Pretty In Pink

I’m a girl. I like techy stuff and toys and shiny shiny oooh pretty what do this bit do. So why, instead of appealing to me and making me go OOH WANT NOW, does this laptop make me annoyed?

It links back, I guess, to the quick post I made recently about the Diet Coke can which was inexplicably covered in pink leopard print (I love the comments I recieved on that post – mostly comparing the print to a skin disease)

As a woman, I am supposed to see these items that have been repackaged in a pink casing, and want it instantly. Except – I’m a woman who likes technology that does what its supposed to whilst looking good, being fairly priced…in other words, I want exactly the same from my technology purchases as most men do.

Why is gender an issue in this market anyway? For someone who wants to make an expensive purchase, then the colour of the item shouldn’t really come into it. It seems odd that we are still using the stereotype that pink is for girls, but usually the other option is either black or silver. Apple, using the iPod Nano as an example, have the right idea, by selling the Nano in every colour possible. Looking at the rest of the product range, items are only available in white, black or silver – a colour scheme that would fit in with most peoples lives.

Perhaps the colour differentiation relates to the market segment it is aiming for – by that I mean the more expensive an item is, the less likely it is to be a “novelty” colour. When buying a camera, you wouldn’t expect to see a fuchsia SLR offering from Canon or Nikon, but the cheaper brands such as Fuji or the supermarket own brands will usually have a pinky offering. Going back to the example of Apple, their laptops cost a minimum of £800. When PC World can sell laptops for £300, this places Apple into the mid price range. The cheap laptops from Advent, Toshiba, Acer, etc, need to find a way to differentiate themselves in the low end market, and what better than the colour (because creating a better spec’ed item would be a crazy idea!)

I was wasting time in the Carphone Warehouse last weekend (why did it take so long for them to sign the boy up to a new contract with a HTC Desire? Annoying!) and noticed this phone, the Samsung Diva.

Even the name alone annoys me. It was advertised with the following features:

• “a catwalk-ready mobile that can easily pop into your favourite handbag and be taken anywhere.
• “3D quilted panel, shimmering, pearl essence finish and diamond-shaped home key ensures that it is show stopping.”
• Fake phone call feature – get out of awkward situations
• Shopping list tool which “creates wish lists of your favourite fashion fixes”
• Beauty effect on photos – for “glam finishing touches”

Honestly, I was reading this list of items, and felt embarrassed that this sort of marketing works on anyone. Sorry Samsung, and all the other “lets shove some ‘fashion’ type stuff to get women to buy this” – I’ll never buy anything thats just had some pink plastic stuck on it.