Why does marketing to women so often fail?

Since entering the 21st century, the rise of female power has been seen by more and more people, naturally including businesses and capital. However, many brands that wanted to please women ended up failing and causing discomfort.

Recently, I put together a table of women's topics and women's marketing- related events that appeared in the Chinese market in the first half of 2021, and found something particularly interesting:

When it comes to mass culture consumption, women’s likes and dislikes are a mystery.

For example, in TV series that are popular with female audiences, the protagonists may not necessarily be female.

For example, the mother-daughter relationship in the Spring Festival movie "Hello, Li Huanying" made Jia Ling the highest-grossing female director in the world; the TV series "The Imperial Coroner", which became a hit not long ago, focused on the heroine's "passing the civil service exam", and the two female screenwriters also attracted attention; the male hero drama "Loki" directed by overseas director Kate Herron won a Douban and IMDb score of 9.3 as soon as it was released... However, programs such as "Sisters Riding the Wind and Waves 2" and "Listen to Sisters", which focus on creating female concepts, only received an embarrassing Douban score of around 5 points.

For example, whether the appearance conforms to male aesthetics is not the key factor that causes public opinion conflict.

Many brands that advocate women to break the "white, thin and young" aesthetic have made good marketing cases. The underwear brand "Neiwai" has a great reputation for its "no boby is no body" campaign. Victoria's Secret, which has always advocated sexiness, also invited women from various fields to shoot the main visual. However, this does not mean that things that conform to male aesthetics cannot be done. The fair, thin and beautiful heroine in the TV series "Sito" also gained a lot of favor because she was loved by female fans; the internet blogger who claimed that "wearing Lolita/jk uniforms/Hanfu is flattering men" was strongly opposed by many women.

And there is more. Hiring a female spokesperson may not necessarily please female consumers, but removing a female spokesperson will definitely offend female consumers. Those who understand will understand the controversy over the endorsement of a female talk show actor. A male actor can become "June's girlfriend" (the male protagonist in "The Day I Became You"), but a female star who sells the persona of a "big boss in the lesbian circle" is called "greasy"...

Readers may be confused after reading this. Women are so difficult to please! ! How can we satisfy women?

The frequent failures of "her marketing" reflect the fact that after the gradual awakening of women's consciousness, there is a high level of attention paid to women's topics. Capital's sense of smell is often the most sensitive, but due to the lack of theory and methods, the female group can only express themselves emotionally when they feel uncomfortable or offended.

This has also left many mass media, fast-moving consumer goods brands, and companies eager to penetrate the female market at a loss as to how to market to women and create female content.

In fact, these seemingly isolated cases all have one common feature: breaking the male gaze and calling for the female gaze.

1. Escape from the Golden Cage: Women who don’t want to be stared at

Before thinking about "what women really want", we must first answer a question: what women don't want.

• Women do not want the single aesthetic of "must be sexy, submissive and obedient/white, thin and beautiful". Many actresses, including Scarlett Johansson, are trying to tear off the label of over-sexualization of female roles;
• Women do not want to be “dispensable tools” and hope to see female characters in TV series and movies who can take on the role of indispensable figures that drive the development of the plot;
• Women don’t want “female competition”, but many female-themed dramas always like to sell melodramatic plots such as mother-in-law and daughter-in-law conflicts, fake sisters, and fights between the wife and the mistress…

For a long time, the above phenomenon has been the main form of media content constructed by the male gaze.

The term "male gaze" was coined by film critic Laura Mulvey in Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema (1975) to refer to viewing women and the world through the male lens and perspective. In the male gaze, women’s feelings, thoughts and self are unimportant and serve only for male viewing.

An intuitive criterion is that removing female characters from a film would not significantly affect the plot. With the increase in various screens such as televisions, computers, and smartphones, the "male gaze" has also moved from the big screen to popular culture. The screen, as a visual carrier, has become a "golden cage" created by men for women.

The feeling of being stared at is uncomfortable. For example, heterosexual men are unwilling to look at the naked body of other men, and women are naturally becoming increasingly dissatisfied with this male-centered, single gaze.

If movies, TV dramas and brand marketing still convey the same male gaze to women as in the last century, then it is absolutely not unfair that they failed.

2. The Elephant's Escape: A History of Women's Media Exploration

There is a story that if a baby elephant is locked up from childhood and cannot break free from the chains, then even if it grows up to be a big elephant, it will think that it "cannot break free".

Mass media reflects the dominant social values ​​of a society. When it is under the male gaze for a long time, once women try to establish their own media, it is not achieved overnight, but rather a struggle and exploration to get rid of the "inner demons".

By the late 19th century, suffragists had recognized that a necessary condition for winning the right to vote for women was to make their voices heard. Breaking the image of women shaped by the media under the male gaze was an important direction in the 1960s and 1970s.

The door of the golden cage was pried open, but because male norms had become the only and absolute norms at the time, women would unconsciously use male discourse when filming film and television works and telling stories.

For example, China has a very strong lineup of female directors. According to statistics, there are dozens of female directors who have directed more than two films and are still creating. However, for a long time before, there was no obvious gender difference between the works of female directors and those of male directors in terms of subject matter, story, and camera language.

Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman in Oscar history to win the Best Director Award, won the award for her work "The Hurt Locker," a bloody, heroic, masculine war film.

At this stage, "being the same as men" is a mainstream choice for female creators.

Well, at the moment, we will find that more and more women are beginning to express strong feminine attitudes, eager to show a different side from the male perspective. What gives women the power to make a difference?

The most critical reason may be that the medium has changed.

On the one hand, the medium has changed. Changes in digital technology and media forms have forced traditional media production models to change accordingly. Cinemas have become ubiquitous, and the threshold for women's creations has also been lowered.

In addition to female directors, the film and television industry has many female producers, photographers, and screenwriters, all of whom provide new options for creating new story structures and expressions for films. No longer relying solely on a single system that is more male-friendly and built on huge investments, we can express ourselves more diversely and fully.

In addition, the form of media output has changed. The "IP-style" integration of books, comics, movies, audiovisuals and games has become the mainstream trend of the cultural industry in the context of the Internet, forcing the transformation of traditional industrial models.

In recent years, many film and television dramas and games are derivative works created by female authors, female cartoonists, etc. Only by understanding the connotation of the story can the value of the IP be maximized, which further promotes women's participation and voice in the film and television drama industry.

More importantly, the relationship between media and audience has also changed. The audience's active search and viewing determine the success or failure of content products. Users can also participate in the production and dissemination of content through remote controls, progress bars, barrages, creative editing, etc. At this time, the one-way output and condescending characteristics of the traditional film and television industry disappear.

The real-time online nature of social networks has also prompted people to talk and spread the word after watching a movie, whether it is writing about the movie or liking and rating it. Women who prefer to communicate and share have become the key to the success of a film or television series and commercial marketing planning. Content with a female gaze can naturally narrow the psychological distance with female audiences more easily and gain more recognition and commercial value.

It is the transformation of technology and media that has opened the world’s once closed arms to the female gaze.

3. Open another window and how to develop popular culture under the female gaze?

How will the female gaze reconstruct the relationship between media and audience? This is something that creators need to rethink. It can be discussed from three perspectives:

1. How do women view themselves?

As mentioned earlier, the female gaze is a completely new perspective that is different from the male gaze, has female gender awareness, and is questioning the patriarchal discourse system. Therefore, helping women break the stereotyped female image created by the media in the past and telling stories other than sexiness that are ignored by the male gaze will gain considerable favor.

For example, in recent years, romantic love comedies (also known as chick flicks) produced by men always focus on romance and love, and are difficult to sell well. If the heroine only pursues love, she will be ridiculed as "love-brained". On the contrary, works that emphasize women's professionalism and professionalism will be praised.

In the live-action Star Wars TV series directed by a female director, the female character O'Meara subverts the stereotype of the perfect wife. She is generous, enthusiastic, and quiet, but can also shoot and fight. She has a three-dimensional and complex personality. Paying attention to the plight of women is also a way to distinguish ourselves from the male gaze. The films of female director Akerman focus on the constraints that family imposes on women. A Chinese actress has gained extremely positive reputation among the female community for playing the role of a woman who is victims of domestic violence.

2. How do women view men?

Frankly speaking, under the male gaze, it doesn’t matter at all how women view men. What’s interesting is that when the perspective is reversed and under the female gaze, men become less important.

It’s okay to break stereotypes and go against male norms. For example, in the movie "The Piano Lesson", which is known as the "origin of female gaze", Ada McGrath betrayed her newlywed husband Stuart and fell in love with her neighbor George Baines through the piano.

The male presence changes from active to passive, which can better satisfy the pleasure of female audiences. For example, letting men be watched, showing their exposed bodies, instead of actively driving the plot; or letting male characters serve as the motivation for the heroine, staging the "beauty saves the hero" drama. This can be seen from my Di's princess series in the past two years. The princesses have begun to change from passively waiting for the prince to actively pursuing explorers.

Many successful marketing cases in the past two years have been driven by the fan economy under the female gaze. The most typical feature is that this generation of fans only want to be "mom fans" and "career fans", and most of them are "wall-sitters" (referring to being fans of several stars at the same time). The ever-changing "top streamers" and the unwavering female fan base have long become the wealth code for new consumption.

3. How do women view relationships with other women?

"It is only natural for women to protect other women." Not long ago, this sentence made the low-cost costume drama "The Imperial Coroner" gain a lot of attention on social media, and the female screenwriter team behind it also attracted widespread attention.

Unlike the male gaze, which often sees women being forced to compete with each other in "pulling hair", the female gaze often emphasizes the intimacy between women. In the movie "Wolfwalkers", the two little girls, Mando and Omera, use their friendship to drive the plot. The girls are not deliberately compared or competed by the creators, and the audience is not suggested that one is better than the other.

The female gaze conveys a more tolerant message and is more inclined to support women. For example, the female creators of the Earth Journey YouTube channel were surprised to find many young female scientists on board the research vessel Weatherbird II, and realized that they could highlight the work of women in science and technology.

Exploring another possibility of female relationships is a highlight that can be considered and grasped in female marketing.

In general, popular culture under the female gaze is an observation of another worldview. Today, works featuring the female gaze are still the exception and the minority, but in the future, they can become the norm. It is not only a trend, but also another window into the world that is in a state of irreversible change.

From this perspective, providing support and tools to break old patterns and offering opportunities and possibilities to create new options are the two constant sources of inspiration for women's marketing.

Author: Brain Pole

Source: Brain Pole