It's about the execution, or, Almost but not quite

So, even women get marketing to women wrong.  Link to article  However, it should be noted that this niche vodka is being started by Brown Foreman, one of the largest alcohol companies in the country.  I suspect that the women employees who created this brand and campaign were so used to "thinking inside the box" that they couldn't really be ground breaking.

From the Huffington Post:

Though there has been a lot of discussion in the news about who gets to make decisions about and for women these days, a new product is promising to relieve women of at least one "complicated" choice: what they drink. Little Black Dress Vodka's mission statement is to simplify the lives of the women it wishes to serve (or rather, be served to): "Too many people are intimidated by complicated cocktail recipes and ingredients. We wanted to design a brand all about women, accentuating ease and superb taste."

The company's press release announces that the brand is by women, for women (the concept, production, legal, brand management and finance heads are all women, according to the press release), and it's great to see female entrepreneurs going after a major share of the market -- women, after all, make 80 percent of household purchasing decisions. But it's hard to see why a group of women running their own liquor company (women who have arguably already reached some level of success in the liquor market) would imply that the "people" intimidated by complicated recipes are actually just one kind of people: the half of the population with an X chromosome.

Little Black Dress Vodka is only the latest alcohol brands to specifically target women with tired promises of ease, low calories and the cache of showing your "good taste" -- even while implying that women don't have the "taste" to discern between good and bad liquor without help.

So here's the bottom line:  the idea is a good one, BUT, it is all about execution.  And so far, none of the brands have got it right.

Here's a link to a more positive article, which highlights Brown Foreman's role:  http://www.marketwatch.com/story/brown-forman-designs-vodka-line-targeting-women-2012-02-22