In the last issue of she-news we explored the importance of appealing to women emotionally.
Here, in part two of the story, we look at three more ways to connect with your female audience.

If you are new to she-news, click here to review part one of the story.

Emotive Rapport Builder # 4:

Testimonials / Ambassador

One of the most common questions I am asked is ‘Amanda, should we hire a celebrity to represent our brand?’ The answer to this question depends on three key factors.

Firstly, is it the right celebrity? All too often, a celebrity ambassador is appointed to a brand simply because they are famous, not because they are a right fit for a brand.

I recently heard a story of a well known champion swimmer being appointed to represent a furniture company because one of the board members played golf with her. A quick review of our own social trend research on celebrities revealed that it was totally the wrong fit. Not only did the celebrity in question lack connection and resonance with the core target audience for the brand, her use of the products in question lacked believability.

To identify the right celebrity for your brand, it pays to invest some money up-front in research. Our Celebrity Finder research process can shortcut the process for you and give you objective recommendations on a celebrity ambassador and save you tens (or hundreds) of thousands of dollars.

Once you identify an appropriate celebrity ambassador for your brand, the next step is ensuring you have enough budget to fully leverage the partnership. There are plenty of organisations that have spent $100,000 on a celebrity ambassador to then realise that they don’t have enough money to tell everyone about it!

And thirdly, is the question of how best to use the celebrity. The most memorable and powerful celebrity campaigns aren’t those that simply have the celebrity’s smiling face plastered all over the product’s packaging, billboards and TV ads. Today’s savvy female shopper will see through a paid celebrity head any day of the week. Craft your own story by telling your audience something unique about the celebrity or showing them in a new light.

BT Financial have executed on this exceptionally with their ongoing celebrity campaign, which tells the insightful stories of several famous Australians and their investment strategies.

This is Elle McPherson as you’ve never seen her - and far more engaging and credible than a one-dimensional campaign with a cheesy picture of her grinning at us, with an obvious cash-for-comment endorsement of BT Financial.

Click here to request a presentation on Celebrity Finder™ research.

Emotive Rapport Builder # 5:

Who Not What

Think for a moment about what business you are in. Perhaps your brand markets kitchens. Perhaps you are responsible for marketing a pharmaceutical product. Or maybe you sell insurance. Whatever ‘business’ you are in, think about it in terms of a human emotion.

You see, if you are marketing kitchens, you are not in the kitchen business. You are in the ‘heart-of-the-home’ business. If you are marketing insurance, you are in the peace-of-mind business. Thinking about your brand in these terms provides a powerful platform to inject a more human side into your communications.

We recently took this a step further with our client, Clark Sinks. The campaign we have developed for them does not just focus on shiny silver sinks. It focuses on the messy, human, reality of what a kitchen sink represents – the very heart of mess-making, creating and cleaning.

This insight has given us a framework to talk to consumers in terms of ‘who’ not ‘what’, individualising the campaign further with a series of personal recipes.

Click here to request more case studies.

Emotive Rapport Builder # 6:

The Influencer – appealing indirectly to the female

Many brands have the challenge of how to appeal to females – an audience that may not purchase their product directly, but directly influence the purchase decision.

This dynamic exists more and more in industries such as home lending, insurance and subscription TV, where a gender analysis of the customer base may reveal a male-skewed audience, when in fact it is female-dominated once the ‘hidden’ female customers and the influence factor of women is taken into account.

One of the best examples of marketing indirectly to women is this campaign for Quicken - a simple, emotive message that clearly appeals to the primary purchaser of the product, even though she may not be the primary user.

Click here to request more case studies.

Click here to watch this advert.

You can now get a real time, up-to-the minute insight into women’s lives – what they think, want, desire and need. Understand what motivates them and why they make the decisions they do. Listen in as they talk, share and divulge their secrets in a natural, everyday environment – over drinks, at a dinner party, or an afternoon tea get together.

At each 60 minute Shevesdrop™ session, which is professionally filmed in a covert, unobtrusive way and streamed live*, we talk with women from one of four life stages.

Once you subscribe to Shevesdrop, you can watch each session up to three times allowing you to share Shevesdrop sessions with colleagues and engage in ideas generation. Each Shevesdrop episode also comes with a summary report, including analysis from our research team so you not only get the ‘what’, but also the all-important ‘what it means’.

Click here to learn more and view the upcoming Shevesdrop session schedule.

Click here to request an on-site Shevesdrop demonstration.

Travelling Light

Over the last decade there has been a significant increase in female travellers. From gen Y’s travelling the world to the 30-something businesswoman travelling between capital cities on a weekly basis, there are more females flying than ever before. Combine this with the love of all things ‘mini’ and you have a great brand that meets the need of any girl on the go who despises the thought of lugging all her cosmetics, creams, lotions and potions around. Ciao Bella is a brand that produces single shot packs of toiletries - shampoo, conditioner, cleanser, moisturiser and body wash, along with a range of funky travel accessories.

www.ciaobellatravel.com.au

An Experience to Remember

The Sky Grand Hotel in Auckland is an outstanding example of attention to detail. The service is phenomenal and each and every staff member has the ability and initiative to go the extra mile. Hotel manager Paul Huggins has built a customer service culture that rivals any six star international hotel. The Australian equivalent is the Sofitel Hotel in Melbourne.   

view the skygrand website
view the sofitel website

Best of Online M2W

Our recent report into women and the travel industry revealed that 27% of women believe the travel industry does not cater to the needs of women. No doubt the respondents hadn’t logged onto the Air New Zealand Holidays website recently. Their site is one of the best examples of online marketing to women we have seen in a long time. What makes the site so powerful is that Air New Zealand have realised that they are not in the travel business. They are not in the business of transporting customers to destinations or selling holidays. They are in the personal memory making business. The site reflects that in a perfectly engaging and interactive way.

view the air new zealand holidays website

Purchase the women and travel report for Australia
Purchase the women and travel report for New Zealand

Getting married is one of the most exciting and joyous times in a girl’s life. Apart from shopping for a wedding dress, flowers, reception venue, DJ, stationery (etc etc), it is a lifestage change that often puts other, seemingly non-related purchase decisions on the radar – joint bank account, mortgage, health insurance, home electronics and travel.

How unfortunate then that this insurance company chose to take what is often the most anticipated day and turn it into a girl’s worst nightmare in an effort to present themselves as the ‘saviour’.

Positively cringe-worthy.

(The headline reads 'We can't save your marriage, but we can save your wedding').