Marketing to Women

Women’s Purchasing Power

How Do Women Wield Their Purchasing Power?

More women are taking the reins with their own finances, holding 60 percent of the country’s personal wealth, and 51 percent of all U.S stocks. In addition, the number of wealthy women in the U.S. is growing twice as fast as the number of wealthy men, according to Virginia Tech.

At home, the majority of women act as “chief purchasing officer,” influencing or managing 85 percent of all consumer purchases. And that’s not just diapers and detergent. Women buy more cars, insurance and consumer electronics than men as well.

See the infographic below from the Business Insider for more fun stats on women’s purchasing power:

It bears repeating that women are the top marketing opportunity in today’s economy. They make 85 percent of all consumer purchasing decisions, and account for $7 trillion in consumer and business spending. Savvy marketers understand this, and will continue to look at ways to build relationships with this key consumer.

Marketing to the Female Brain

The differences between women and men are not only well-documented, but frequently at the heart of jokes and good-natured ribbing. The fact is, men and women simply are wired differently.

In human relationships, women tend to communicate more effectively than men, focusing on how to create a solution that works for the group and talking through issues. Men tend to be more task-oriented, less talkative, and have a more difficult time understanding emotions that are not explicitly verbalized. Men typically prefer to peel away the extraneous detail and focus on the job at hand. To women, however, those details add richness and depth and are a very necessary part of their decision-making process. Here are some of the neurological reasons for these differences:

Marketing to the Female Brain vs. Marketing to the Male Brain

The male brain is organized in a neatly structured and compartmentalized way, where the female brain is more web-like and networked in structure.

Female brains have four times the number of connections between the left and right sides of the brain, which means they have to process information four times faster than men and take in four times as many signals that must be filtered.

Men have “The Big T” – testosterone – which is responsible for many of the male personality traits like self-assertiveness, competitiveness, risk-taking and thrill-seeking. Men also tap the right side of the brain, but not as often as women, or as deeply. While the male brain goes from point A to point B in a linear fashion, the woman’s brain operates in a more circuitous fashion.

The parts of the brain that control speech and language are more pronounced in females. Yes, women talk more. Typically 12,000 words a day more. But that means, given the right circumstances, women are 10-20 times more likely to share those good experiences and become walking advocates for a brand.

Women and Men React to Stress Differently

Men tend to have a “fight or flight” response to stress situations, while women approach these situations with a “tend or befriend” strategy. The reason for these different reactions to stress is rooted in hormones. The hormone oxytocin is released during stress in everyone. However, estrogen tends to enhance oxytocin, resulting in calming and nurturing feelings whereas testosterone, which men produce in high levels during stress, reduces the effects of oxytocin.

Marketers Should Better Understand Emotions to Better Engage Women

Women typically have a larger deep limbic system, which promotes bonding and nesting instincts, and enables women to better express their feelings than men. The down side to this larger deep limbic system is that it also opens women up to depression, especially during times of hormonal shifts such as after childbirth or during a woman’s menstrual cycle.

One of the key ways that marketers can better engage with women is to understand what makes her uniquely female. And understanding that doesn’t mean they will alienate men in the process. On the contrary, while women expect more from the brands and products they do business with, men ultimately benefit from those high expectations as well. So if a brand meets the needs of the woman, typically it will exceed the needs of the man.

To those marketing to women: Are you taking into consideration the differences between men and women when targeting women with your brand message?

Engaging the Mom Market

How to Engage the Mom Market

Recently Maria Bailey created a list of places a brand needs to be in order to engage with moms. Her list was right on the money, so I thought I’d share it here.

We all know moms are constantly on the go, and use numerous technology tools to stay connected. Mobile apps, iPads and Smartphones are just some of the tools that help brands market to moms and engage them at the right time and with the right message. Here are some additional tools that should be part of any marketers toolkit when reaching out to the mom market.

1. Engage Moms on YouTube

As the second largest search engine, YouTube provides moms an easy way to not only search for products, but to also learn how to use them. Create short videos — less than three minutes — that tell moms how to create solutions with your product. Use mom vloggers or mom employees to produce videos in order to create a relevant connection with the female audience.

2. Mothers Can Be Found on Pinterest

If you haven’t discovered this hot, new social media community yet, make it a New Year’s resolution to do so. This is not only where moms are migrating for ideas and product suggestions, but it’s cool to her tween and teenage kids as well. The next time a mom blogger tells you she loves your product, ask her to “pin” it on her Pinterest bulletin board.

