Method, the home care products manufacturer, recently released a commercial targeting women (in more ways than one) to advertise their eco-friendly shower cleaner. When I see commercials like this that connect with their demographics so poorly, I always wonder, “Who approved this?”

Method has done a pretty good job of removing the commercial from everywhere it’s been posted. Here’s the only place I could find it online: Watch Video.

Read more about it here.

As a female that is somewhat interested in preserving the environment, I represent their most likely consumer. And as much as the commercial bothered me, I still bought an all-natural shower cleaner the next day. However, I didn’t buy their brand.

The whole thing is a good reminder of the importance of not just knowing your audience, but knowing how to communicate with them. The same applies to web design. A cool flash website may have all the information necessary to sell your product or service, but is it alienating your customers with too much trendiness or loading time or just annoying music? Clean page formats that present your information in an accessible way may be boring to a web designer that stares at designs all day, but you have to design with your customers’ communication needs in mind.

If your website has great information that’s presented in a way that turns people off, you’re advertising for your competition.