Hidden Women

You’d think by now we’d have moved past tired, narrow ways of thinking about women – how they live, what they want, what they buy. But here we are, still watching whole industries default to marketing that ignores, oversimplifies, or outright excludes them.

Finance, automotive, health – sectors that still act as if men are their primary audience. Even in categories designed for women, like beauty and fashion, entire groups are overlooked or spoken to in reductive ways. Women over 50, for example, are often ignored, despite their immense spending power.

It’s not that things aren’t changing. Female representation in ads is up, and more brands are talking about targeting women. But still, women – unlike men, who get the privilege of nuance – are too often treated as a single, monolithic group. The most interesting audiences under that umbrella are completely overlooked.

Yes, we may be bound by biology or gender identification, but beyond that? We are wildly different. Across cultures, across generations – you could be standing next to a woman who looks just like you, yet leads a completely different life.

Brands are failing to talk to women beyond their neat little boxes. And as a result, they’re missing out on an economic powerhouse hiding in plain sight.

That’s why we wrote this report. We’ve spent time speaking to real women and the brands that want to connect with them to see where they’re overlooked, where brands could do better, and where real opportunity lies.

This is your invitation to see the unseen. 
Let’s start paying attention.

 To access the full report, please complete below.