Real You: Yes, even our knees are different

Posted on | October 19, 2008 |

     I was ecstatic to see the Zimmer Gender Knee advertising campaign while back. First, because I was facing a knee replacement myself in the near future, and second, because I hadn’t even considered the fact that there wasn’t a knee for women. I was astounded, in fact, that the folks who make knees just figured out the three distinct differences between men’s and waomen’s knees. Hmmm.

     The tagline - the knee women are talking about - is true. Women are the majority of knee replacement patients. As I sat waiting for my last pre-op appointment, one look around the waiting room confirmed it. I sat next to a woman who was in to se a different doctor for a foot problem. I mentioned how happy I was they had invented women’s knees, and she said, that explained her great aunt’s problem with her knee replacement. They were huge, she said, and they weighed her down.

     I hope my knee fits and doesn’t weigh me down. I’m glad that there are now knees for women.

     Makes me wonder what other products could be redesigned to specifically accomodate a woman’s physical or psychological make-up, and then be marketed as such. Directly. Compellingly.

     Seems like a marketing to women basic. Smart move, Zimmer. I’m hoping after the surgery I’ll be moving better and singing the Gender Knee’s benefits not only from a marketing case study, but from the inside out.

     Kaira Sturdivant Rouda is the author of Real You Incorporated: 8 Essentials for Women Entrepreneurs.

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