Nine West's New Campaign

In the last 24 hours, I have gotten so many comments on this new campaign from Nine West -- and all from women.

It reminds me of when Pantene launched their "stereotypes" campaign not too long ago.  I got flooded with requests to write about it, as social media caught on fire with those for and against the messaging.

I asked several of the women who reached out to me what they thought, and I got a very interesting initial reaction:   "well, I'm not in the target audience."

Most went on to tell me that they found it offensive, but the clear sentiment is that the shoes must be for "other women" or perhaps "the younger generation" or for "women who wouldn't be offended."

So I changed my opinion on the campaign.  At first, I felt annoyed that here we have another brand either leveraging or keeping alive old stereotypes.  I had that same reaction with the Pantene work at first.  Can't we let this stuff go already?

But now that I've thought it through more, with the help of a few shoe shoppers, I realize that this is about targeting.  It's psychographic targeting.  And for that, it's quite smart IMHO.

Nine West is sending a message to its consumers, getting them to relate to the brand on a common ground and on a shared view on life.  So of course there are going to be women who love it, and then there are going to be women who think it's offensive.  That's because they can't relate to it.  It's not targeted to them.

Great targeting means you are not going to appeal to everyone all of the time.  You have to focus and choose those who you want to pull into the brand, and then relate directly to them and how they live their lives.  That's what Nine West has done with their campaign.

So what do you think?  What's your experience?  JIM.