Like a lot of people around the world, earlier this summer my friends and I were obsessed with the Women's World Cup held in France.
就和世界上的很多人一样，这个初夏，我和朋友们着迷于法国举办的女子世界杯足球赛。
Here we are, watching these incredible athletes, the goals were amazing, the games were clean and engaging,
我们观看着这些惊人的运动员，每一粒入球都非常出色，比赛也很公平且令人着迷，
and at the same time, outside the field, these women are talking about equal pay,
但同时，在赛场外，那些女性们在谈论着平等薪酬，
and in the case of some countries, any pay at all for their sport.
甚至在有些国家，从事运动完全是义务的。
So because we were mildly obsessed, we wanted to watch the games live,
我们对比赛很感兴趣，所以就想看直播，
and we decided that one of the Spanish-speaking networks in the US was the best place for us to start.
之后我们决定在我们认为美国最好的一个西班牙语解说网络平台上观看。
And it wasn't until a few games into the tournament that a friend of mine talks to me and says,
直到前几场比赛结束后，我的一个朋友和我说：
"Why does it feel like everything I'm seeing is commercials for makeup and household cleaning products and diets?"
“为什么我觉得自己是在观看化妆品、家庭清洁产品以及减肥的商业广告？”
It did feel a little bit too obvious,
这确实感觉有点明显，
and I don't know if we were sensitive about it or the fact that we were watching with men and boys in our lives,
而且我也不知道我们是不是对此有点敏感，或者我们实际上正和身边的男人、男孩子们一起观看比赛，
but it did feel a little bit too obvious that we're being targeted for being women.
但这确实感觉有点明显，我们因身为女性而被定位成目标。
And to be honest there's nothing necessarily wrong with that.
老实说，这没什么错。
Someone sat down and looked at the tournament and said, "Well, this thing is likely to be seen by more women,
有人坐下，看着比赛，并且说，“好吧，这东西可能会被更多的女性看到，
these women are Hispanic because they're watching in Spanish, and this is women content.
这些女性是西班牙裔，因为她们正在看西班牙语女性主题的内容。
Therefore, this is a great place for me to place all these commercials that are female-centric and maybe not other things."
因此，这是一个很好的平台，让我投放所有这些以女性为中心的商业广告，而不是其他的东西。”
If I think about it as a marketer, I know that I absolutely should not be annoyed about it,
要是我从市场营销人员的角度思考，我知道我丝毫不应该被这些广告烦扰，
because this is what marketers are tasked with doing.
因为他们的任务就是做这个。
Marketers are tasked with building brands with very limited budget,
市场营销人员的任务就是在非常有限的预算下，建立品牌，
so there's a little bit of an incentive to categorize people in buckets so they can reach their target faster.
因此他们没什么动力对潜在客户进行分类，这样他们就可以更快地达成目标。
So if you think about this, it's kind of like a shortcut.
你可以把这当成一条捷径。
They're using gender as a shortcut to get to their target consumer.
他们正用性别作为一条捷径来触及目标客户。
The issue is that as logical as that argument seems, gender as a shortcut is actually not great.
问题在于，尽管这个论点似乎看起来符合逻辑，但性别作为一条捷径，实际上并不怎么样。
In this day and age, if you still blindly use a gender view for your marketing activities, actually it's just plain bad business.
如今，如果你仍旧盲目的在营销活动中使用性别来解决问题，老实说，这是一个糟糕的业务发展模式。
I'm not talking even about the backlash on stereotypes in advertising, which is a very real thing that has to be addressed.
我甚至不是在说广告中对刻板观念的抵制，尽管这是一个眼前必须要被解决的问题。
I'm saying it's bad business because you're leaving money on the table for your brands and your products.
我把这说成是糟糕的生意，因为你并没有把品牌和产品的利润最大化。
Because gender is such an easy thing to find in the market and to target and to talk about,
因为在市场中，性别是一个如此简单的参数，很容易定位，很容易被针对讨论，
it actually distracts you from the fun things that could be driving growth from your brands and, at the same time,
它会让你从最有趣的事情中分心，而这些事才会真正驱动你的品牌成长，与此同时，
it continues to create separation around genders and perpetuate stereotypes.
它还会继续加深性别分离，并永久化刻板观念。
So at the same time this activity is bad for your business and bad for society, so double whammy.
所以，这样的做法不但不利于你的业务发展，而且还有害于社会，是双重损害。
And gender is one of those things like other demographics that have historically been good marketing shortcuts.
