Girls Like 'Em Big: Televisions That Is

The decision making process for electronics and many other things is so much more complex than p= pink and pretty for girls and b = blue and big for boys. It's so frustrating when it gets reduced to that by clueless advertisers.

Thanks for your comment!

It's true that women will look at a television cabinet and approach it with the idea in mind of how will it fit into the present scheme of her living room or tv room with other furniture already in there. Oh yes, we'll do that. But that's due to the effort thats gone into designing the perfect room and not so much about the television. Will it fit in? The mechanics and working of the television is a whole nother thing. Women want their special features on their electronics. All of that goes into the decision making process.

Thanks so much for your comments and generous response, Mike. I certainly understand what happens when tiny snippets of conversations are pulled into an article with a very different focus and tone. My apologies for making you the target of and a tool for my broader sarcasm on the basis of that out-of-context quote alone.

And, everyone - I heartily encourage you to check http://www.digitaladvisor.com/lcd-tv-and-plasma-tv... out as it has lots of helpful information, reviews and links.

Hello Maria,

I agree with your analysis of the Times piece. It was a little fluffier than I expected; I suppose it's hard to write about the superficialities of products without seeming a little... superficial. Initially, it seemed that it was going to be about how gender-based/stereotyped marketing wasn't viable but it seems to have veered astray.

In any case, my quoted statement was in response to a direct question about TV aesthetics and placement in the home, and was meant to only apply to one aspect of TV shopping, based on personal experience and some research we've done as a company. It was not intended to be so generalized and definitive. I did not mean to imply that more salient criteria like picture quality weren't important at all, to men or to women, and in the longer conversation we discussed such things. Unfortunately, they did not appear in the article.

Recently, we conducted a survey of around 1,000 visitors to our TV site, asking them what they considered important when shopping for a television. Female respondents ranked things like 'Dimensions,' 'Price,' and 'Weight' as most important. Now, I don't think the takeaway here is that women *aren't* concerned about specifications or that aesthetics is the primary motivation. Rather, it would appear that women are much more well-rounded in their criteria, taking into account both the technical and practical matters while guys may not consider the latter important until they've gone home with a TV that's way to big for their living room.

Our site takes a pretty simple approach to TV shopping. We're not very hung up on specifications, because most HDTVs from reputable brands are virtually identical on paper, and as you correctly note, the differences between things like 1080i and 1080p are so minute to most people that it would be foolish to base a purchase on that factor alone.

We think practical matters should be paramount: most TVs will be fine, specs wise, so read the opinions of people who actually own them to see if it lives up to its claims, think about how you want your TV to fit into your life and your home, and try and get the best price possible. I think we're right in line with the advice and shopping checklist you give in this post.

I want you to know that I agree with your sentiments wholeheartedly, and it embarrasses me that I may have unwittingly contributed to an unfairly broad characterization of women that I initially hoped to work against. I thank you for your analysis and would definitely be interested in hearing your feedback about our site, as well.

Mike Brady
mbrady@digitaladvisor.com

I rarely hear anyone talk about gender marketing and branding. As an adjunct professor I taught marketing classes and other business courses. I deliberately introduced media literacy to my classes. Once people see how they are marketed to ie brainwashed then the lightbulb goes on. It is moronic the way everywhere you turn the marketing of gender specific junk is hitting you upside the head. I appreciate the links.

Love,
Babz
Link Text ( http://www.lovebabz.blogspot.com )

Thank you for your kind words about my post and for the links - thought provoking reading, indeed!

Found your posting hilarious, informative, packed with great technical info, and spot on!

I'm working on a post right now about media stereotypes and marketing productization of Father's Day..."Pink Think" is perpetuated as much as neckties and TV remote jokes for the male set, so thanks for bringing some humor (and great electronic info!) to the media conversation.

p.s. PACKAGING GIRLHOOD.COM takes on this branding issue full force in their book and blog...You'd love it (they're on our Shaping Youth advisory board too) Links to them are embedded within both of these posts of ours about Pink Think, as marketers target teens with toxic messaging & pink cigarettes...sigh.

http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=304
http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=248

Amy Jussel
Shaping Youth