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Made for Men
Women, as most marketers know, drive the majority of purchasing among American households, almost without respect to category. Even when it comes to beer - that brewed bastion of maleness - women buy more than men do. So, it goes without saying that professional marketers had better focus on women - their habits, desires, aspirations, needs, and preferences.
But what about men?
Without question, there are products and categories that men dominate when it comes to driving markets and results. To grow sales in male-dominated categories, understanding brand, self-image, and brand values that appeal to male consumers matters a great deal.
I'm sure that more than a few marketing professionals will disagree with me (and maybe think I'm crazy), when I assert that male consumers are increasing in importance across a number of categories.
As traditional gender roles continue to blur and change, both genders are making purchase decisions in new and different categories. To lock either men or women into traditional roles is not only unenlightened and sexist, it ignores new marketing opportunities and denies important insights about how behaviors change as societal values and behavioral norms assert their influence.
In my opinion, when it comes to marketing to men, marketing pros could learn something valuable from a couple of very creative and marketing-savvy American smoking-pipe artisans who collaborated in 2005 to position themselves prominently at the world's largest smoking pipe show in Chicago.
A little background first:
Among many - if not most - pipe collectors, American pipe carvers are at a disadvantage when compared to their Danish, Italian, and British counterparts. Great pipe brands - like Larsen, Castello, and Dunhill - have risen to dominance in these countries.
The father of the high-grade pipe, Sixten Ivarsson, was from Denmark and his tutorial and design influences have persisted throughout the world. Ivarsson's work has spawned generations of pipe-carving artisans who have collectively built the Danish reputation for producing a formidable array of brilliant carvers like Balleby, Eltang, Former, Heeschen, Knudson, Nielsen, Rasmussen, etc., not to mention Ivarsson's son, Lars, and granddaughter, Nanna, who are both formidable artisans in their own right. These Danish high-grade pipes often sell for thousands of dollars and are prized centerpieces of collections around the world.
It is only comparatively recently that American pipe artisans are acknowledged as important in the world of high-grade pipe collecting. In short, to be an American in an international pipe marketplace is to be a johnnie-come-lately or an upstart, even if one possesses considerable skill in design and manufacture.
There's no question that marketing savvy is as important in building one's position as is artisanal skill, but, in my opinion, many American pipe artisans don't understand how to build their brands. This is not the case with Jody Davis nor with Todd Johnson.
In preparing for the Chicago pipe show, Davis and Johnson wanted to make sure they weren't consigned to an overlooked corner, in both real and psychological terms. They planned to locate in the room together. And they planned to make a real statement through a promotional collaboration. They designed a miniature destination-point attraction that, by driving peer to peer (p2p) buzz among collectors and pipe aficionados, would drive traffic to their display area. Their idea would meld values, style, brand, content, and product: an ingenious and dangerously effective strategic combination:
Jody Davis and Todd Johnson wanted to communicate a number of things about their pipes:
1) World-class quality
2) Made in America
3) Independent thinking
4) Precision engineering
5) Coherent design vocabulary
6) Artisan-made
7) Breaking away from the pack
8) Made for men
So, what did they do? They created a matched set of their highest grade pipes - Saint grade (Jody Davis) and Hoplyte grade (Todd Johnson) - and packaged both pipes inside a leather-covered Harley-Davidson motorcycle tank, lined with buckskin and decorated with stainless steel and ivory-inlaid fittings. The tank sits up with the use of a Harley kickstand.
To pull off this marketing feat, they collaborated with sculptor William Kofmehl III and renown leather craftsman, Neil Flancbaum, who fashions custom pipe bags for collectors. Davis and Johnson put together a team of experts that were capable of manufacturing their concept at the quality level they wanted to represent their own work.
There are few objects more quintessentially American than a Harley. The Harley brand comes with embedded equities that Davis and Johnson quite intentionally borrowed and leveraged: rebel, independence, freedom, testosterone, quality, muscular, male, streamlined, and American - among others.
Davis and Johnson wanted their package to draw attention to their work. They wanted to not only position their pipes with these values, but more importantly they wanted to make a statement about their imagination, design, and execution skills.
It worked. Thousands of men paraded by their display. In an exhibit hall the size of two football fields, surrounded by legendary European pipe artisans, effete collectors, and world-renown vendors, Davis and Johnson stood out. They did so by augmenting their product with brand aura (Harley-Davidson) and male-psyche values and belief systems. This was one case where the cover managed the evidence of the book's quality. It was classic Ted Levitt strategy: win through surprise: the augmented product strategy.
In male-dominated categories, memory and tradition are powerful forces. Consider cars, cigars, motorcycles, and watches. The real dimensions of product quality and design excellence pale when compared to brand equities. Nobody I know thinks a Rolex is the best watch around, but Rolex is, without question, a category leader. Padron, Fuente and Ashton cigars have rivaled their Cuban counterparts for a long time, but the Cuban brand still conveys a mystique that will drive a law-abiding, straight-laced conservative gentleman to mislead Customs officials about his luggage contents. Such is the male psyche.
Certain brands are untouchable where men are concerned. And this brand muscle emerges from values and myths that define what being male means. Smart marketers will recognize - like Davis and Johnson - that the essence of the buyer must be embedded in the essence of the brand. Men tick differently, just like their watches.
Posted on October 3, 2006 10:44 AM | Permalink
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