female marketing

Health and Wellness Marketing Strategies for Wearable Technology

Today’s consumers aren’t just eating healthier; they’re also exercising more and focusing on total wellness rather than just weight loss and fitness. One of the ways these consumers maintain their healthy and active lifestyles is through the use of wearable technology.

Most are familiar with the biggest names in wearable tech, including Fitbit, Apple Watch, Garmin, Polar, Misfit, and Jawbone. But those aren’t the only options out there. In fact, wearable technology offers a wide variety of options and benefits, including sleep tracking, emergency response and location, posture correction, and even fertility. More

Top Strategies for Marketing to Millennial Women

As a group, Millennials represent a major market force in terms of buying power, spending $200 billion per year. With women responsible for 85 percent of all U.S. consumer spending, that translates to $170 billion in spending power annually for Millennial women.

That’s a lot of money on the table. And most marketers are already behind the ball because 84% of Millennials admit that they don’t trust advertising. Following are some ideas for building relationships with these important consumers. More

4 Industries That Should Be Marketing to Baby Boomers

It’s not an overstatement to say that today’s marketers are almost unanimously focused on Millennials. Sure, Millennials are the largest living generation, but Boomers have greater spending power, controlling nearly 70% of all disposable income and spending $3.2 trillion each year. With that much spending at stake, it makes economic sense to aggressively be marketing to Baby Boomers.

That’s especially true with Boomer women, who will control two-thirds of all consumer wealth over the next decade, with estimates ranging from $12 to $40 trillion. More

Women’s Travel Trends for 2018

In 2018—the year of the woman—women have the power to do anything. That includes traveling if they wish, and they really do wish. According to the George Washington University School of Business, nearly two-thirds of today’s travelers are women. In fact, 80% of all travel decisions are made by women, regardless of who they’re traveling with, who’s paying for the trip, and where they’re traveling to. Many of those women traveled solo, with 73% of travel agents saying women are more likely to travel on their own than men.

Following are some women’s travel trends for 2018 that marketers should understand in order to capture this critical travel market. More

Marketing to Women: How to Get It Right

Marketing to Women According to The Economist, “The growing economic power of women is one of the most important trends of our time.”

Key growth drivers, such as delaying marriage and children as well as rising literacy rates, indicate the average U.S. woman’s salary will rise above the average U.S. man’s by the year 2028.

Women currently control $7 trillion in U.S. spending. And during the next decade, they will control two-thirds of the country’s overall consumer wealth. More

Surge in Female Economic Power Impacts How Brands Market to Women

As female economic power continues to explode, now, more than ever, marketers need to understand how to reach these key decision makers. Because 91% of women still say that advertisers don’t understand them.

The average U.S. woman is projected to earn more than the average man by the year 2028. In the United States alone, women control up to $15 trillion annually. As incomes grow, women’s spending power and influence do, too.

Women are responsible for 85% of consumer household purchases—from cars to healthcare, to family vacations—and that power is growing by the day. With such growth drivers as delayed marriage and children, educational attainment, rising incomes and breadwinner status (women are the primary breadwinner in 40% of U.S. households with kids under 18), almost all income growth in the U.S. over the past 15 or 20 years has come from women.

Brands need to look beyond the superficial and understand that the women’s market isn’t a niche–it’s a driving force. Women respond to marketing messages that show marketers understand them, and that portray them in a strong and powerful way. Following are tips to consider when you market to women.

Remember There is No “One” Woman

There is no “one” female demographic; the female market is huge and diverse. From baby boomer women who are experiencing a healthier, wealthier lifestyle as they inherit from parents and spouses to the single professional who has more discretionary spending because they are child-free, each female sub-set has its own unique interests and values that influence purchasing behaviors.

It’s About the Benefits, Not the Features

Understand the differences between men and women, without being patronizing. While men typically focus on exterior styling and horsepower, a woman may or may not care. But tell her how the vehicle can make her life easier and safer and watch her perk up. Fuel economy, safety features, the number of cup holders, built-in cold storage, and third-row seats. Depending on the life stage she’s in, any of these more practical points will be important to her.