性别就和其它的人口统计特征一样，长久以来都是市场营销的良好捷径。
At some point, however, we forgot that at the core we were targeting needs around cooking and cleaning and personal care and driving and sports
但是，从某个时刻开始，我们忘记了我们的核心目标自始至终都应定位在烹饪、清洁、个人护理、驾驶以及运动的需求，
and we just made it all a bucket and we said, "Men and women are different."
然而我们只是把它们混为一谈，之后我们说，“男人和女人不一样。”
We got used to it and we never challenged it again, and it's fascinating to me,
随后我们习惯了这一说辞，也再未挑战这一说辞，这个问题深深吸引了我，
and by fascinating I mean a little bit insane, that we still talk about this as a segment when it's most likely carryover bias.
确切的说，听起来有些疯狂：即，我们仍旧把性别作为一种市场细分方式谈论，即使它更像是延滞偏差。
In fact, I don't come to this conclusion lightly.
事实上，我并没有随意得出这一结论。
We have enough data to suggest that gender is not the best place to start for you to design and target your brands.
我们有足够的数据表明，性别并不是设计品牌、定位目标客户的最佳入手点。
And I would even go one step further: unless you are working in a very gender-specific product category,
我还想要更进一步：除非你负责的产品属于针对特定性别的产品类别，
probably anything else you're hypothesizing about your consumer right now is going to be more useful than gender.
不然你对消费者的任何其它假设可能都比性别有用。
We did not set up to draw this conclusion specifically. We found it.
我们没有为得出这个特定结论专门设计实验，而是发现了这个结论。
As consultants, our job is to go with our clients and understand their business
作为一个咨询顾问，我们的工作是和客户接触，熟悉他们的业务，
and try to help them find spaces for their brands to grow.
并尝试帮助他们寻找品牌成长空间。
And it is our belief that if you want to find disruptive growth in the market,
我们也相信如果你想要在市场中获得颠覆性增长，
you have to go to the consumer and take a very agnostic view of the consumer.
你必须接近消费者，不带任何假设的看待他们。
You have to go and look at them from scratch,
你必须从零开始去接近、观察他们，
remove yourself from biases and segments that you thought were important, just take a look to see where the growth is.
移除你自以为万分重要的偏见和细分，仅仅观察增长点在何处。
And we built ourselves an algorithm precisely for that.
我们为此专门开发了一个精确算法。
So imagine that we have a person and we know a person is making a choice about a product or service,
想象有一个人，我们知道这个人在做关于产品或服务的选择，
and from this person, I can know their gender, of course, other demographics, where they live, their income, other things.
我可以知道他们的性别，当然，还有其它人口统计特征，例如住址、收入以及其它信息。
I know the context where this person is making a decision,
我知道这个人是在什么环境下做出决定的：
where they are, who they're with, the energy, anything, and I can also put other things in the mix.
他们在哪，和谁一起，是否充满能量，各种各样的信息，我也可以把其它信息加入到算法中。
I can know their attitudes, how they feel about the category, their behaviors.
我可以知道他们的态度，他们对于产品分类是怎么想的，他们的行为。
So if you imagine this kind of blob of big data about a person
如果你想象一下关于一个人的大数据，
I'm going to oversimplify the science here but we basically built an algorithm for statistical tournaments.
我会过度简化背后的科学原理，但是我们基本算是为统计比赛开发了一个算法。
So a statistical tournament is like asking this big thing of data,
统计比赛通常会问关于大数据的问题：
"So, data, from everything you know about consumers at this point,
“数据，从目前你对这些顾客的了解，
what is the most useful thing I need to know that tells me more about what consumers need?"
关于顾客需求，什么是对我来说最有用的信息？”
So the tournament is going to have winners and losers.
既然是比赛，那就会有胜利者和失败者。
The winners are those variables, those dimensions, that actually teach you a lot about your consumer,
赢家是能准确告诉你关于顾客大量信息的那些变量、那些维度，
that if you know that, you know what they need.
倘若你获取那些信息，便能了解顾客需求。
And there's losing variables that are just not that practical, and this matters because in a world of limited resources,
而输家变量就是那些不太好用的，这很重要，因为在资源有限的世界里，
you don't want to waste it on people that actually have the same needs. So why treat them differently?
