Diageo Turns Marketing Focus To Women

Women have long ceased to follow blindly where men choose to lead. It has taken certain male-centric industries a while to wise up but they have come to realise that a one-track marketing policy is not an effective way to go about boosting brand image and promoting sales.

One company that is working seriously on rectifying past omissions is UK alcoholic drinks giant Diageo, reported on by Marketing Week. The company behind such prominent brands as Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker and Guinness is turning its attention to women, admitting that previously its insight into female-targeted marketing left something to be desired.

Marketing Week was told as much by Matt Barwell, Diageo’s consumer marketing director for Western Europe, with whom the magazine caught up at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. Barwell acknowledged that his company had traditionally put too much emphasis on men, accepting the industry dogma that it is just fine to do so since women are bound to follow. As a result, Diageo was left with a limited understanding of how to promote its brands to women.

The company plans to make its products more attractive to women by harnessing the power of design and aesthetics, Barwell said. As he explained, this has to do with women being more astute judges of aesthetics, as well as more articulate and perceptive. He also noted that the same approach was being adopted by car manufacturers, which are counting on design to make their machines more appealing to the female population.