His and hers razors: the selling divide

Take a look round any supermarket and you'll see disposable razors for men and disposable razors for women, along with hydrating cream for men and hydrating cream for women, as well as deodorants and a long list of other products for both him and her that even includes water.

Water? Is there something in the chemical makeup of each brand that makes them somehow more appropriate for one sex than the other? The answer is no. The manufacturers have simply put together a package that they think is more appealing to women. It's not pink either; simply that the bottle is a little more round, a little longer, and easier to open. It makes you wonder what women did until the marketing people came up with the idea.

Marketing experts use gender studies in order to enhance product appeal

"Dividing the world creates two target groups; it's that simple"

Much has been written about the differences between men and women. From the areas of our respective brains that we most use, through to the impact that religion and culture has on us. Manufacturers, designers, and marketing experts pore over their studies in a bid to come up with gender-specific products, or to enhance them with the qualities that will seduce the buyer into making a purchase. Among the latest must-haves are progressive lenses for women, produced by Cione. And to come up with them, the makers say they talked to 5,000 Spanish women.

Arturo Casas, the head of products at the company that designed the lenses, says that progressive lenses are particularly complex, given that they must correct deficiencies in both near and long vision.

"To adjust these lenses as much as possible to women's needs, instead of simply using standard parameters, we have developed something specifically for women: the distance between their eyes, the type of frames they tend to use, the distance at which they tend to read," says Casas. Furthermore, the lens has a non-colored anti-reflective coating, rather than the usual green, "to avoid interfering with makeup," he adds. Right.

Casas insists that the new lenses are the result of research and technological development and have been patented. That said, he accepts that a lot of marketing will be required to sell the new products.

"The scientific basis is there, but it is also true that we created the product to set us apart from the competition. We had already developed special lenses for children and athletes, so we decided to sit down and ask ourselves what else we could come up with," he says.

But is there really that much difference between a man and a women's physiology as to require special lenses?

"Except in some very particular cases, no. These are artificial needs," says Nacho Gómez-Trenor, president of the Valencia Regional Association of Designers, and creative director of the NGT agency. "In most cases this is about marketing. Segmentation of the customer base is very rigid. Manufacturers are always looking for specific needs or markets that they can develop new products for." And if they can't find a new market, he adds, they'll try to invent one.

"Dividing the world into two groups creates two target groups; it's that simple," says Pilar Medina, chair of psychology at Barcelona's Pompeu Fabra University. And then of course, each group has to be subdivided: the more fragmentation, the more business.

"An advertisement has to work quickly, so they tend to be based on stereotypes. The idea is to foresee how the target is going to react to an advertisement, so the easiest way to reach them is by sticking to stereotypes," she says. And that applies to men as well as women, she argues. For example, men are now the new targets for beauty products.

"Around half the population has managed to avoid the need to use certain types of cosmetics. That was money lost," says Medina, explaining that the way to sell products to men that have feminine connotations is by normalizing their use, "by using athletes and iconic masculine figures."

But Andrew Hartman, head of new product design at Phillips Design, insists that the sexes have their own needs. "It is hard to accept that there are differences. We are different not only at the physical level, but emotionally and psychologically as well. Sometimes they are not easy to identify, because they can sound like stereotypes. It is the same as designing something for different cultures or age groups, or people with disabilities. It is best to accept that there are differences and try to understand how they work," explains Hartman, who has worked in Asia and the United States designing cell phones, flat screen televisions, and health products.

"Women's roles are changing. They have more money, more purchasing power. They make more decisions these days," he adds. He says that when a couple go into a store to buy a telephone for their home, it is usually the woman who makes the final decision. This factor, along with the growing numbers of unmarried female consumers, means that manufacturers are increasingly aware of the need to attract women to their goods.

This might be explained as the handbag factor. Philips says that there is much more to creating a cellphone for women than just making it pink. He says that designers have to bear in mind that women wear earrings, and that their nails may scratch a touch screen. They also wear makeup, which can smudge the phone when they talk. Stereotypes? Brands are not taking any chances.

Last month Mexico's largest automobile fair, in Guadalajara, held a special day looking at the relationship between women and cars. The main conclusion was that women make the final decision about which car to buy in 80 percent of cases.

In some Arab countries, flat pack furniture makers and hardware stores offer do-it-yourself courses for divorcees and single women: because they cannot allow non-family males into their homes, they do not hire electricians or plumbers, and have to take care of their own repairs. In effect, they are a whole new market segment just waiting to be exploited.

When a brand identifies a gender-based need, it first develops the product and then tasks the marketing people to take care of sales. This is when it becomes clear that it's not the same selling to men as women. Sometimes the product itself remains the same, but the packaging changes.

"For men, we tend to focus on technology, for women, it's about appealing to their emotional intelligence," says Jordi Bardolet, a teacher at Barcelona's International Design School (IED). He says that manufacturers call in professionals like him to help them with packaging a product correctly. "It's about colors, wording, and form," he says. For example, when a marketing company is called in to help package foodstuffs, it tends to direct the product toward women, given that most family shopping is still done by them. "But in the case of pre-prepared food, then we are looking at buyers from both sexes, so the packaging has to have some masculine aspects," explains Bardolet.

Products aimed solely at women tend to be presented in warm colors, and rounded. "Why do you think that all tampon packaging is pink, blue, or pale yellow? Because it is a product directed solely at women. These colors suggest cleanliness," adds Gómez-Trenor.

Darker colors and straight lines tend to appeal to men, says Bardolet. "We see this with cars. Women tend to go for more rounded shapes in brighter colors, and men like straight lines and darker colors. And although women may have the final say in which car the family buys, men still tend to do the driving, which is why GPS systems usually have women's voices, because men find that more relaxing, he says. Or it may be because they are used to doing what they are told by their wives and girlfriends.

In some cases it is necessary to break the rules: when a cosmetics product is being sold to women on the basis that it is the result of scientific study, then some masculine elements have to be introduced, such as straighter lines or metallic colors. Colors can also occasionally break the rules. Apple is a good example of this, says Eva Muñoz, who also teaches at IED. She explains that before Apple came along, white was a color associated with fridges.

"But once Apple used it, white became the color of technology and high design. White even became a color associated with sports cars, which would have been unthinkable even a few years ago," she adds.

The color chosen by brands that successfully market a new product will often be copied by competitors. Dairy products that supposedly help with digestion almost always use a shade of green, because that was the color of the first brand to do so.

"For many years, Mistol was the washing up brand that set the pace. Bottles were white, and the cap orange. But today, Fairy is the leading brand, and its packaging is green, the color of the washing up liquid inside," says Muñoz. "There is a new yoghurt out with added calcium. The packaging is lilac and pink. The manufacturers will have carried out extensive testing on women, who will have identified with those tones." If the brand is successful, all yoghurts with added calcium will come in pink and lilac pots from now on.

The appeal of pink to women and girls is nothing if not enduring, although it recently seems to have worn a little thin with older women. The reasons are not clear, although younger girls may have been drawn to it through the extensive promotion of Hello Kitty and Disney princesses.

"The big multinationals still see women as the biggest target group. And the multinationals are constantly carrying out new surveys," says Gómez-Trenor. They work on both the quantifiable as well as what can be qualified. The first are based on sessions involving groups of up to 10 women; the second on mass marketing.

"Sometimes the advertising industry likes to do something more creative, different," he says. But the evidence of what works is there, nevertheless. And it says that women buy more detergents, and that the best way to sell the stuff is through television advertisements featuring women talking about how effective it is. "Advertising wasn't created to bring about social change. It's about selling things," says Medina, as though there were any doubt.