Why women are easy and size matters for men

In the categories labelled “Gross Generalisations” and “Blindingly Obvious” I present to you, dear reader, proof of what you may have suspected all along: men and women are very different, and women crack sooner under the advertiser’s spell.

A study by comScore of 292 television ad copy tests shows that women are more likely to develop a preference for an advertised brand than men. In fact, women’s share of choice rose 5.2% points after exposure to TV ads, compared to just 4% points for men.

But even more interesting are the ways that different types of advertising prompts affect men and women. Women respond more favourably to factual ads with product research information, lots of (4 or more) brand mentions, and product demonstrations, especially the age-old “problem/solution” ad format so beloved of household products companies like P&G.

No surprise, to me at least, that only the ads featuring superiority claims had a greater persuasive effect on men than on women. A cursory glance at almost any car, sports or technology ad will help confirm this to be true.

Further reading:

• comScore Data Mine blog: Men and Women Respond Differently To Various Types of Creative Ad Elements
• comScore Data Mine blog: Men More Difficult to Persuade with Advertising than Women