Brilliant gender marketing
So you’ve moved into your new house and the first thing you want to do to put your stamp on it is paint. It’s not so expensive, HGTV makes it look easy, and it can drastically change the appearance of any room within hours. A trip to the local paint or hardware store seems like just that project to kick off the start of the American dream.
Then, as most women can probably tell you, the minute you ask about an opinion between which shade of white is better “Penelope Pink ” or “Angel Hair”, all traces of fun have not only left the building but have vanished and are nowhere in sight.
While most home improvement stores and projects market to the “man of the house,” the paint section is usually geared towards women. With over thirty shades of each color and at least three different brands to choose from, it can easily overwhelm any paint novice. Add to that names like “Tender Aria” and “Almond Wisp” to describe a shade of white and it’s easy to see why men would rush to the tool section. Then, there’s always the person not into power tools but still scratching their heads over the minute variances in shades, brands and sheens.
Marketing man caves
The term “man cave” seems a bit 2009, but one paint company, CIL Paint, has decided to launch a male-focused paint campaign based on a survey done through Facebook, asking men their opinions on what paint color names they would prefer. They finished the survey with over 15,000 names submitted (although I did notice the top ten winners were submitted by the ladies…)!
The resulting responses and the subsequent campaign are pretty good. Names like “Zombie Apocolypse”, “Beer Foam” and “Wing Man” are aimed at attracting the male eye or at least getting them a tiny bit more apt to participating in an otherwise tedious task of shade selection.
Whether or not this means more men will willingly offer to pick out paint colors themselves or it’s merely a ploy to get an easier answer on a woman’s opinion, the campaign is definitely catchy (and the colors aren’t bad either!) Check out these great catchy ads as well as some cool caves by clicking the image below:
