Brand differentiation done right, marketing is still sexist & copy resource of the week

Hey, hi, howdy, and welcome to Issue #40 of The Subhead, a bi-weekly newsletter about copywriting, marketing & media, and a look at some of the women who make it great.

In today’s edition:

✨ This week in freelancing

✨ Brand Differentiation Done Right

✨ Yes, Marketing is Still Sexist

✨ Copy Resource of the Week: No-Cost Marketing Plan Generator

✨ Just for Fun

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This week in freelancing

If you read either of my last two newsletter issues, you know that I had a long-term client, one who provided me with consistent work every month for the better part of six years, go silent.

Despite several attempts to reach out to them over the course of a few weeks, I heard nothing.

Then, out of the clear blue sky one Wednesday in early April, said client popped back into my email inbox, apologized for ghosting me for a month, and asked if I’d like to write a few articles for them in April/May.

WOULD I?!?!?! Why yes, I would indeed.

This turn of events was a great reminder, though, to never get complacent, and to consistently, at all times, always ABM. (ABM = “always be marketing.”)

ABM without apology. ABM even when your project schedule is completely full, as mine was.

Because you just never know when you might need to replace a client pronto, and when you practice ABM, there’s a good chance you can line up some new work to fill an unexpected hole sooner rather than later.

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Brand differentiation done right 

Ah, Spring is in the air. The days are longer, the weather is warmer … and some of us may have vacation planning on the mind.

Which makes it a great time to re-share this example of brand differentiation done right:

“The day I awoke & started dreaming …”

That’s the headline on the website home page of a luxury hotel called The Parker Palm Springs.

The rest of the copy on the home page consists of a “short memoir” that shares a day in the life of an ideal hotel stay.

So creative, and a very different experience than most hotel websites, many of which (even for the nicer hotels) feel much more transactional and utilitarian in their approach.

As I always like to say, you want to “paint a picture” for your ideal clients and customers in your brand communications, and The Parker Palm Springs does this brilliantly.

To see an example of what effective brand differentiation in a crowded, competitive, space looks like, check out The Parker Palm Springs website here.

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Yes, Marketing Is Still Sexist

Here we have an August 2021 New York Times article sharing some infuriating statistics, among them:

“Between 1980 and 2010, women in commercials were shown in workplace settings only 4 percent of the time; frequently they were shown in kitchens, waxing poetic about the products they were selling.”

And if you’re thinking, “Surely things have improved since 2010,” well, not so much.

In their book, Brandsplaining: Why Marketing is (Still) Sexist And How To Fix It, Jane Cunningham and Philippa Roberts write that, “The majority of brands still speak to women from a male perspective, explaining to them what they are and telling them what they can be.”

YIKES. 😬

Read the enlightening (& maddening) interview with authors Cunningham and Roberts here:

Yes, Marketing Is Still Sexist

Despite women’s progress in many parts of society, advertisements still consistently cast women as secondary.

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Copy Resource of the Week: No-Cost Marketing Plan Generator

I’m trying to be better at not dismissing every dumb AI tool out there.

(Yes, I know that some AI tools are truly helpful, and not dumb. And no, they don’t all generate synthetic B.S. that sounds like it was written by a monkey with a lobotomy … or so I’ve heard, anyway.)

All of that to say, this Marketing Plan Generator created by FounderPal AI was a fun tool to play around with.

While it generated some solid marketing ideas based on the test business idea I gave it (newsletter for female business builders), others were super-cringe, such as …

“Launch a targeted ad campaign on Instagram focusing on entrepreneur hashtags such as #LadyBoss.”

UGH, NO THANK YOU.

That said, a handful of the suggestions were worth considering.

At any rate, it’s worth testing for yourself here:

Marketing Plan Generator

Get 20 marketing ideas to grow your product. Boost your revenue this month.

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Just for Fun

Need a pep talk? Inspiration to keep going when you’re feeling low?

I recently came across this on the Farnam Street blog, and it lifted my spirits in these … um, challenging times.

E.B. White’s Beautiful Letter to Someone Who Lost Faith in Humanity

In March of 1973, a person sent a letter to E. B. White, the author of greats such as Charlotte’s Web and Stuart Little, expressing his bleak hope for humanity.

White’s beautiful reply, found in Letters of Note, attempts to raise the man’s spirits.

Hang on to your hat. Hang on to your hope. And wind the clock, for tomorrow is another day.

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That’s it for this week, my friend.

As always, thanks for reading, I appreciate you!

Be well. Stay curious. See you again in two weeks, on April 27.

Warmly,

Kimberly