This article, originally written for Orange, looks at what companies are doing to sell gadgetry to women. And it’s not just about making phones pink…
Gadgets for girls
Time for a little Marketing 101. How do you sell mobile phones to women? Anyone? If you’re just about to say “make it pink” then shame on you. Colour is largely irrelevant.
For the most part, it’s not aesthetics that sell handsets, it’s features. The big draw of the Sony Ericsson C905 is its eight Megapixel camera, while the Blackberry Bold trades on its anywhere email access. Who cares what colour they are?
Admittedly, personalisation is a growing trend – it’s why Dell has a range of multicoloured laptops and Apple has a rainbow of iPod nanos. But pink is a cliché. Nobody takes pink seriously.
“Anyone with sense can generally see through [the pink] marketing ploy,” says Katherine Hannaford, Editor of T3.com. “However, it’s obvious that some women are actually buying these gadgets. Why else would manufacturers continue to make them? Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan have a lot to answer for.”
So modern marketing strategies for attracting female customers have become more subtle and sophisticated. And that doesn’t just mean swapping pink for purple, or calling new handsets ‘fashion phones’. Instead, designers are bringing a feminine sensibility to their products.
Just look at how phones are advertised today. The focus isn’t just on design. There’s an increasing emphasis on simplicity and ease-of-use. Women are becoming increasingly technology-savvy and they want a reliable product at a good price. Just like everybody else.