Focus on Time-Saving Solutions

With 70% of women with children under 18 in today’s work force, many women are working both inside and outside of the home. They are multi-taskers seeking solutions and work-life balance. Opportunities to provide stress-management solutions, convenience, timesaving products, and one-stop shopping opportunities will earn her patronage and loyalty.

Lose the Stereotypes

“Shrink it and pink it” is probably the most common stereotype when brands market to women, but there are others that may not be quite as obvious. For instance, 41% of mothers had a child outside of marriage this year. That’s 41% of your audience that doesn’t connect with marketing messages about traditional, nuclear families. Women appreciate marketers who acknowledge their accomplishments, both at home and in the workplace, and show them in roles of empowerment.

Are you confident in your marketing to women strategies? Creating engaging, thoughtful campaigns that reach female consumers is what we do. Please reach out if you’d like to talk about how Girlpower Marketing can help your brand.

Warby Parker – Winning Marketing Strategy Resonates With Women

When eyeglasses company Warby Parker launched in 2010, its founders had no real traditional marketing plan, but had invested their life savings in three main areas: their product, their website and a public relations program.

According to co-founder and CEO Neil Blumenthal, they knew that you only have one shot to launch a fashion brand, and set their sights on Vogue and GQ magazines where they wanted the company’s name to debut. The PR team placed Warby Parker in the February issues that year, and the result was better than anyone could have expected. Since then, their press-triggered sales spikes have turned into sustained growth, with more than 50 percent of Warby Parker’s sales driven by word-of-mouth and peer recommendations.

“Everybody’s looking for that tidbit to talk about at the dinner table,” he explains. “For us it was our $95 price point, innovative home try-on model, and our buy a pair, give a pair program.”

For every pair sold, Warby Parker donates a new pair to VisionSpring (visionspring.org), a nonprofit that trains low-income women in developing countries to sell affordable glasses in their communities.

Today, consumers want their brands to matter more; they’ll support the brands that align to their values and are meaningful to them. This give-back mentality really resonates with people, particularly women.

In an interview included in 99U’s new book, Make Your Mark, Blumenthal also revealed three branding tips that have helped make Warby Parker an authentic lifestyle brand that treats customers the way they want to be treated. As you’ve read in previous blog posts, these tips are especially important when marketing to women, and well worth remembering:

1. Don’t Fake It

“People have extremely sensitive BS detectors these days,” Blumenthal says. “They sense a brand’s authenticity — or fakeness — immediately.” To gain the consumer’s trust, Warby Parker has made transparency and honesty key components of its customer relations, especially when it comes to owning up to a mistake before it becomes a bigger issue.

2. Don’t Forget the Little Things

Being honest and accepting responsibility is just the beginning in starting an authentic relationship with customers. Brands should also be proactive about making customers feel their needs are being met. “For us, that might be offering a discount, it might be offering free glasses, it might be doing whatever it takes to get that person a pair of glasses before they go on vacation,” Blumenthal says. “It’s the little things that make a brand great.”

3. Don’t Be a Control Freak

According to Blumenthal, a brand is no longer a strict messaging hierarchy. With the social Web, a brand’s messaging is constantly changing and consumers are helping shape it every day. “Your brand is part of conversations that are being held in the streets, on Twitter, and on Instagram,” he says. “And the best that you can do is help influence that dialogue by giving people reasons to talk positively about it. These days, community managers are your brand managers.”

Does your brand have a well thought-out strategy for reaching your target consumer that addresses what is most important to them? We can help.

Marketing to Women: Trends to Watch in 2015 and Beyond

I believe that most brand and marketing managers understand the economic importance of women, and recognize that they influence 85 percent of all household purchase decisions. I also believe that 2015 will bring a surge of renewed interest in the subject of marketing to women. Going forward in this blog we’ll discuss recent trends, the differences in female market segments, and why women’s influence over purchase decision-making will continue to grow.

In the meantime, Bridget Brennan, author of Why She Buys, has written an article for Forbes.com about 2015 trends in marketing to women. Her insights are so spot-on that I’ve reprinted the entire article below.

