Are You Offending Potential Customers?

You want your marketing to appeal to your ideal customer. Hopefully you’ve taken the time to thoroughly understand who your customer is, what she wants, and how to appeal to her. You want to connect. But you also want to be edgy and interesting and new. None of the old, stodgy marketing for you. It’s all about the new and shiny. Except for one thing: sex sells. You’ve heard that mantra for so long that you go with it. Throw a little sex in that marketing plan! Spice it up!

Wait. Go back to your customer profile. What is this person’s age? Income? What are her hobbies? Now think again about your marketing. Do you want to titillate — or offend? Using sex in your marketing will have you walking a fine line. If you’re only after a young, edgy crowd you just might get by with it.

But if you want to attract a more affluent, closer to middle age customer, then you need to consider exactly how far you should push the sexual content. A little innuendo, a little suggestiveness may not hurt. After all, people don’t seem to be too offended by little ms. green M&M vamping it up. But push as far as Hardee’s, Burger King, or Mars candy and your customers may push back.

Don’t forget that there’s a vast amount of people between LA and New York that prefer marketing to be honest, straightforward, and family-friendly. And if you want longevity for your company or product, you should probably make sure that you’re speaking to the largest group possible. That doesn’t mean you have to be boring. Just tone it down a little, will you?

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