An ongoing European Union funded study aimed at increasing the appeal of information and communications technology (ICT) work to women indicates that aiming campaigns at women in general is not as effective as targeting particular categories of women who may be more receptive to the message. The researchers said the focus should shift to identifying attributes of ICT work that motivate women, and advise against “using strategies that build on gender stereotypes, for example the false belief that women only want to work with people, and find technology intimidating.”
“Today many gender stereotypes are used as the basis for technology design,” comments Professor Knut Holtan Sørensen from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU). “Many efforts to include women are driven by commercial considerations – companies want to reach more women – but it is still common to market products as if they were made for ‘all women’ or ‘all men’. This works only to a certain extent.
“Women are different and men are different, and often the differences between people of the same gender are more interesting and meaningful than the differences between the genders. The sad fact is that gender is easy to use as a sorting mechanism, such as in quantitative studies, and this can result in too much focus on gender differences. This is unfortunate.”
Whether your business goal is attracting new customers or your university goal is attracting more women to IT, mis-targeting your internet marketing message isn’t just unfortunate – it could lead to wasted time and resources, lost leads and lost revenue.
The study raises some questions:
- Would the results been different if the studies were conducted in the United States?
- How pervasive is internet marketing targeted at gender stereotypes?
- How effective is marketing targeted at gender stereotypes?
Read more about how ideal client personas can help you create effective internet marketing…