When marketing to females, brands tend to make these five assumptions. Have you?

1. Pink:

Was that your first instinct? To make a pink version for women? Don’t do it. We don’t all like pink. What’s more, many of us are quite annoyed by the assumption. I personally really dislike pink. Purple is a close second but purple is a bit more neutral. If you pick a color for a product do so by trends in the market or by some unique identifying factor for your brand.

2. Frilly:

When marketing to women some marketers tend to over embellish the ad or product in efforts to appeal to their most feminine inclinations. Remember, not all women are feminine and not all men are masculine. Embellishments are worth their ability to stand out in the crowd based on positioning or placement whether an ad or product. Make sure you don’t cross the line of cliche however. Making blanket assumptions about females is not going to garner loyalty unless your product is to sold only to girly girls who also happen to like frilly things. However, keep in mind that some of the girliest girls like understated elegance and not embellishment. Opt for class over the latter.

3. Small:

Don’t assume women are somehow automatically shorter, thinner, or have smaller hands and feet. More now than ever, women are athletes and come in all shapes and sizes. Do deeper research into the range of sizes of your demographic before assuming anything about it. Based on culture, region, ethnicity, and race as well as health habits, you may get a better idea of what sizes to choose. People are diverse, especially in countries with many cultures and races. Gender is not the only identifying factor of a person.

4. Preferences:

Don’t assume women like a specific type of clothing, a certain type of hairstyle, career/family aspirations, or sexual preference for that matter. Women are complex and their preferences as such lie on a vast spectrum of options. The clear assumption that we wear dresses, have long hair, are eager to start a family, and are heterosexual are an old and narrow way of defining women. Some women would rather have a career than be a homemaker, some don’t want children, and many are waiting longer than their mothers did to get married.

5. Cliche:

The preferences aspect goes further into messaging and it’s the grunt of annoying marketing we read. Marketing for women is riddled with cliches about how we need special treatment because we are weak and once a month we have no control over our emotions. Some marketing plays into the cliches of how much we need a strong man and how we are weak etc… Those are very fine lines that need to be walked on with care. Don’t make blanket assumptions about women, our periods or our strength. Focus instead on really learning more about your target market and knowing what makes them tick. The more you know the less you’ll tie cliches to your marketing messages.

If you focus on product benefits, on being neutral, on ensuring you are sensitive to the diversity of the female population and keeping it peaceful and positive, you will be safe. To add that punch of power do so by investing in tasteful graphics and poignant copywriting that takes all of these elements into consideration at every syllable.