2014 was a watershed year in marketing to women. We witnessed female-empowerment advertising campaigns from brands like Pantene (Not Sorry), Under Armour (I Will What I Want) and Always (Like a Girl); we saw a sweeping effort to update women’s images in stock photography with the Lean In Getty Images Collection; and we witnessed a GoldieBlox Super Bowl commercial. Not bad, 2014, not bad.

It’s exciting stuff. And yet the conversation, hard work, and opportunity have just begun. I predict 2015 will be the year that marketers move beyond signaling to women, “We know you’re important, empowered and strong,” to a broader, holistic approach to women consumers that impacts every aspect of the business with the following types of initiatives:

1. Optimizing the customer experience for women consumers.

From conducting sales training initiatives focused on “E.Q.”-style communication techniques, to enhancing the ambiance of retail environments and refining the editorial voice of websites, there’s room to optimize the experience for women consumers no matter what your business. After all, women don’t just compare your company to your competitors: they compare it to their favorite best-in-class retailers and ecommerce sites. And depending on what you sell, they may even compare your website and videos to their favorite magazines and television shows. That’s why forward-looking companies will invest in women’s insights research and look outside their own industries to benchmark themselves against best-in-class, female favorites like Anthropologie, IKEA and Amazon.com.

2. Creating retail innovations based on women’s cultural preferences.

Take product samples. They’re gold. Women know this. Their medicine cabinets and bathroom drawers are stuffed with this precious loot, which is usually obtained free of charge when they check out at beauty counters or attend parties with excellent goodie bags. Enter Birchbox, the successful ecommerce company built on the understanding that women would be willing to pay to receive product samples. The business features a subscription model in which women pay to be surprised and delighted by a box of beauty product samples every month. Men are in on the action too, through Birchbox Man, which was introduced after the initial success of the subscription service for women.

Then there’s Stitch Fix: an online women’s fashion retailer that offers personal styling services at a mass-market price point. The service fulfills a common fantasy of having a “stylist,” a phenomenon driven by celebrity fashion coverage and the emergence of stylists who have become celebrities in their own right. (See: Rachel Zoe). This is just the beginning of a new wave of retail businesses built around powerful female insights. Watch this space: there’s more to come in 2015.

3. Making selfies as natural to shopping as the cart.

We used to say that a picture is worth a thousand words. That was before Instagram. Now a picture is worth so much more. The irresistible allure of selfies fuels contests, sweepstakes and promotions of every conceivable kind, and will increasingly drive image-based search as well as function as a research tool for brands. Photos and visuals of all varieties will become even more prominent in the marketing toolbox in 2015, particularly for businesses with a large base of female buyers. Women have long been the photo album makers, scrapbook keepers and memory/milestone custodians for their households in the offline world, and in the past decade this behavior has shifted online.

So whether we’re talking about traditional retailers like Target mobilizing customers to take selfies in-store for sweepstakes prizes, or brands like American Express leveraging customer influencers for a campaign that drove 10 million Instagram impressions in just two weeks, the creativity in the visual web has just begun.

4. Catering to women consumers as a way to stay one step ahead of Millennials.

Many values that historically have been associated with women now apply to Millennials of both genders. Generally speaking, Millennials want what women consumers have always wanted from manufacturers and retailers. A partial list includes:

A high design aesthetic (in addition to functionality)
Brands/products that make the world a better place in some small way
Family-friendly amenities and service options
Great value
An engaging retail environment

Trader Joe’s, Starbucks, and Apple are just a few examples of brands beloved by women and Millennials (of both genders), because they provide high value products in inspiring environments. As Millennials grow into their prime earning years, brands will find that women provide a valuable roadmap to determining the wants and needs of younger consumers.

The world is changing fast. Yet women’s domination of consumer spending in both ecommerce and traditional retail remains constant. The tools of the trade may be changing, but women’s role as “chief purchasing officer” of the home hasn’t – nor have the fundamentals of female culture. It’s comforting to know that no matter how fast technology advances, no matter how frequently people shop on their mobile phones and laptops, one thing remains the same: women are the purchasers of this world, and understanding why she buys is the most valuable insurance policy there is, for 2015 and beyond.

