Pink Pitfalls Are Hazardous To Your Brand’s Health

“Heelllooo! Are you down there? Did your brand fall into a pink pitfall? Not to worry, we’re sending help!”

It happens more often than you think, or perhaps more often than it should, but brands falling into pink pitfalls is definitely a thing when targeting a female audience. Brands want to market with women because they make or influence 85% of all purchasing decisions. But avoiding pink pitfalls needs to be part of the plan.

What’s a Pink Pitfall, and how do you avoid it?

Pink Pitfall  

Making a product pink and labelling it, “made for a woman.”  It’s not that women don’t like pink, because many do. (Not me. I’m more of a winter color gal, but I digress.)  Choosing pink for a product color because you think it appeals more to women is patronizing and, frankly, a bit lazy. If your product is genuinely ‘made for women,’ explain why without relying on tired stereotypes, and you’ll earn their influence and loyalty.

Pink Pitfall

Expecting authentic responses from women in formal research settings. Women are more comfortable in casual environments, so if you’re investing in qualitative research (and you should), start by moving away from traditional focus group models. Casual, women-only settings will deliver what we call gold nugget insights that become the foundation of brand architectures and campaigns that resonate with women.

Pink Pitfall

A Pink Tax. Adding a Pink Tax to the cost of your product is one of the worst things you can do when marketing with women. What’s a Pink Tax? A product is more expensive because it’s allegedly ‘made for a woman’, but it doesn’t have any differentiating product features when compared to the ‘made-for-a-man’ product. Women won’t tolerate paying more for products that are only tailor-marketed to them, rather than tailor-made. Just don’t do it. It’s infuriating, and you’ll feel the backlash on your bottom line.

Pink Pitfall

Marketing to women. I intentionally use the term ‘marketing with women,’ not ‘marketing to women,’ even though AI constantly tries to autocorrect it. This isn’t just about semantics. Women want to be part of your brand’s community, and engagement will help make this happen. Engagement is the ‘with’ in ‘marketing with women.’ If you engage with her at every point of contact, from research to outreach, you’ll create meaningful relationships, which will win her buying power.

Pink Pitfall

Empowerment. I’m not suggesting that striving to empower women to feel good about their authentic selves is a misstep. I’m saying that empowerment shouldn’t be a marketing tool; it should be a brand vision. If your brand isn’t authentic in its approach to empowering women, they’ll see through it, and that’s deadly for your brand.

Whether you’ve tumbled into a pink pitfall (Heelllooo!) or want to avoid one, give us a shout; we can help! www.herbrandconsulting.com