Men consider marketing differently than women do. Many marketing books sport either infantry-division camouflage on the cover or war and sports analogies throughout. Scorched earth, damn the torpedoes marketing makes many women very uncomfortable. Women are about relationships, not killing. These relics of “old boys testosterone-heavy” marketing are offensive to women. Women didn’t grow up playing “war” like boys and even if they did play sports the friendships were often more important than the score.

It’s time for women to re-frame marketing and view it not as “killing the competition” but instead as “creating.”? Women create the entire human race. We can certainly give birth to, nurture and raise a successful business. Marketing is also about relationship building and that’s something women excel at.

People say, “Business should have no gender.” In a perfect world that’s absolutely true however the people in business do indeed have a gender.

–Denise Michaels, Testosterone-Free Marketing: Not Just Business as Usual