For so long, the advent of technology has been pitched as a way to transform mankind, revolutionise our day-to-day lives and integrate our every need with technology. However, mankind has been exactly its target market and women have noticed.
When Apple launched its expansive healthcare app, HealthKit, it lacked even the most basic of female-focused features such as a period tracker. Chief marketing officer at Elvie highlighted that “women have effectively been screaming for a solution and it’s falling on deaf ears…so many moments of women’s lives have never been touched by technology. Women have pretty much been forgotten in terms of innovation”.
Thankfully, there has been a huge boom in medical femtech, with primarily female innovators and CEOs with their fingers on the pulse. From fertility biosensors, to labour monitoring devices for women in rural areas, to pelvic floor trainers, the market is flourishing and is estimated to be worth $50 billion by 2025.
The Elvie Pump is silent, cordless and wearable. It is based on the revelatory insight that women’s lives have changed considerably since 1854, when the breast pump was invented, so maybe it is time that the technology caught up. The appetite for these long-overdue innovations is palpable and the figures prove it; the Elvie pelvic floor trainer has seen 50% quarter-over-quarter growth since its launch in 2015 and has been adopted by the NHS.
Instead of turning products pink and producing endless ads in which women whimsically roller-skate to prove the effectiveness of their personal hygiene products, what could your brand do to break down taboos and meet a genuine need of female consumers for excellent and essential tech?
After all, 49.6% of the world’s population isn’t a marginal market.