battle of the sexes

In our modern, getting-close-to-equality world, are the lines between products for women and products or men becoming blurred? And, if that is the case, should we insist on shakily redrawing them?

While there are - of course - products that really are distinct to a particular sex (think Tampax and King of Shaves), many are just positioned one way or the other, through packaging, marketing or both. We've been looking at the roles of each of these, and have picked out some examples that might help us cross what can be a bit of a minefield.

gorgeous pink

You'd think that by now, we'd have all grasped that turning a product pink, lowering its calorie content and calling it gorgeous won't give it automatic appeal to women, but is likely to patronise and alienate many of them. However, the recent launch of Chicago Town's Gorgeous Pizza, and the very existence of pink power tools, goes to show that the message hasn't got through. Yes, there's a time and a place for pink, but that's not always and everywhere. For products that have been mindfully designed for - and marketed to - women, taking their lifestyles into consideration, look at HP's new Tord Boontje-designed laptop (OK it's floral, but no pink in sight and, being limited edition, it has that aspirational factor. Or car manufacturers like Ford who've made curvy, simple interiors that speak to women's sense of form whilst retaining all function.

extreme sport

Similarly, it seems to be an accepted wisdom that if you whack 'Extreme' or 'Sport' on a product, men will be instantly drawn to its masculine vibe. This is particularly rampant in the personal care category - where there's still a need for some macho reassurance - and has swiftly become something of a cliché (one that Dove has moved away from with the new Men+Care range). Also choosing to bypass that self-conscious machismo, look at how Pot Noodle, Yorkie and McCoy's have stamped their successful 'men only' positionings with their wholeheartedly masculine - yet humorous - campaigns.

for him. for her. for them.

Sometimes it's right to target one gender or the other, but at other times it's just the easy way out, and it can backfire (e.g. Aero's struggles to win back the male consumers they alienated a couple of years ago with their very female-targeted advertising campaign).

Bearing in mind the fact that women are more likely to buy 'male' products than men are to buy anything 'female', it makes sense to keep the product unisex, the packaging lightly masculine, and the promotion appealing all round. OK it's simplistic, but take that classic beer companies' conundrum - a successful 'women's beer'. Could they open up their existing products more to women just by tweaking their exclusive-to-men advertising campaigns? Speculation aside, what it comes down to is that it's no good deciding on gender-based design/marketing for the sake of it. As ever, those involved should first and foremost focus on the actual consumer - be it male or female. Stay in touch with your consumers and their needs, and the rest will follow.

We've talked the gender talk, but can we walk the walk (so to speak)? We'd like to share a couple of our own projects and explain how we've tackled the issues.

carnaby brown

Launching in the UK in March, Carnaby Brown is a new lightly sparkling fruit wine that is - resolutely - for girls. This is a case where it's the product (original and rosé variants, 5.5% abv) that decides the positioning, but we haven't gone near the aforementioned 'gorgeous pink' look. Our design does justice to the product - elegant and stylish - and avoids being overly girly. We like to think that a man wouldn't feel embarrassed picking up a bottle of Carnaby for his girlfriend!

jinxWe've talked about Jinx before, but it's really worth another look in this context. Jinx launched last year as a new Swedish RTD made with real fruit. Whereas in the UK (male orientated brand WKD excepted) these drinks are generally produced with women in mind, in Sweden both men and women enjoy them. So our designs maintain a fruity party spirit while successfully appealing to both sexes- a notoriously tricky feat in the alcohol category.

löfbergs lila

In many minds, there are foods and drinks that have a natural gender-bias (so beer/crisps are for men and chocolate/wine are for women). But some products completely transcend gender, and coffee is one of those. Coffee is a unifier - with its consumers often tending towards the zealous. We kept that in mind when designing these new packs, which focus on the coffee experience with designs that are inclusive to all coffee lovers whether male or female.