What you need to know
- Acer recently unveiled its Nitro V 14 gaming laptop during IFA 2024.
- The Nitro V 14 is a mid-range gaming laptop with up to an NVIDIA RTX 4050 inside.
- Acer's marketing of the Nitro V 14 caused controversy when the company explained that the white design of the laptop is for "women and casual gamers."
Last week at IFA 2024, Acer unveiled its Nitro V 14 gaming laptop. The PC looks impressive, but its specs and shape will be overshadowed by its colorway, at least for a while. The laptop is white, which is relatively rare in the PC laptop space, but it was how Acer presented that color that turned heads. When Acer announced the Nitro V 14, the company labeled the PC as one designed for women.
"Women and casual gamers are on the rise, and so is the search for a gaming laptop that is not just powerful, but also beautiful," said Acer's Valerie Piau. The laptop is, at least in my opinion, "elegant," "beautiful," and "sophisticated," as Acer said. I don't understand, however, why the laptop was described as for women and casual gamers. It seems I'm not alone.
Our sibling site, Laptop Mag, has an exclusive piece breaking down the Acer Nitro V 14 announcement. The outlet spoke with Eric Ackerson, Associate Director of Product Marketing at Acer, about the announcement. Despite working at Acer, Ackerson strongly disapproved of how Acer framed the laptop.
"I think it's absolutely horrible to try and say [white] is a gender-related color," said Ackerson. "I think it's demeaning, and I think it doesn't give women credit for having a style."
Marketing challenges
Marketing is more complicated than it appears at first glance. I've worked in marketing in the past and also speak with PR and marketing folks regularly. Getting a product in front of specific groups of consumers can be difficult and requires industry knowledge, contextual awareness, and creativity. Often, you have to be willing to be bold to succeed in marketing. As a result, campaigns will see mixed results and sometimes prove controversial.
Cultural differences come into play, which is why some ad campaigns work well in one market and flop in another. Coca-Cola infamously failed in its attempt to market Dasani in the UK when it used a slogan that included a word used casually in the United States, but that was sexual in the United Kingdom. Mashed has a great recap of that strange saga. There were issues other than marketing, but the slogan didn't help.
Indeed, in the PC space, this marketing isn't novel, at least for Eastern markets. ASUS recently announced a scented laptop aimed at women in China, and Microsft even dabbled with a pink Surface Laptop (also for China) in 2018.
Linking back to Acer's recent laptop announcement, I doubt Acer intended to upset anyone. However, the reality is that Acer's comments came across poorly, at least in certain markets. Besides the obvious fact that some people just like white laptops instead of black laptops, grouping together women gamers and casual gamers is poor phrasing.
I suppose Acer could have made things worse by including a bunch of stereotypes in its laptop designs. Kudos for avoiding cliches.
I'm all in favor of more colorful gaming laptops. Way too many PCs are limited to gray or black. I'm admittedly confused by the apparent need to label a laptop as for women. Surely, a company could just make a pretty laptop, and then anyone interested in a more elegant piece of hardware would take a look, regardless of gender.
Other companies doing it better
Acer isn't the first company to make a pretty laptop. Razer has an entire Quartz series of pink hardware, including headphones, microphones, chairs, mice, and keyboards. There have been Quartz versions of the Razer Blade in the past, though I don't see any new models with that color option. As far as I can tell, Razer does not market its pink hardware toward female gamers, which would be leaning into a cliche.
"STYLED TO STAND OUT," reads Razer's website. "For those built to be bold, there's no better way to make a statement. Explore our beloved Razer Quartz collection and experience its appeal for yourself."
ASUS partnered with fashion designer Anna Sui to design a laptop with a built-in air freshener. That's another example of a more elegant PC that doesn't seem to be marketed strictly toward women, though I admittedly do not speak Japanese, so I may have missed something.
Do you think Acer's framing of the Nitro V 14 is sexist, or are people overreacting? Let us know in the comments below.
