Laura Burgess Marketing represents a lot of big time gun and gear manufacturers. On occasion Laura will add a personal note to the press releases posted to content providers. This one on marketing to women gives cautionary advice to her clients. Of which I’ll share with you . . .
“I read an interesting article in the September 24th issue of Advertising Age, “No More ‘Shrinking it and Pinking It’ at Under Armour” just recently. The article regarding Under Amour’s entry into the women’s market and the daunting task they face at proving that their male-centric brand has room for a women’s line resonated with me on how companies in our industry market to women. The “shrinking it and pinking it” has also been a prevailing mind-set within the firearms industry. Women prefer small guns because they have small hands and pink is for girls – or so the thought process goes in marketing departments within many of our companies . . .
Under Armour’s new pitch line is “No matter what, sweat every day. I will.” Under Armour is counting on reaching out and becoming a part of the female athletic / exercise phenomena, based upon research that shows the growing number of women and girls participating in sports.
And that growing number is also occurring in the firearms industry. However, we still see a number of companies utilizing the “shrink it and pink it” mentality. With a growing number of women working within the industry and in many cases, leading companies, I believe we are slowly seeing a paradigm shift on marketing to women. We see a rise in women’s only firearms courses and women-centric firearms and outdoor related websites. We see more women taking up the sport and participating in competitions.
Yes, we may like pink and we may like small guns, but we also like feeling confident and skilled. So when you are marketing to women, look up, not there, but into our eyes.
