It takes little more than a simple Google search to discover that the tech industry has a problem when it comes to women.
Seriously, just search “tech industry women,” and Google will return plenty of links which won’t make the sector proud. The technology field has been criticized in the past for not employing many women, being sexist toward the few women it does employ and now you can add poor marketing to women tactics to the list.
Ad Age filed a special report from the 2013 Consumer Electronic’s Show (CES), which is one of the biggest tech conferences of the year, to point out the ineptitude the industry as a whole displays when it comes to reaching a female audience. It mentions how consumer electronics companies often miss the point when marketing to women. Women aren’t as concerned with how fast a processor is or how much storage capacity a device has, they want to know “What does it do, and how can it help me?”
As always, this doesn’t apply to every company. In fact, the article notes that one of the largest tech companies in the world, Apple, does a good job of marketing to women, and that shouldn’t be a surprise. Apple’s advertisements do a good job of appealing to all sorts of people. They mention the specs of their products in TV ads, but also relate their practical use to the consumer. For instance, they might say the iPad “has a retina display that means clearer, crisper images.” Retina display may be Greek to the lay person, but that person understands “clearer, crisper images.”
Tech should be aware of its less-than-stellar image when it comes to women, but whether this run of bad publicity is enough to inspire change has yet to be seen.
FletcherPR is a national communications firm that specializes in reaching women through the power of media. Headquartered in Knoxville, TN with staff in Nashville & Los Angeles, we are a full-service agency providing strategic public relations, social media and marketing communications services to our clients throughout the U.S.