Marketing Australia – February-March 2019

marketingmag.com.au

92 ANNE MILES

MARKETING 2019

we’re overcooking it – taking away
the rights of some men in the
process.
We’re allowing men’s stereotypes
of irresponsibility or incapability
in the home to get away from us.
It seems like the creative work
is doubly wrong – fi rst, being
off-strategy with the wrong audience
in mind, and second, the creative
produced isn’t driving purchase
behaviour with the audience it is
meant to be reaching. An ironic twist.

Truth versus lies

Holden Acadia recently released
an embarrassing diversity misfi re
targeting men and depicting
women as trophies – always in
the background as if props to a
dominant man. In other words it was
marketing to men at the expense
of women. There’s nothing wrong
with marketing to one gender, but
there are plenty of ways to depict
masculine power without pulling
down women in the process. Worst
of all, this campaign is perpetuating
bias into a new generation with its
aggressive and selfi sh 12-year-old,
taking up the whole back seat,
clearly with more privilege than
the girls pushed to the dicky-seats
in the boot. The men are strutting
toward the camera, backed by their
bold anthem, with the girls dripping
off their arms superfi cially. This
is a customer lie, with misguided
creative slipping through the agency
and marketing team.

In contrast, ‘Is it OK for guys...’,

a campaign from US deodorant

brand Axe is celebrating masculinity

in a positive way, giving men a

powerful voice and new confi dence

without putting anyone down at

all. Bravo to Axe for moving bravely

away from its past (ironically highly

successful) strategy of depicting

males as conquerors of females.

Despite research telling Axe that

men loved this previous approach,

and with sales results to validate

it, one brave marketer believed

there would be something even

more successful out there. Despite

the temptation to cut and paste

the previous brief, Axe dug deeper

into its customer base to fi nd that

while men think they are expected

to behave in a certain way, they

may not want to. Second, those in

the female market, as the major

purchase infl uencers, don’t value

those macho traits at all. Insight

paired with bravery helped come

up with something even more

successful and more truthfully

representative of the customer.

The customer lie goes

both ways

Look at Westinghouse’s campaign

for its ‘Really Clever’ induction

cooktop. This brand is clearly in ‘cut

and paste’ mode. The traditional

nuclear families depicted are

a minority of the audience, an

outdated market segment. Census

2016 data shows only 30.3 percent

of total households in Australia are

‘couples with children’ and only

16.6 percent are ‘couples with

young children’. Why on earth are

we still marketing to the wrong

customers? Worse still, this

campaign is in diversity oversteer

with the man a bumbling fool in the

garage, while Mum artfully manages

all the family and household issues

single-handedly. That’s a lot of

customer lies right there, with

Westinghouse missing the mark in

many ways, risking serious brand

damage as a result.

By contrast, a recent Audi

campaign does a wonderful job

celebrating new laws in Saudi

Arabia that allow women to drive

for the fi rst time. This is a healthy

depiction, empowering one gender

without putting down the other. The

story unfolds with a man opening

a number of doors for his wife in

their massive home, yet when she

reaches their car she takes control

of the door handle fi rst. It is evident

she will now be driving, and he’ll

be the passenger. The husband’s

subtle talent performance is what

makes this work so well, with him

comfortably allowing her an equal

place beside him. There are no

ridiculous pulled faces or quirky

comedic twists dumbing him

down. The woman drives on with

confi dence. The truth is male and

female customers want to be

equals, and this Audi spot does the

job so well.