Even Companies That Sell Tampons Are Run By Men

As Appeared In Huffington Post

Most women would rather not discuss the intricacies of their period with a man. Most men seem fine with that.

Yet, until just five years ago, it was up to a largely male-led team to figure out how to market tampons, maxi-pads and other feminine products at Kimberly-Clark, the company behind Kotex, Huggies and Kleenex.

That translated into ads featuring blue liquids dumped on sanitary napkins, and portraying ecstatic women clad in all-white dancing and frolicking, apparently while menstruating. That’s a scenario approximately no woman has ever related to. A compilation of awkward images from vintage Kotex commercials. The company recently poked fun at its old advertising tactics in a new “U By Kotex” campaign. Story continues after the photos.

The absurdity of the situation came to light about five years ago at Kimberly-Clark, when CEO Tom Falk brought the male executive in charge of Kotex to present a marketing strategy for the more than 90-year-old brand to the company’s board of directors

After the presentation, some board members politely asked Falk: “Don’t you think you can get a female to present the strategy to us?” (read more)

Marketing to Breadwinner Women

Marketing to Breadwinner Women with a Marketing to Women Agency These days, when “Honey, I’m home!” is shouted up the stairs at the end of the day, it may very well NOT be the husband who’s come home from a hard day at work. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor, nearly 40 percent of wives now earn more money than their husbands. That’s a huge jump from just 11 percent back in 1960, and a staggering shift in our society.

Forget the Stereotype.

Today’s women are more than just sugar and spice and everything nice. One needs only to peruse the list of Fortune 500 or Fortune 1000 companies to see that women quickly are becoming as powerful and successful in business as men. The 24 female CEOs on the Fortune 500 list represent just a handful of the hardworking women that companies should be addressing in their marketing strategies. Women are also the dominant sex earning bachelor’s degrees, indicating that the trajectory for their earning power will continue to climb even higher over the coming years.

Know the Numbers.

More than ever, women are driving household incomes and the global consumer economy itself. They influence or control 85 percent of consumer spending in the United States. That’s 68 percent of new car purchases, and 80 percent of healthcare spending. 91 percent of new homes, and 92 percent of vacation travel.

For those businesses that have yet to identify a strategy for appealing to the “breadwinner” women, author Bridget Brennan identifies three smart ways in her book “Why She Buys,” to approach this massive opportunity:

1. Invest in sales training, because women who routinely negotiate at work expect great service when they leave the office. Research shows that women have higher expectations of customer service than men do. How has your sales training evolved? Women will walk out the door and walk off the lot because of poor or frustrating service. Many service issues are based on a perceived lack of respect, attention or even dignity. Though it’s clear that women are changing, old stereotypes die hard. Some of the best advice for salespeople in the age of breadwinner women is this: don’t assume anything. Don’t assume she’s not the decision-maker; don’t assume she’s married with kids; and most of all, don’t assume she can’t afford whatever it is you’re selling.

2. Make her hours, your hours. When a woman takes a job outside the home, it impacts every aspect of her life, from what time she wakes up in the morning to what she wears, where and when she shops, and even what she eats.

If you’re a brick-and-mortar business, are you staffing up at lunchtime, when many women squeeze in their errands? Are you offering delivery options outside of traditional business hours, so she doesn’t have to take a day off work? Are you open in the hours before the workday begins? Take the time and effort to study the changing traffic patterns of your female customers to ensure that your hours of operation match hers.

3. Offer Services, Not Just Products. Women appreciate service as much or more than “stuff.” This is the sweet spot for Lexus – their warranty provides free, 24/7 roadside assistance; a bumper-to-bumper warranty; free loaner car with any servicing; free car washes; and free new owner events that help customers install Bluetooth and change automatic settings on seats and radios. Providing helpful service can ensure that women appreciate your business and recommend it to their circle of friends and colleagues.

A Marketing to Women Agency Can Help

To learn more about how Girlpower Marketing’s approach can help your brand, please contact us.

The truth is that no matter what you’re selling, what you’re really selling is help. And breadwinner or not, all women will thank you for providing it.

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