Interesting article a few weeks ago in the intrepid New York Times ... I found the info both empowering and disappointing.The article, Woman to Woman, Online, written by Claire Cain Miller, is about the booming presence of women's websites and blogs, and how advertisers are wisely jumping aboard the broad-bandwagon to market to America's best little shoppers (that's us!).
According to the article, sites targeting women － from mommy blogs to fashion sites － grew 35% last year, faster than every other category except politics. This July, women's sites had 84 million visitors, 27% more than last July. Following suit (or skirt, as the case may be), advertisers this May placed 4.4 billion (yes, with a *b*) display ads on women's sites.
They've figured out what we've known for generations: Moms are the household decision-makers as far as purchasing power － we represent over half of the population and almost all of the buying.
So what about men? We all know how they need their screen time, right? But, according to the article, though men are heavy Web users, they don't tend to visit man-centric sites. For example, AOL's Living channel for women had 16.1 million unique visitors this June, while its Asylum website for men (gotta love just the name polarization － Living vs. Asylum! Well, at least they're not pigeonholing us, right, girls?) had a mere 3.3 million.
The pundits hypothesize that women are attracted to women's sites because － newsflash － we love to share, connect and chat. Men, not so much.
But advertisers aren't flocking to just any online gaggles; they want tried-and-true shallow-end topics like beauty, celebrities and love life. Why? Because, ladies, those are apparently the topics we trend toward, too. Sadly, women's sites concentrated on deeper issues like politics can't glean enough of an audience to garner ad attention.
Yahoo's girly section, Shine, for example, originally vowed to cover current events and avoid the stereotypical sex and diet tips fare ... but since its debut just six months ago, Shine has already had to refocus its content in order to stay afloat. Today, among its five most popular stories is "Top 5 Hollywood Mom Countdown" and "Can you be married to a wonderful man and still cheat?"
Are women finally being acknowledged as powerful, only to use our power to get the latest on Botox and Britney??
Just call them women's web*SIGH*ts.
1 comment:
To disappoint and to empower--The Times' greatest goal and greatest folly?
As a business owner, I have been reading up on marketing to women, which is completely different from marketing to men; the same methods are being used in most advertising and marketing that were developed to appeal to men in the 1930s. These days, as you noted, women make the majority of the buying decisions. I am having fun switching over from the old way to the new: marketing to women is more about telling stories, relating, sharing, comforting, engaging, visiting, communicating... and shopping!
I have scratched my head for years over the eyebrow-raising headlines on women's magazines, all about orgasms, pleasing your man, weight-loss, pleasing your man, gossip, and of course, pleaseing your man.
While I enjoy celebrity gossip just for its fluff factor and I do love clothes and shopping, it makes me wonder if we really have come a long way, baby. For those in the dark, that was an ad campaign in the 1970s for a woman's cigarette. (Steve Martin quipped, "What, does it have little breasts on it?") "You've come a long way, baby, to get where you've got to today!" From their nicotine-stained lips to God's ears!
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