J Law hailed as marketing saviour

Jennifer Lawrence may be many things – Coldplay singer Chris Martin’s latest squeeze included – but apparently her mass appeal could make her the saviour of the marketing industry, according to one so-called branding expert.
So says a rather bullish press release from branding agency Fresh Britain, which says managing director Bob Sheard reckons hit movies such as The Hunger Games have a mass appeal which most modern brands fail to achieve.
It goes on: “In some instances, brands are getting gender-based marketing seriously wrong, the most recent case being Protein World’s ‘beach body ready’ campaign, which saw a huge negative backlash from many women.
“While many brands market themselves to men, with often only tokenistic efforts to reach women, Sheard believes females make the majority of spending decisions.”
Bizarrely Sheard insists brands could look to Hollywood – hardly a bastion of feminity – to better understand how to appeal to women.
He asserts that many of the highest grossing movies of the past three decades have featured highly competent, assertive and powerful women archetypes as their female leads – from Sigourney Weaver in Alien, through films such as Tomb Raider, Million Dollar Baby, Kill Bill, and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.
But Hollywood’s trend for strong women leads has perhaps found an ultimate hero in the shape of The Hunger Games’ Katniss Everdeen, played by Jennifer Lawrence in a franchise which has to date taken more than $2.3 billion at the box office.
Sheard added: “Hollywood is one of the most risk adverse industries in the world. They only back something if it’s a winner.
“Every year for the last three decades we have seen a blockbuster film rake in millions at the box office with a strong female character action character at the centre.
“Brands have also got to stop thinking that they know best when communicating with women and must turn away from the out-dated concept of pinking and shrinking. Marketing to women can’t be patronising and brands can’t assume that just because it ticks certain ‘pink’ boxes it’s going to appeal to the females.”
So, don’t say you haven’t been told…