Women and Sports Advertising: Nothin’ But Missed Opportunities

I recently read an article that was a great illustration of how marketers are totally missing the boat when it comes to what I call Marketing 101: Identifying your audience. If you think your product or service is for everyone, you’re setting yourself up for failure.

This article was written by a colleague who did a seminar in our little burb last winter. He’s clearly defined his audience: small sports retailers. He runs sales seminars and workshops, helping them become enlightened marketers and salespeople, creating stakeholders with a heightened customer focus.

Sports advertising is inevitably about and for men

He’s taking a look at the outdoors/sports industry—the stores, ads, trade shows, etc. and virtually all of these are geared toward men. What? The face of the sales force and marketing campaigns is a masculine one. But that’s not an accurate representation of the industry. They’re missing the boat on several fronts.

• Women are the shoppers; they’re the ones who often do the shopping for the men in their lives.
• Women are often very engaged in outdoor activities. They’re fishing and hunting, playing tennis, soccer, baseball, and basketball. They’re rock climbing and racing bicycles, running and ice-skating, boxing and fencing, etc. You get the idea. Women have become fiercely competitive; they’re active, aggressive and involved.

Change begins with every retailer along the food chain

So how else can outdoors retailers and manufacturers start recognizing that they’re missing a huge opportunityand a historically loyal market? It starts with every sports retailer on the food chain. Incorporate more inclusive events into their itineraries. Start hosting women-specific clinics. Make the outdoors seem approachable to novices, regardless of gender. Women may have felt excluded from a particular sport, so change that perception; make it approachable.

Manufacturers also need to step up

Like the retailers, manufacturers need to upgrade their products so they’re geared toward women. No neon pink, but not crazy masculine, either. Ad campaigns should feature both men and women. The current model is currently either for men or for women. But since we’re sharing the outdoors, men and women should be equally represented.

Stop qualifying women in the outdoors or in sports

Market to women as members of the group, rather than singling them out. As women integrate into all aspects of industries, their roles and populations will grow. It helps shape the industry for women moving forward. Creating better gear for women, for example, can impact the younger generation, the current generation, the bikes women ride, the opportunities they’re given. We shouldn’t be breaking down roles by gender or ethnic group. No more women CEOs or Latino CEOs. It has to start somewhere. Making sports neutral would go a long way towards leveling the playing field for women. It will also result in increased revenue for retailers and manufacturers.

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