Project XX

In the past year there has been an insurgence of marketing to women. Politicians can’t seem to get enough of us as they have realized how great an influence we have on their campaigns. There has also been a push to women for goods and services that aren’t typically considered feminine, including sports. For many years sports marketers have done their best to appeal to men but have ignored women. It was believed that men were their target market and that advertising to women was a waste of time and money. As a woman sports fan I never understood why they would leave us out. Although some of us may be watching for different reasons, like seeing attractive sweaty men, we are still watching and enjoying sports just as much as the guys. Moreover, lets take a look at the stereotypical male-female relationship. The man works and the woman spends the money. Women make a large percentage of the spending decisions in a household, so doesn’t it make sense to market to the one’s who are going to be spending the money?

With a once declining market, sports associations began realizing that focusing only on men was not cutting it, especially for football. According to the ESPN Poll and US Census, 44% of all football fans are now women. In the past year, the NFL has embraced women as football fans and made a concerted effort to include this once excluded group. They have included more women’s apparel on their team sites and have even thought about women in the choice of their sponsors. This association has begun teaming with products that one wouldn’t traditionally associate with sports, like Febreze and Head and Shoulders. In April of this year they also teamed up with their first detergent sponsor, Tide. Instead of always using models, the NFL has begun using the wives, mothers and daughters of the players, owners and coaches in magazine ads and commercials. They have marketed their merchandise as not just fashion but women’s high fashion and the women are eager to buy. Sales of women’s merchandise have increased greatly in the last year and have resulted in a significant increase for total NFL merchandise sales. Women appreciate being recognized where they once weren’t and the NFL is seeing this thanks monetarily. I think its time for the other sports associations to jump on the bandwagon and discover their lost earning potential. But for now, to the NFL, thank you and good job.