Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Bicycling = a "man" thing? A marketing criticism.

Today I received the bill for a magazine I recently subscribed to. Apparently, I am not a member of the target audience for this magazine, because I also received the following advertisement:

















As a woman, reading things like "Rocket your muscles to MASSIVE SIZE and EXPLOSIVE POWER!" and "HUGE in a HURRY" (apparently all-caps and extra exclamation points in ads appeal to men?) only makes me laugh. It's interesting to see how men are marketed to, and what magazines expect their highest priorities to be.

But I would also like to know where the right magazine is for female cycling enthusiasts. The bill I received today is for a bicycling magazine, but apparently their primary audience is men. In women's magazines, even fitness or health magazines, bicycling is rarely mentioned, compared to running, elliptical training, yoga, etc... 

Is there a magazine out there for female cyclists that I'm just not aware of? I would love to know if anyone out there can point me to one. Or maybe I should start one of my own? Is there enough of an audience that such a publication could be sustained? Just as a point of reference, there are 21,000+ people that "Like" Trek Women on Facebook, versus 29,000+ that "Like" Bicycling Magazine. 

Maybe I'm more worked up because I really want it to be spring so I can go mountain biking again. But I think my "wonderings" are valid... what do you think?

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