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• 1 media/Pale Pink CGE Mixer.jpg 2025-03-27T12:07:34-04:00 General Electric's Strategic Marketing 59 image_header 2025-03-28T12:28:37-04:00

  Exploring Initiatives Targeting Women

  By unboxing the artefacts print manual, it is evident that General Electrics heavily marketed the appliance towards women expressed through features such as illustrations depicting slender fingers with nail polish. These finer details would begin to influence the company's advertising campaigns from 1959 to 1960.
  
  

  
  Video Advertisements Promoting the Mixer

  General Electrics initially advertised the mixer through generic commercials and later began to implement unique concepts including jingles and theme songs (electricitytheory, 2016). Within a majority of the media content women were directly or subtly incorporated. This is exemplified in the 1959 GE Mixer Ad that promoted a new drink attachment that heavily correlated homemaking with femininity with the men present merely observing the woman as she demonstrates how to use the add-on appliance (electricitytheory, 2016). Moreover, the mixer was not only promoted as a daily efficient tool to speed up a woman’s workload but included a collective shift towards visually appreciating and displaying the appliance for its aesthetic value (electricitytheory, 2016). 
  

  Referencing a 1960s Blender Ad, though not specifically related to the mixer, is an important example of a unique marketing strategy (RetroShtuff, 2022). Through the creation of a specialized theme song, General Electrics produced a one-minute advertisement promoting their blender, all while indirectly targeting the content towards women (RetroShtuff, 2022). During the concluding shots the camera pans to a woman's arm as she interacts with the product while incorporating dialogue narrated by a female (RetroShtuff, 2022).

  Magazine Advertisements Promoting the Mixer

  
  In observing these ads, a noticeable pattern in marketing the mixer is that General Electrics placed a significant emphasis on the functionality of the appliance and its ability to streamline tasks all while allowing women to take ownership of their time. Additionally, varying elements and add-ons that improved the performance of the mixer were often highlighted including its weight, the detachable cord and its various mixing speeds (electricitytheory, 2016). However, its greatest selling point resulted from its physical design with an ad from a 1962 Ladies’ Home Journal stating “Have you ever seen a prettier looking Portable Mixer? Kitchen-proud homemakers like that!” (Green, 2019). 

• 1 media/Screen Shot 2025-04-08 at 6.34.49 AM.png 2025-03-21T13:14:53-04:00 Artefact Inspection 21 plain 2025-04-08T06:45:10-04:00

  
  components of the mixer gift set.. things we noticed. things that inspired our research questions and direction. 

  As a Product
  
  
  
  
  
  The package contains the mixer, beaters, whipping disc, manual and warranty. When you look at the packaging, the first thing you notice are the neutral pastel colors, which are yellow, beige, and blue, most likely targeted at women, as these colors are often associated with a soft, calm, and elegant aesthetic. The titles on the box use three different fonts and the GE logo appears on every side, which is unusual compared to modern packaging. This was likely due to ensuring brand visibility from all angles, making it recognizable even when displayed on store shelves or in a home setting. The packaging is intended for a gift display, either in a store or at home. This is evident from the big title “Gift Set” at the front and the pop-up on the back, which acts like an easel, allowing the box to stand up and be showcased. 
  
  Components
  
  
  The manual is sectioned into two languages, English and French, making it accessible to a wider audience. It contains important information such as safety, instructions on how to use the product, and a selection of quick-to-make Western recipes. 
  
  Observations
  
  
  
  
  Guiding Questions
  
  Note: Model M7A is one variation of its product range that is only found to differ from other models of the same design by feature and voltage capacity. Our approach to researching this artefact has, then, investigated the physicality of this range of mixers, its social and design connotations, and the society it was introduced into, among other aspects. Majority of the information found online and in archival matter concerns models M7A and M47. 
  
  What this artefact uncovered: