Marketing to women is an art backed by science.  Science, or more specifically neuroscience, has given us a deep understanding of how human beings make decisions.  But getting to a new empowering solution for women is a true art.  More specifically there are four things we can all do to leverage the science and create fertile ground for the art.

1. Listen intently
   Neuroscience & psychology has told us that human beings mostly make decisions that are led by emotion.We need to listen carefully to what women are saying to understand what deep seated emotions are driving their decisions.And we need to listen to what they are not saying.We’ve probably all sat behind the glass of a thousand focus groups but at what point does it start to wash over us?We need to get closer to women.We need to talk to them ourselves.Or, even better, walk for a while in their shoes by taking a more ethnographic approach.
2. Beware ‘unconscious bias’
   We know that the brain likes to take the most effortless path. The brilliant thing about unconscious bias is that it helps us make quick decisions based on past experience without having to consciously rethink the decision every time.  However, the danger is that we don’t know it’s happening and it can perpetuate stereotypes.  For example, do we always cast women in the same kinds of roles without even thinking about it? 
3. Challenge convention
   Challenging convention isn’t easy!  Sometimes we need to allow ourselves to believe in the impossible.  Coming up with alternatives can take time.  And it will certainly take a leap of strategic thinking or of creativity.  And that is the art.
4. See with a woman’s eye
   The term the ‘male gaze’ refers to seeing women through the lens of a heterosexual male both literally and figuratively.  It doesn’t necessarily mean only hiring female directors but we should actively consider the new perspective that female directors can bring and seek out male directors who look further than just the physical appearance of their subjects.

Sport England's This Girl Can

At FCB Inferno, we work closely with a number of clients such as Sport England, UEFA, NIVEA, Holland & Barrett, Juvederm & Zumba to create work that is both powerful and empowering to women.

Sport England (the Government agency for grass roots sports participation) had identified a large and stubborn gender gap in activity levels. Two million fewer women than men were exercising regularly. 

Curiously, 75% of women said that they wanted to do more exercise; but they weren’t doing it.  Why?  A thorough analysis of Sport England’s research revealed something that no-one else had spotted.  Women were worried about being judged - on their ability, their appearance or how they prioritised their time.  ‘Fear of judgement’ was stopping them exercising.

We also went out and spoke to women ourselves so that we could hear with our own ears how they felt.  And what we heard led us to challenge one of the fundamental conventions of sports advertising.  When women told us that they found advertising from the sports industry featuring super-fit women off-putting, it presented us with a real problem. How could we possibly do anything else and still be aspirational?  It was then that we realised that the previous convention was based solely on ‘physical’ aspiration.  In this space, women were actually much more motivated by an aspirational attitude.  As a result, all the women in This Girl Can were characterised by their confident ‘don’t give a damn’ attitude, not their physical appearance.  We featured a variety of women of all shapes and sizes and all levels of ability, exercising in their own way.  And we turned the sports advertising convention of using super-fit models on its head.