insome other way so as to attract a man? People whom think up commercials have to realize that it is best to sell an item or service without preference toward certain demographic groups. The worthwhileness of the product or service has to appeal to everyone. Making some product or service that is useful to anyone seem to be especially, or only, for mothers and/or wives makes for a certain disenfranchisement from spouse-free and childfree individuals whom also have money to spend and whom would like to be thought of as important.
As I heard the story, I had to laugh to myself because I saw those two commercials and wondered why no one had advertised to me in all those years. Although I am recently married, I spent many successful years on my own, and I continue to have female friends who are successful and single. If I had been advertised to all those years, I may have purchased the products geared toward me- a single, educated, successful woman. That's money lost for those who continue to be behind in the times.
Pages