你不想在有相同需求的人身上浪费资源。为什么要区别对待他们呢？
So at this point, I know, suspense is not killing you, because I told you what the output is,
我知道你们的悬念已经解开了，因为我已经告诉你们结果是什么了，
but what we found over time is after 200 projects around the world -- this is covering 20 countries or more
但是随着时间推移，在覆盖了全球20多个国家的200个项目后，
in essence we ran about a hundred thousand of these tournaments,
我们跑了大约十万次的“统计比赛”，
and, no surprise, gender was very rarely the most predictive thing to understand consumer needs.
不出所料，对于了解顾客需求，性别的预测作用几乎微乎其微。
From a hundred thousand tournaments, gender only came out as the winning variable in about five percent of them.
从十万场的比赛中，性别仅在其中5%的比赛中，被证实为胜利变量。
This is true around the world, by the way.
顺便提一句，这是全球通用的结论。

We did this in places where traditional gender roles are a little more pronounced, and the conclusions were exactly the same.
我们也在有着比较明显的传统性别角色的地方做了统计，结论是完全一样的。
It was a little bit more important, gender, than five percent, but not material.
性别重要性占优的比赛略大于5%，但不构成重大影响。
So let's let that sink in for a second.
那么让我们好好思考一下这个结论。
No matter how you're looking at a consumer, most likely anything else is going to be more interesting to you than gender.
不管你现在如何看待消费者，任何一个信息，都很有可能比性别来的有趣。
There's probably something very important you need to know about them,
你可能需要知道关于消费者的一些重要的信息，
and you're getting distracted because you're doing everything based on gender.
但你会被分散注意力，因为你所有的工作都是基于性别。
And that's why I say you're leaving money on the table. Gender is easy.
这就是为什么我说你没有追求最大利润。性别是个很简单的参数。
It's easy to design advertising based on gender, it's easy to target people online and on TV based on gender.
基于性别来设计广告很容易，基于性别通过网络和电视定位目标人群也很容易。
But at the end, that's not where the exciting growth will come from.
但归根结底，最富有成效的增长并非来自性别差异。
If you're a food company, for example,
比如，如果你是一家食品公司，
it's actually much more interesting to you to know where people are eating, who they are eating with, are they very nutritionally oriented.
了解人们在哪吃饭，和谁吃，他们是否为营养导向，可能对你来说更加有趣。
All of those things are actually significantly more powerful and useful than knowing if a person is a man or a woman.
这些东西都比知道一个人的性别来得更加强大且有用。
And that matters, of course, because then if you're putting your limited budget into action,
这当然很重要，因为随后倘若你把有限的预算化作行动时，
then you're better off creating solutions for different occasions than trying to target women versus young men.
你将能更好地为不同场景制定不同解决方案，而非尝试以女性为目标，而忽视年轻男性。
Another example is alcoholic beverages.
另一个例子是酒精饮料。
Thirty-five percent to 40 percent of consumption in alcoholic beverages around the world actually happens with women,
全球酒精饮料中35%-40%的消费实际上是来自女性，
but, you know, "women don't drink beer." Those are the things that we typically hear.
但是，你知道，“女人不喝啤酒。”这些是我们经常听到的言论。
But actually, when a man and a woman are, for the most part, in the same location,
但事实上，当一个男性和一个女性在同一地点，通常在那一时刻，
the emotional and functional needs they have at that moment are very similar.
他们的情感和功能需求是非常相似的。
There's only one exception, by the way, and the exceptions exist, where if you have a man and a woman on a date,
不过，只有一个例外，并且这个例外是存在的，如果一个男性和一个女性在约会，
the man is trying to impress the woman and the woman is trying to connect with the man,
那这个男性为了给女性留下深刻印象，而这个女性反过来也尝试与男性建立联系，
so there's going to be a little bit of tension, but that's important to know. We'll take a few dates.
那情况就大不一样了，但知道这个情况很重要。我们需要多观察几次约会。
Financial institutions: that's something where we've heard a lot about the difference between men and women,
金融机构：男女的不同之处是我们已经研究了很多的话题，
but actually talking about men and women as different is distracting you from the thing that is underneath.
但实际区分男女的不同正在分散你的注意力。
We made it so simple as "women don't like to invest," "women hate managing their money,"
我们只是粗略将其简化成：“女性不喜欢投资”，“女性讨厌理财”，
"men are great and aggressive and risk-takers," but at the end it's not about men and women.
“男性很优秀，比较激进，也能够承担风险”，但最终这并非关于男性和女性。
It is actually a different narrative.
