LibGuides: Women and Advertising: Marketing to Women

Strategies for Marketing to Women

Jean Kilbourne Papers, 1918-2014 and undated
Jean Kilbourne is a media critic, feminist author, teacher, and documentary filmmaker based in Massachusetts. The collection contains research material, advertising tear sheets, research reports and books focusing on various topics relating to women in the media: marketing tobacco and alcohol to women, body image, sex roles, sexism, violence and stereotyping.
J. Walter Thompson Company, Account Files, 1885-2008 and undated, bulk 1920-1995
Account files generally include deliberations and rationales for marketing strategies, sales figures for evaluating success, and case histories for individual marketing campaigns. Corporate clients whose products were marketed primarily to women include Chesebrough-Pond’s, the Andrew Jergens Company, Oneida Limited, Standard Brands, American Home Products, Christian Dior, Elizabeth Arden, Procter & Gamble, and more. (For a complete list of clients, refer to the JWT Domestic Advertisements Collection collection guide or the Clients Lists in JWT Publications.)
J. Walter Thompson Company. Advertising Vertical Files, 1950-1994
These subject files collected for internal company reference include materials on advertising to women by specific ad agencies, biographies of women in advertising, women as an advertising target group, and one folder labeled "Advertising—Types—Women" in Box 34.
Rena Bartos Papers, 1960-1998 and undated, bulk 1975-1991
A pioneer in the field of marketing to women, Rena Bartos directed research at the McCann Erickson advertising agency before becoming a Senior Vice President at JWT, and then staring her own consulting firm in 1987. The collection includes the texts of and research materials for speeches and publications on the role of women in advertising, marketing to women, the value and methods of qualitative marketing research, and the psychological aspects of advertising. The bulk of this work dates to the 1970s and 1980s. Of particular note are her books The Moving Target: What Every Marketer Should Know About Women and Marketing to Women around the World, as well as additional materials on marketing to women in India and South America.
J. Walter Thompson Company. Colin Dawkins Papers, 1776-1986
In the late 1970s, former JWT Vice President Colin Dawkins began work on a book-length company history. The project was never published. The research materials he gathered for this effort consist of employee biographies, client account histories, and taped interviews with key company figures, including several women. The collection also includes materials on strategies for marketing to women.
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Use the collection guide to find individual biography files in the Officers and Staff Series, 1873-1976.

The Client Series, 1895-1979 contains account histories and descriptions of ad campaigns for Chesebrough- Pond’s, the Fleischmann Company, Kraft, Lever Brothers, the Ford Motor Company, and other major clients. Some folders contain materials addressing the use of women and children in ads, the use of women copywriters, and other strategies for targeting women as consumers. Box 14 in this series contains a clippings file labeled "Women in Advertising."

The Oral Interviews Series 1979-1980 includes transcripts of interviews with several women executives. Some transcripts are annotated by the interviewees. Refer to the collection guide for an alphabetical list of these. Access to the audio recordings requires written permission from the interviewee or their descendants.
Diamond Information Center Vertical File, 1930s-1980s
The Diamond Information Center (DIC) operates as the public relations division of the diamond marketing group at J. Walter Thompson on behalf of De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd. This collection includes materials on how to market diamonds to women of all ages, for engagements, fashion accessorizing, anniversaries, and Valentine’s Day.

Print Materials - Market Research and Reports

The following is a sample of notable market research reports on the "women's market" which are filed as rare books in our library catalog. Note that many more market research reports can be found by searching the collection guides. Many major advertising agencies which are held by the Hartman Center (especially J. Walter Thompson; D'Arcy, Masius, Benton & Bowles; Bates Worldwide; and BBDO) conducted their own market research ("proprietary"), or simply collected "non-proprietary" market research reports of their own.