Sex sells

shockym

shockym

New member
I am always thinking about the ads I see online (or even in Ping!) where there is a cute ladie advertising about web hosting. How often does this really work and is it something that most all companies out there are doing? We never did but I think that also might have something to do with me being a lady too. :D
 
If sex can sell cars and beer, why not webhosting? It's the universal common denominator. And no, we haven't gone that route yet.
 
There was a study released a year ago or so with relation to women and webhosting. We used portions of the study in our evaluation for the redesign of Hands-on. One of the things that were discovered is that MEN are more likely to click the live chat button if we have a picture of a woman than if it was a picture of a man, or just a graphic. Women on the other hand it didn't have any effect whether it was a picture of a man or a woman.

There's many studies out there about what works for who :) The world of marketing is a facinating world!
 
SEX DEFINITELY SELLS!

And, it doesn't even matter what you're selling..You'll see diaper commercials with young, sexy moms in them, or tall well groomed dads. The subconscious mind is very easy to influence.

GoDaddy is a good example. Them girls will make guys who never heard of, or even know what a domain name is, go to the website and purchase one after watching one of their commecials. :agree:
 
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I remember specifically UK2 (VPS.net etc) making a post about the current (new - during a sales period) site design revolving around this. In particular they trialled both a female and male on the homepage advertisements, choosing the female after monitoring both images over a period however the details posted on the blog detailed it was “choice” however this was also followed by the lines “by popular demand”.

However most hosting providers seems to advertise utilising both sexes, though many support links and off site links feature females only. Though some use nether, though it must be working if “everyone” is doing it.
 
It certainly does! It will be interesting to see how many people view this thread simply because of the title! :) I wonder if women turn away from the ads/sites that use women to promote their products.
 
Us men have to be the horney ones. The Rack Mount Micro nice racks ad in Ping Zine for both Christmas and St. Patricks day got my attention. It works and works well. Hell look at some of the most popular sites Playboy & Go Daddy. Like you don't watch the Dallas cowboys cheer camp and the Sports Illustrated Shoot.
 
It is a obvious feeling between a opposite sex people ( for normal people) , normally you would not try to interact with any guy regarding a inquiry... so it is just a normal nature of the people that drive them to opp sex
 
Even Godaddy has a "girl of the month" or whatever it is they call it. Usually a beautiful lady wearing motorcycle clothes. Personally I think advertising of this type is a sign you have become big enough to pay alot of money to a marketing company :)
 
^ I think those bold & beautiful girls are GoDaddy's employees those participate in events & promotional activities organized by the company.
 
There is nothing that would make me work with GD again, even though ladies. And no offense to the good looking ladies out there who are geeks, but I doubt they could run around a console all day and still look that hot.

I know that it sells, but sometimes for me, being a lady in the industry, its a PITA.
 
We're in a very sexist industry. I try to be very careful of what segment of the market we potentially alienate. It's funny, according to our demographics on our site, our main page gets more then 63% female visits - so as a result what do we do? We cator toward our market ;)
 
:dknow: I know I should have known what PITA meant, but I had to look it up in my urban dictionary just now. LOL.
 
That makes sense Conor just sometimes I am reminded that there are still those (not here that I have seen) that think its all about the "man's role in the company" - thankfull I do not work with anyone like that, but I do see it a great deal online from various places.

And sorry to have you look that up, but I try to keep my sailor mouth offline and deff. away from the business world. :D
 
One of my friend's nicknames was PITA (still is I'm sure). For years she just thought a few of the old timers just had a pet name for her - she never knew there was meaning behind it ;) She does now, and she lives up to it too! ;)
 
There are some times when that could come in handy for a lady. Sometimes I am told I should just be called drill sgt. (this happens esp. with exec work meetings). There I am the only female and it seems the guys like to "side talk" quite a bit. :D
 
It's all about who you are targeting and who the decision maker is. If you're assuming that sec appeal may attact people to keep browsing your site then go for it. Sometimes people just want to keep people thinking about your brand and that may do the trick as well.

Do what you think is necessary to keep your brand in their mindset.

Hope that helps.
 
Sex may sell, but it really depends on who the target market is. Some people may find suggestive marketing to be something that makes them NOT want to use the Web host, although it no doubt will attract others to do the opposite. Marketing people should pay more attention to what their target market looks for and is attracted to, and not just try to use sex appeal for everything.
 
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