Rethink Gender-based Marketing – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1322

Rethink Gender-based Marketing – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1322

Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1322 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to pharmaveterans2017@gmail.com  for publishing your contributions here.

Credit: Nothing Ahead

Preamble

Gaby Barrios’s TED Talk makes a deceptively simple argument: gender is often an easy marketing variable, but it is frequently a poor predictor of what people actually need or buy. Drawing on BCG work across more than 20 countries and roughly 100,000 “statistical tournaments,” she says gender emerged as the most useful variable for understanding consumer needs only about 5% of the time. Her broader recommendation is to move from demographic shortcuts toward needs, occasions, attitudes, behaviors and context.

Stop Marketing to Men and Women. Start Marketing to Needs.

What pharmaceutical marketers can learn from Gaby Barrios about moving beyond gender stereotypes

Marketing has always loved categories. Men. Women. Young. Old. Urban. Rural. High income. Low income. Categories make marketing easier. They help companies identify audiences, design campaigns and allocate budgets.

But there is a problem. Easy segmentation is not necessarily intelligent segmentation.

That is the central message of Gaby Barrios's TED Talk, Why Gender-Based Marketing Is Bad for Business. Barrios, a marketing expert at Boston Consulting Group, argues that companies frequently use gender as a convenient shortcut when trying to understand consumers. The problem is that gender often tells marketers much less about what people actually need, want or buy than other variables such as attitudes, behavior, circumstances and the context in which a purchase decision is made.

Her argument is not that gender never matters. It clearly matters in some categories. Her argument is that gender should not automatically be the starting point for understanding consumers. That distinction has major implications for pharmaceutical and healthcare products marketing.

The Convenience of the Gender Shortcut

Imagine a marketing meeting. The team is discussing a new product. Someone says: “Our target is women aged 35 to 55.” Another says: “Our target is men over 50.” The segmentation feels sophisticated because it contains demographic information. But it may actually tell us very little.

Why does the woman buy the product? Why does the man buy it? What problem is he trying to solve? What concerns does she have? What triggers the decision? What does the patient value? What does the physician value? What happens between diagnosis and treatment? These are much more useful questions.

Barrios describes gender as an attractive shortcut because it is easy to identify and easy to use in media targeting. But that convenience can distract marketers from the deeper variables that actually drive consumer behavior. The danger is confusing an easy-to-measure characteristic with a meaningful insight.

The 5% Finding Should Make Marketers Stop

The most provocative part of Barrios's presentation is the data behind her argument.

BCG conducted consumer research across more than 20 countries and used what Barrios describes as “statistical tournaments” to test which variables were most useful for predicting consumer needs. The researchers examined large amounts of information about consumers, including demographics, behaviors, attitudes and context.

Gender was the winning variable in only about 5% of the analyses.

That does not mean gender is irrelevant. It means that marketers should not assume that gender is the most useful lens for understanding consumers. In most cases, other characteristics provide greater insight. This is a powerful warning for any marketer.  The variable that is easiest to find may not be the variable that matters most.

Consider the Occasion, Not Just the Person

One of Barrios's strongest insights is the importance of context.

People's needs change depending on the situation. The same individual may behave differently at different moments. Consider a patient newly diagnosed with diabetes. At diagnosis, the primary need may be understanding. A few months later, it may be adherence. Later, it may be managing complications. The patient has not changed gender. The need has changed.

This suggests a different way of thinking about pharmaceutical marketing: Segment the healthcare journey, not simply the patient. The opportunities may lie in the moments of greatest unmet need.

What About the Famous “Pink” and “Blue” Marketing?

Barrios's argument also challenges an old marketing habit: changing a product's appearance, communication or positioning simply because the target is male or female.

Superficial gender-based differentiation can become patronizing. Women do not automatically want softer messaging. Men do not automatically want aggressive messaging. Women are not inherently risk-averse. Men are not inherently confident decision-makers. These assumptions can become stereotypes disguised as segmentation. Good marketing recognizes individual differences without turning them into clichés.

Move From “Target Audience” to “Human Need”

This is perhaps the biggest strategic lesson from Barrios.

Traditional marketing asks: Who is our target? Modern marketing should increasingly ask: What unmet need are we solving? Traditional marketing asks: What demographic should we target? Better marketing asks: Which people share this need, regardless of demographic category? Traditional marketing asks: What message will appeal to women? Better marketing asks: What problem are these consumers trying to solve, and what would make them choose our solution? That is a fundamental shift.

What Pharma Marketers Should Do Differently

The practical implications are straightforward.

Start with the disease experience.Understand what patients actually experience before, during and after treatment. Identify unmet needs Find the problems that patients, physicians and other stakeholders still struggle to solve. Segment by behavior Look at adherence, treatment-seeking, information-seeking and decision-making behaviors. Segment by attitudes Understand beliefs about medicines, risk, prevention, innovation and healthcare. Examine context. Understand when, where and why decisions are made. Use gender when it genuinely predicts need.

Gender should not be eliminated. It should be earned as a segmentation variable.If evidence shows that gender materially influences the need or treatment decision, use it. If it doesn't, don't force it into the strategy.

The Bigger Business Lesson

Barrios's argument ultimately goes beyond gender. It challenges the entire habit of using simplistic labels to understand complex human beings.

Consumers are not demographics. Patients are not demographics. Doctors are not demographics. They are people making decisions within particular circumstances. The better a company understands those circumstances, the better it can identify growth opportunities.

This is particularly important in pharmaceuticals, where the difference between a successful product and an unsuccessful one is often not the product itself. It is the company's ability to place the product well.

From Segmentation to Understanding

The pharmaceutical industry has spent decades becoming better at segmenting markets. The next step is becoming better at understanding people. That means moving beyond demographic shortcuts and looking at needs, behaviors, attitudes and circumstances.

Gender can be relevant. But relevance should be demonstrated, not assumed.

For pharmaceutical companies, the opportunity is substantial. Those that move from demographic targeting to genuine needs-based segmentation can discover underserved patients, identify new growth spaces and develop more relevant brands. They may also communicate with people more respectfully, because they stop telling consumers who they are supposed to be and start listening to what they actually need.

Concluded.

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For most blogs, I research from several sources which are open to public. Their links are mentioned under references. There is no intent to infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. If, any claim is lodged, it will be acknowledged and duly recognized immediately.

Reference:

https://www.ted.com/talks/gaby_barrios_why_gender_based_marketing_is_bad_for_business