Is gender a meaningful way to segment office products customers?

OfficeMax is now targeting working women (aged 28-45) according to this Ad Age article (click here). They have launched a new ad campaign called 'Life is Beautiful' (click here), targeted squarely at women.

OfficeMax is known for unusual promotions like it's hugely popular three-year old Elf Yourself holiday promotion, which allows customers to convert themselves (or their friends) into animated elves and send it to others. Their Back-to-School 2008 campaign "Power to the Penny" and their "A Day Made Better" program have been noticed by many business writers.

Officemax spends approximately half the money that Office Depot spends on advertising and only a fourth of what Staples spends.

Is this unusual way of segmenting the office products market (working women) a good idea?

I think this is a brilliant idea only so long as OfficeMax does not alienate the male buyers.

• None of the other major players (Staples, Office Depot) actively target the working woman, a significant portion of the working population.
  
• Research studies have shown that women hate shopping for office supplies
  
• I assume that mothers make a lot of buying decisions during Back-to-School season as well (for their kids).
• However the risk that OfficeMax runs is that men may not like to associate themselves with a store that is seen as 'feministic'.
  
• Also the purchasing departments of many corporates may not be affected by gender-specific advertising. (When is the last time, you as an employee told your purchasing department where to buy printing paper and office supplies from?)

Let me know what you think...

Is Woolworth's online rebirth a good idea?

Woolworth's, the iconic hundred-year old British retail store chain, was forced into administration in December. It had to shut its 800 stores after Christmas. Click here to get a wonderful series of blog articles on the history and trivia of Woolworths UK.

If you permit me some diversions, here are some interesting trivia:

• Woolworths was started in the US (Yes, the Woolworth building belonged to FW Woolworth). The first UK store opened 30 years after the first US store!
• Woolworth in the UK (also called the Woollies) is not related to Woolworths in Australia, NZ, South Africa and Mexico
• The remnant of FW Woolworths Company in the USA is Foot Locker, the sportswear store chain!
• Woollies continue to operate successfully in Germany

Yesterday, Shop Direct, UK's largest online and home shopping retailer (1.6 BN GBP) announced that it has acquired the Woolworth's brands in the UK and will relaunch it online (click here).

Is relaunching the Woolworth's brand online a good idea?

I don't know how much Shop Direct paid for Woolies, but going by this newspaper article, they would have paid a few tens of millions of GBP. I think it is a brilliant idea because:

1. Woolworths is a strong brand in the UK. many generations of Britishers have gone through the shopping experience at their local Woollies. Here's an interesting TimesOnline column on the big void left by Woolies demise.
   
2. They were rated as one the top 200 brands of retailing by Deloitte as recently as January 2008 (click here).

Woolies is dead. Long live Woolies !