I once read [I don't want to look it up], that women controlled the majority of wealth in this country
well for one thing, they live longer....<g>
according to a survey cited in this article... apparently 80% of consumer spending is done by females...and 90 percent of household spending...
(psst, bob, i bolded part of this article just for you)
:)
redcoatpublishing.com
Thinking
Pink
Long after males and females have outgrown their respective blue and pink baby outfits, marketers persist in pitching products to the “fairer sex” with pastel colors, flowery language, and outdated, sex-stereotyped messages that alienate the very customers they are trying to attract.
The missed opportunity is enormous. Women spent $2 trillion a year, or 80% of consumer spending, and make 90% of household purchases. As office managers, business owners, and corporate officers, they control a significant percentage of business spending as well. And they are totally turned off by marketing and merchandising that fail to respond to how women live, think, and most importantly, make buying decisions in the 21st century.
“Women are a different breed of consumers,” said Lisa Johnson, coauthor of Don’t Think Pink, a newly published marketing research book. “They take longer to make decisions and more time in peer research, but they are loyal longer and can become incredible evangelists. They are very powerful consumers.”
The challenge is that women want more from retailers and manufacturers than men: they want brighter lighting, eye-level shelving, creative displays, more ergonomic designs, and better instructions, Johnson said. Men will respond to a better sales environment, too, but are more focused on their immediate need and will make a purchase anyway while a woman tends to leave.
Women are able to articulate how to make a brand experience better and should be involved in product development early in the process while there is still time to make changes, Johnson said.
Messaging also is critical. Marketers need to make the effort to understand women’s changing lives, dreams, and aspirations so their messaging will hit home instead of being dismissed as irrelevant or outdated.
For example, a recent TV ad for a national real estate chain featured a professional woman asking about a house for sale and being steered, instead, to a townhouse. “Girls love these,” the salesman enthused. Although the real estate chain was trying to contrast itself as affirming to women, the ad may have backfired by resurrecting hopefully long-vanished discriminatory practices.
Get intimate
With most women working in an office and at home, innovative products and services that are convenient and save time are especially welcome. For example, kitchen centers run by dreamdinners.com offer workstations for women to assemble the ingredients for up to a dozen meals at a time, which are then frozen in zip-lock bags until serving. The clincher: one to two hours and you’re done.
Some women-only products sell well through gender-specific promotion, including specially designed bike seats and golf clubs and women’s health and beauty aids. The product design and promotion for Gillette’s Venus razor was particularly effective, Johnson said.
However, most marketers don’t invest the time to understand their women customers and therefore over-rely on stereotypes such as the soccer mom, the task juggler, and the skirted executive. The result is their ads are boring and a turn-off, Johnson said. Marketers need to dig deeper and develop an intimacy with their customers so their messages are fresh and genuine and speak to the heart, she said.
Vanessa Freytag, president of W-Insight in Cincinnati, agreed, singling out clothing manufacturer Eileen Fisher for daring to be different by using older models in her ads, including one who talks about her life as an attorney and a mother of three who practices yoga.
“Eileen Fisher is one of the few who is brave enough to do this,” Freytag said. “Women want to see themselves in the ads and the messages, but they can’t if you use stereotypes instead of real people.”
Wachovia Bank, which offered an online retirement calendar for women based on their longer lifespans, built up a strong, loyal women customer base in the 1970s and ’80s by focusing
on personal relationships, said Jenny Ward, Wachovia’s vice president of brand management.
Wachovia has continued to grow its female customer base, first through an ad campaign in 1999 communicating that Wachovia is “with you” through different life stages, followed in 2000 by a beefed-up organizational structure that focused on women across all product lines and was really on the leading edge, Ward said.
Wachovia has continued to expand its women customer base through relationship managers who become a single point of contact for all bank specialists and services, simplifying women’s banking business and giving them a financial roadmap, Ward said. The company also supports national and regional women’s professional organizations and community events because women want to feel positive about the bank where they do business, she said.
“The lead time to get a woman customer is a lot longer,” Ward said. “But they are more profitable customers than men because they stick with their decisions. And if they are happy, they tell 20 people. It’s worth gold.”
Be transparent
Unless you’re promoting a product solely for women, the most effective way to attract women consumers is through “transparent” messaging that appeals to women’s shopping preferences without labeling them “for women,” according to Johnson. Transparent messaging is not the same as gender-neutral, which falsely assumes that men and women share the same shopping styles and preferences.
Corporations that “get it” include Home Depot and Lowe’s, which are aware that many women are undertaking major home renovations themselves. In response, they’ve improved lighting, widened aisles, added informative visual displays and high-end decorator lines, and offered instructional classes for women. Their efforts, which were essential to attract women customers with high expectations, have also boosted spending by male consumers.
Other examples of effective transparent marketing/merchandising include Starbucks, which created a relaxing place for people to have discussions or use their laptops; Saturn, which introduced fixed pricing to appeal to women; and Wal-Mart, which pioneered the use of store greeters to make shoppers feel welcome.
Whether a campaign is visible, transparent, or a hybrid of the two, it’s critical that marketers know their customers and respond to their real needs and lifestyles. This task is complicated by the fact that there are significant outlook differences between the baby boomers (ages 40 to 58), the generation Xers (24 to 38), generation Yers (6 to 23), and the mature market (59+), in addition to racial and ethnic differences. Women also cannot be neatly pigeonholed by age because they often identify more with their life stages (single, newly married, young mom, empty nester, widow, etc.) and their interests outside the home or office.
There is no shortcut to industry-specific research on the woman consumer, Johnson said, but the Internet is a great vehicle for discovering more about her, including her purchasing priorities. For example, the Internet is an ideal medium for customer surveys and feedback.
The Internet is also one of the first sources women go to for pre-purchase research. Thus, a site that establishes itself as a premier resource with comprehensive industry data enhances credibility with women buyers, for whom information gathering plays a far more critical role than their male counterparts.
The effort to understand what women want and how they make buying decisions, while substantial and ongoing, should pay off handsomely in higher sales, Johnson said. “I think the opportunity, especially to shift dollars toward your brand, is huge,” she said. “This market is wide open. It’s a great chance to gain competitive advantage if you get the right message to the right audience and then deliver.” |
