The Price Of Getting Someone's Attention: What Always #LikeAGirl Did Well

Two summers ago, the Procter & Gamble feminine products brand Always came out with their very popular #LikeAGirl campaign. It was a campaign that was focused around fighting gender bias, which is an issue that always has two opposing sides: Those who think gender bias exists and those who think it doesn’t. Praised by many for its impact and marketing genius, Always’ #LikeAGirl campaign was able to show just how young women are affected by gender stereotyping in a way that wasn’t “off putting” to those who may not have previously agreed with the purpose of Always’ message.

So how did Always do this?

Always knows that consumers are people first

The first thing that marketers have to understand about people is this: As humans, we do not like to listen to anything that doesn’t fit into our belief system. If you’re Republican for example, then you probably don’t like listening to CNN. And if you’re Democrat, then you probably don’t like listening to FOX. This tendency that people have to only look at information that reaffirms their belief system, and to dismiss anything that doesn’t fit into that belief system is what’s known as confirmation bias.

The people you market to also have this bias. We see this with Samsung phone users when they’re asked about what they think about Apple phones, and vice versa. If you’re Apple, then it’s easy to understand how to market to those who like you and convince them as to why they should buy your next new phone. What’s difficult however, for even a brand like Apple to do, is figure out how to market to those who already have a bias not to like you.

This is the difficulty of marketing to those who “get it” vs those who don’t.

This is why as a marketer, especially today with so many ads bombarding consumers, you can no longer force people who don’t resonate with your message, products, or company, to pay attention to you. If someone doesn’t fall into your target audience, then you have to figure out how to market your message or product in a way that will open them up to listening to you. If you don’t, then they’ll ignore you.

Successful marketing starts with empathy

Understanding how to respectfully market to a person’s beliefs then, is the price of entry to getting their attention. This is exactly why Always #LikeAGirl campaign was successful at persuading.

Always understood the idea that in order to market to an audience who doesn’t resonate with your message, you have to figure out how to tell your story in a way that will open that audience up to being convinced.

In the same way that politicians have to learn to tailor their message to people of a different political affiliation in order to persuade them, marketers have to do the same.

This means avoiding attacking someone’s viewpoint. Avoiding any criticism. And learning to show understanding towards the person you’re marketing to. If Always for example, would have criticized the individuals who say “like a girl” by saying that the phrase “like a girl” is discriminatory and that those who say it are “sexist,” then this advertisement would have never landed well with as many people as it had. Doing this would have pushed people away. But instead of framing their message in a way that people would either ignore the ad completely or not be open to listening to the ad, Always’ brilliantly figured out how to tell a story and start a conversation around gender bias in a way that opened people up to being convinced of a new way of thinking.

What did Always do right?

The advertisement starts off by asking a variety of men and women to act out phrases like "Run like a girl" and "Fight like a girl." As you might guess, there was a lot of exaggerated arm and leg movements when asked to imitate running “like a girl” and a lot of slap fighting when asked to imitate fighting “like a girl.”

This part of the ad is important because Always is relating to the majority of people who have this same perception of what it means to do something “like a girl.” As a result, we feel emotionally related to this group. Then what the people at Always did was ask the same questions, but this time to a group of young girls. Their response was completely different. They ran like they meant it and they fought like they wanted to knock someone out.

The first group of people soon realize their mistake, as do we, the audience. By using numerous contrasting conversations of both groups discussing the negative impact of stereotypes, it opened people up to understanding how the implied insult of doing something "like a girl" can bruise self confidence in young girls.

According to a study that was commissioned by the brand, 76 percent of girls ages 16-24 said that after watching the ad, they no longer see the phrase "like a girl" as an insult, and 2 out of 3 men who watched the ad said they would stop or think twice before using "like a girl" as an insult. The ad struck an emotional chord with people and it started a great conversation: Why can't “run like a girl” also mean “win the race”?

Parting thoughts

The ability to open the door to people's attention by figuring out how to tell your story in a way that will resonate with people, instead of fighting people, is what's really essential in marketing. This doesn't mean you should just tell your audience only what they want to hear so that they agree with you or buy from you. This isn’t what marketing is about. Instead, marketing is about telling a great story in a way that will spread to people who are open to being convinced of something new.

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Edited by LinkedIn Campus Editor Miki Ding