Women Are Driving Today’s Technology Trends

The digital camera got past being a high-tech toy the moment its sales surpassed film cameras in 2003. Now they are a staple and many households are already moving onto digital camera number two or three. Women are the traditional keepers of the family photo album, so it’s no surprise that women are taking over the digital camera, the home computer and making technology fit in the home, instead of the other way around.

And everybody has been talking about this in the consumer electronics association. Allsop even jumped on the trend with our Bridging Technology and Décor efforts.

In the media most recently, there’s CNET reporting on “Girl Gadgeteers” and Rent-To-Own Online is letting us know about the shrinking difference in Mother’s Day versus Father’s Day Consumer Electronics Sales. These are last week, but reports have been going for a few years now. Just as I think the story is getting old, it crops back up again.

The Consumer Electronics Association is really one group that has really been trying to follow the trend. For three years now, the Consumer Electronics Show has had a “Technology is a Girl’s Best Friend” product showcase. The problem? Practically all of the products in the showcase were geared toward the kitchen. And the lifestyle photos associated with the showcase were retro photos of June Cleaver-like women. This is really the wrong idea. Let’s not get stuck in the outdated women=kitchen stereotype. I know plenty of women who avoid the kitchen and have more hi-tech toys than I do.

I think my wife might have been slightly more excited about the 37-inch LCD purchase we made last Thanksgiving (only slightly, though). And she’s the one who always remembers the camera, and the iPod. And she’ll log more hours on our Powerbook.

A general marketing mantra applies here: lifestyle will outperform strategy every time. When a product or a category hits on a lifestyle trend or creates a lifestyle trend it will take off regardless of the strategy behind it. Technology is letting you save money on photo processing, save even more memories, de-clutter your living area, reclaim your home office, carry your entire music collection with you and call home from anywhere in the world. Technology has hit the point that it can be inculcated into the everyday lifestyle without being strapped to a desk and without lugging around 45 pounds of electronics. And it’s with digital cameras, MP3 players, flat-panel TVs, mobile phones and laptop computers.