我们应该采用一个不同的叙述。
It is about, there are people that are excited and energized and educated to manage their finances versus people that are not.
这是关于：很多精力充沛且充满活力的人受到了“理财”教育，而有些人没有。
So if you change the conversation from men and women to actually what's underneath
所以如果你把话题从男女性别改变为对真正根本原因的专注，
then probably you'll stop being so condescending to women
随后你可能会不再对女性抱有居高临下的态度，
and you may start serving some men that are actually shy about managing their finances.
并且你可能会开始为羞于理财的男性提供服务。
I'll leave one more example. If I go back to the women that were playing sport at the beginning,
我会再给大家一个例子。回到最开始的女运动员，
one of the fascinating things we found over different countries, exploring sportswear,
在历览各国的运动服后，我们发现了一件有趣的事情，
that if a person is a competitive person and they are in the moment of action, the needs are not different between a man and a woman.
如果一个人具有竞争力，那么在运动时刻，男女对衣着的要求并无差别。
An athlete is an athlete. It doesn't matter for men and women, it doesn't matter for old and young,
一个运动员，就是一个运动员。不管是男是女，不管是年长是年幼，
you are an athlete, and in the moment of action and extreme competition, you need this gear to work for you.
你是一个运动员，并且在运动的时刻，在激烈竞技比赛中，你需要这个能支撑你运动表现的装备。
So these soccer-playing women have a lot in common with their counterparts.
所以这些女性足球运动员和男性足球运动员有很多共同之处。
Out of the field, it doesn't matter.
在赛场外，不要紧。
Out of the field, they may be into fashion, into other things, but on the field, the needs are not different.
在赛场外，她们可能喜欢时尚，或是有别的兴趣，但是在赛场上，男女的需求是一致的。
So these are just a few examples on categories where we found that gender was not the best place to go,
那么这些只是我们发现性别差距很小的几个案例，
and actually the argument is that at this point it's not even a feminist push, it's just we got used to it.
实际上，我们的论点是在当代，这甚至不是由于女权主义者的推动，这只是我们长久的习惯。
We got used to using gender, and it's important for us
我们习惯用性别，而且对我们来说，
to start finding ways to measure other things about consumers so that we don't revert back to gender.
去寻找如何衡量客户的其它特征也很重要，这样我们就不用回到性别主宰的时代。
I am not naïve, and I know there's still going to be appetite
我并不幼稚无知，我知道有人依旧会喜欢使用性别，
and certain ease around using gender, but at least this warrants a conversation.
而且这也存在一定的便利性，但至少这值得被讨论。
In your business, you have to inquire, is this really the best lens for me to grow.
在你的业务中，你需要扪心自问：这真的是我企业增长的最佳着手点吗？
So, if you are, like me, a person that is in business,
如果你和我一样，是一个生意人，
that I am constantly worried about what is my role in the broader societal discussions,
经常担忧自己在更广泛的社会讨论中所承担的角色；
if you're listening to your business and you hear things like,
如果关于你的业务，你听到的是，
"Oh, my target are women, my target are men, this goes to young girls, young boys,"
“哦，我的目标是女性/我的目标是男性，这个针对的是小女孩/小男孩。”
when it's that gender conversation, unless you are working, again, in a very specific, gender-specific product category,
当这样的性别导向对话出现的时候，再次声明，除非你的产品属于针对特定性别的类别，
take this as a warning sign, because if you keep having these conversations,
把它当作一个警告信号，因为如果你一直持续这样的对话，
you will keep perpetuating stereotypes of people and making people think that men and women are different.
你将会不断持续加深人们的刻板印象，让人们觉得男女有别。
But because this is business, and we're running a business,
但因为这是生意，我们在做生意，
and we want to grow it, at least kind of challenge your own instinct to use gender,
而且我们想要实现业务增长，至少挑战一下你想要使用性别的直觉，
because statistics say that you're probably not choosing the best variable to target your product or service.
因为数据统计表明：在为产品或服务设定目标客户时，你可能并没有选择一个最好的变量。
Growth is not easy at all.
实现业务增长着实不简单。
What makes you think that growth is going to come from going into market with such an outdated lens like gender?
是什么让你觉得利用这样过时的方法，例如性别，可以带来业务增长？
So let's stop doing what's easy and go for what's right.
所以，让我们停止做“方便”的事，而是选择“正确”的事。
At this point, it's not just for your business, it's for society. Thank you.
不仅是为了你的生意，也是为了社会的健康发展。谢谢。