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Tech Stuff

Aliens, Robots, And Cleavage: Why Tech Is (Stupidly) Marketed To Men


Tech gadgets get marketed mostly to men, but then mostly women buy them. Advertisers and marketers, clueless once again.

This week is the Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas, otherwise known as: a bunch of dudes fly out to the Sin City for a few days to gawk at the newest gadgets set to go on sale this year. Pardon our stereotyping, but that’s roughly what happens. Accordingly, marketers assume, it seems, that those tech-savvy, robot-loving dudes are the best people to market to.

As Ad Age reports from a panel at CES:

“Tech marketers traditionally focus on 25- to 40-year-old men, which is virtually everyone who comes to CES,” said panelist James McQuivey, principal analyst at Forrester Research specializing in the digital home.

Probably not the best idea.

And Ad Age doesn’t even mention the degrading presence of “Booth Babes” at trade shows like these. (And there were plenty at CES. Business Insider went so far as to glorify them with a slideshow). While they may attract some lowbrow-thinking guys to check out a product here and there, they only add to the male-centric marketing of tech products.

How do we know this is not a great call? Because we reported just yesterday that more women actually buy tech products than men. Marketers and advertisers, take note! Or do we have to spell it out for you further?

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  • ComelyConservative

    What do you think about the Feminist movement in general? Do you think they are pursuing the same goal(s) OR are they representing a dichotomized group based on different categories? For example, a model. Are they improving Feminism or not?

    The only reason I’m asking because I do believe the feminist movement consists of a very different subgroup. Posting on Playboy, for example, may look like a sign of Independence and right of ones own body, but others may see it as a sign of the general stereotype of women that sex sells.

    Of course is a subjective question that is more complicated than it looks because Feminism is a structural belief. Is hard to answer but I think the memo is out: we like booth babes.

  • Anonymous

    Well, even if someone agrees to the opinion that women actually buy more tech goods than men, it still doesnt mean that the women buy their goods at or go to tech shows. Furthermore, in marketing, we have something called the buying roles. The buyer is different from the user/influencer. 

  • http://www.vectorash.ro Victor Stanescu

    actually even if you’d be a man, what would u rather see, good looking women in tight clothes or bold fat guys in star trek uniforms?! :))

  • http://PalinsDirtyLittleSecret.blogspot.com/ ElectionFraudClickHere

    Why is tech and the news being taken over by big brother? Unelected officials have taken over Washington and are orchestrating the daily news. 90% of the comments and replies you’re reading online come from an NSA software program spamming the internet. Comments are created before the stories are ever reported. The oldest, first, highest, best, and most popular rated comments are all propaganda. They are conducting Psy-ops (psychological operations) for domestic spying. They have 1000′s of handles and are determined to bury the truth and attack anyone leaking it.

    The next election is shaping up to be as big of a sham as the last. Do you know why Sarah Palin’s bus tour was really canceled? Do you know why she stayed 30 miles away from the second debate and chose the death of Steve Jobs to announce that she’s not running? Know what leaked out? Sarah Palin and Cain aren’t in the race for the same reason, the truth leaked out. The link in my name exposes the cover up

  • LJB57

    Are you telling me, those are Robo-Chicks?

    WOW…I thought those were still years away!

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