3. Find Moms in Their Homes

An article by the Associated Press,“Why Are Toys Selling Out? Might be Mommy Blog Buzz,” focused on the success of LeapPad Explorers and their popularity, thanks to the buzz created by MommyParties. It’s using the fun of in-home Tupperware parties without the pressure to buy items. Allowing moms to test and share your product in a social setting is an effective way to fully engage mothers in peer marketing.

4. Reach a Mother in Her Email Box

We often forget the power of email; however, moms are still reading emails several times a day. In fact, most say they learn about sales and promotions via email. They also say they don’t want numerous emails promoting the same deal or emails that have no relevance to their lives. In other words, don’t send a mother with teenagers an email promoting baby food. An “unsubscribe” is sure to happen, followed by a delete of your company from her buy list.

5. Look for Moms at Smaller Niche Conferences

Brands love to sponsor conferences but often do so without a plan or strategy behind it. Sometimes bigger is not better. There are over 30 mom blogger and social media conferences in 2012. Some of the smaller, more intimate conferences can provide you a better platform to truly engage with the moms in attendance. It’s not about being a logo on a brochure, but rather truly engaging with those who are at the conference. There are conferences for Christian Moms, Frugal Moms, Video Moms and many others. Look for the conference that fits your brand and message.

6. Engage Moms on Their iPads

“There’s an app for that” and moms on average have 31 of them on their iPads. One-third of them is there at the request of her children. Make sure you are among the solution-oriented apps that she downloads to her wireless device in 2012.

7. Connect with Moms on iTunes

More and more moms are listening to podcasts. It’s easy and inexpensive to create a podcast for your brand. Consider what solutions you can offer mom and pull up a microphone. For example, if you are a car company, create product podcasts on travel ideas or destinations for families. If you are a food brand, consider a cooking podcast. If you can’t find a radio guru in your hallways, think about contracting with a mom podcaster to host your show for you.

Utilizing the tools above will help brands build those engaging, ongoing relationships that are so critical in the mom market.

Happy 2012 everyone!

Women In Business – Afraid of Aging Gracefully?

Women in Business: Is There a Way to Age Gracefully?

Businesswoman Aging Gracefully I thought the era was gone, but I’m seeing it more and more lately: Women depicting a confident business image in the media (especially in certain industries) are again starting to look like . . . men. Picture women in dark suits, crossed-arms and feet propped up on their desk wearing 4-inch heels. Throw a little Botox in there for those over 50-types and you’ve got the picture. Angry looking (albeit well-dressed) women.

But wait a minute. Powerful women are still women, aren’t they? They’re not men. I once read a blog post about a woman who attended a business lunch in dangly earrings, a non-traditional business outfit and untamed hair. An older, well-respected businessman complimented her on how poised and confident she looked because she wasn’t afraid to be who she was. Yet I’ve had mentors insist that the external packaging is more important than what is on the inside.

Many of the women that I respect and who indeed are powerful business women also break the dress code – they don’t look like they’ve spent a gazillion dollars and hours with a Nordstrom personal shopper to put themselves together. Instead, their confidence emanates from within. Confidence is their greatest accessory, more than a purse or pair of Jimmy Choos. It puts a light in their eyes and a spring in their steps. But for some women, if you take away their power suit, you take away their power.

I know in today’s marketing world it doesn’t help that 32-year old models are representing 45+ women in ads. But why is it so hard for marketers to celebrate women getting wiser, more mature, experienced and seasoned – in the business arena or otherwise? Even Nicole Kidman has admitted that she’s tossing her Botox.

Which marketers do you see helping women age beautifully and gracefully? Is your confidence hiding in your closet?

Insights for Marketing to Women

Marketing to Women Insights

Marketing to Women: Helpful Insights

By now we all know that women are the primary consumers in the U.S. today, making over 85 percent of the consumer purchase decisions and influencing over 95 percent of total goods and services purchased. Women’s consumer and business spending is fast approaching $8 trillion – more than the economy of Japan. When marketing to women, businesses need to keep the following in mind:

There is no “women’s market” — there’s your women’s market.

Marketers should not segment women strictly by age. Whether a woman is 28, 39, or 52, she’ll respond more to marketing messages that address her life stage, not her biological age. Unlike previous generations, today’s women are experiencing life in a less linear fashion; women are having babies in their 40s, starting new careers in their 50s, and re-entering the dating scene in their 60s. Marketers need to clearly understand the differentiation in marketing to the different life stages of women, and tailor their messages accordingly.

Pink is not a marketing strategy.

Today’s women are not looking for a watered-down version of a male offering that has been feminized with clichéd colors. Instead, they’re looking for solid information, ease of use, stellar customer service, and brands that are looking to build real relationships with them based on their interests, personal identities and problems that they need to solve.

Instead of relying on outdated assumptions and stereotypes, marketers must do the hard work to be relevant to women consumers – taking the time to learn what motivates them to order to present their brands in a meaningful way. A woman’s b.s. meter is always on – she knows when she’s being addressed in an authentic way…and when she’s not.

Recognize that women think different than men.

All human brains start as female brains, until the male brain is flooded with testosterone. But there they part paths. A woman’s brain has four times as many connections between the left and right hemispheres as a man’s. All of those signals hurtle down the superhighway into her right brain – the home of emotional memory, intuition and experience. A woman not only reads – she attaches feelings to what she’s reading. A woman’s heart is in her brain – tell her a story that is filled with emotion, and explain why your brand is relevant to her.

Sounds simple, but many businesses develop and market products without ever asking their female customers what is most important to them and why. Companies such as Best Buy and Volvo have made gaining women’s input a key part of their marketing process, leading to product improvements that both men and women appreciate, along with marketing messages that resonate with both.

Don’t buy into a woman’s “Half Truth.”

A Half Truth is what a woman is willing to admit, while the Whole Truth is what she really believes, does and buys. For example:

“I am happy with my looks.” (Half Truth)

“If given a choice, I’d like to look better than I do.” (Whole Truth)

A woman’s half-truth can cost marketers billions of wasted dollars not just in concept development and market research, but in the marketplace where it really hurts. Marketers need to take the time to really understand the women they’re talking to – what motivates them and what makes them tick.

How Marketing to Moms Is Like Marketing to Boomers

Marketing to Boomers

In preparing for this year’s M2Moms –The Marketing to Moms Conference, I’ve touched based with a number of the speakers to find out what’s on their minds. I’ve been struck by how much of today’s best practices for marketing to the current batch of Millennial moms can be directly applied to marketing to their Boomer mothers.

Moms are Brand-Disloyal: So are Boomers

Stacy DeBroff founded Mom Central, a consulting firm and online resource for moms and mommy bloggers. Her recent research has shown her that “Moms have become untethered in their brand loyalties, partly as a result of the Recession and partly as a result of the social media culture. Moms are willing to leave brands.

I’ve written before about the willingness of Boomers to leave brands as well. Old stereotypes assumed that brand loyalty, once gained, was never lost as consumers grew older. If that stereotype was true in the past, it isn’t any longer, for Moms or for Boomers. As women find new ways to connect with each other, they also find new brands that meet their ever-changing needs. Or, as DeBroff says, “We’re entering the age of relationship marketing and it’s fascinating but for many brands a real struggle.” The brands that win this struggle are the ones that deliver useful resources online and serve the social platforms where women connect.

Mommy Bloggers: They’re not all 30

Emily Bader from the Zocalo group is bullish on Mommy bloggers; she says that there will be 4.4 million of them by 2014. And if Bader is bullish on Mommy bloggers, I’m even more bullish on Boomer bloggers.

What does the growth of mommy bloggers have to do with Boomers? First, many of these millions of women will keep blogging as they age. So get ready for a giant wave of Boomer bloggers who keep influencing other women after they turn 50. Second, Boomer bloggers deliver the same benefits for marketers as younger Moms. They generate meaningful conversations and they share actionable recommendations around issues meaningful to other women like them. That’s what brands need, whether the blogs reaches women aged 25 or 55.

Bader says there’s no limit to the number of meaningful Mommy blogs as long as each one generates meaningful conversations. That leaves a lot of room for Boomers to launch blogs, and marketers to leverage them for results.

Marketing to Millennial Moms through their Boomer Mothers

Miriam Arond runs Hearst’s Good Housekeeping Research Institute and has been studying female consumers/readers for many years. And she sees that Boomer moms have entirely different relationships with their child-bearing daughters than they had with their own mothers.

This shift has created a new playing field for marketers. “Don’t assume there’s a generation gap” between midlife women and their grown daughters, Arond says. “Moms and their 20-somethings are listening to the same music, shopping together, talking together. What the mom thinks about a product or store really does matter to her daughter.”

The average CPG brand describes its target consumer as a “Mom.” But reaching that young mom is different than it used to be. And increasingly, it looks a lot like marketing to her own midlife mother.

Original post by Stephen Reily for MediaPost

Missoni Mayhem: Poor Planning or Poor Marketing?

Poor Planning or Poor Marketing Strategy?

Yesterday Target launched a much-anticipated collaboration with Italian luxury design house Missoni, adored by fashionistas everywhere. But three hours later the Target.com website crashed, and soon after the entire line was sold out everywhere. Today a Target spokeswoman revealed that the Missoni mayhem was unprecedented, and that goods will “continue to trickle into stores.” Other store managers around the country are noting that they are not expecting items for weeks.

I’m a loyal Target fan, and not only does this not sit well with me, it apparently isn’t sitting well with other female shoppers, who are relentlessly tweeting “Bummed,” “WTF” and “Pissed.” If Target knew it had just a limited supply of merchandise, why spend so much time and energy building the overwhelming buzz on social media sites and in traditional media? Shouldn’t they have been better prepared?

So my question is: Was this poor planning on Target’s part, or a clever marketing stunt? Has Target damaged its relationship with its loyal female customer base, or managed to build even greater anticipation for the collection?

What do you think?

Reaching Women Through the Blogosphere

This spring, BlogHer partnered with Compass Partners to do a social media benchmark study of more than 6,000 women. The results provide an interesting peek into the social media mindset of women:

According to the study, 36.2 million women actively participate in the blogosphere every week. That’s about 15.1 million actually writing blogs, and 21.1 reading or commenting on those posts. Many of these women are so passionate about blogging that large percentages of women said they would give something up to keep the blogs they read and/or write:

– 55% would give up alcohol

– 50% would give up their PDAs

– 42% would give up their i-Pod

– 43% would give up reading the newspaper or magazines

BUT, some things are sacred … only 20% would give up chocolate!

Additional survey results include:

– 24 percent of women surveyed said they watch less television because they’re spending more time blogging

– 25 percent said they read fewer magazines because they’re blogging

– 22 percent said they read fewer newspapers because they’re blogging

– More than half of women surveyed consider blogs a reliable source of information

– Half of women surveyed said blogs influence their purchase decisions

Smart marketers are building relationships with their female consumers through the blogosphere.

Check out the full study here!

The Marketing Muscle of Women

Women Have Buying Power I was in a new business meeting the other day where I was discussing the immense marketing muscle of women with a brand manager. This brand manager (a man) chimed in that he didn’t necessarily buy it — he wasn’t so sure that women had the buying power that they actually do. Which might explain why his brand (as great as it is) is languishing.

I walked out of the meeting more than a bit frustrated at his assumption that his point of view was the right one. Especially since it was so wrong.

When I got back to my office, my website home page (my screen saver) was staring at me. And so I read it. The facts about the power of women as consumers are indisputable. Their collective buying power exceeds the economy of Japan. They control more than 60 percent of the personal wealth in the U.S., and account for 68 percent of all total online spending.

According to Tom Peters, one of the world’s top marketing gurus, women are the top marketing opportunity for the foreseeable future. And it’s a scientific truth that women and men see and interpret things differently – because their brains work differently. But the reality is that if a product or brand meets the needs of the women, it also exceeds the need of men. Smart marketers understand this, and are willing to look at new ways to translate their brand’s marketing messages to reach this key consumer.

So here’s the skinny: women DO make 85% of all consumer purchasing decisions. Women DO feel that marketers don’t understand them. Women DO account for $7 trillion in consumer and business spending, which is a lot of buying power. The savvy marketer (and successful brand manager) knows this.

QR Codes Taking Off With Moms and Marketers

QR Codes, Moms, and Marketers

According to a recent report by Mobio Identify Systems, Inc., the use of QR (“Quick Response”) codes has exploded by 1,200 percent during the last half of 2010. Moms are taking center stage as they use their smartphones to click on those unique black and white squares that are delivering a wide variety of information to consumers. Blogs, tweets, magazine articles and broadcast media are all talking about this latest technology that busy moms are embracing.

QR codes have been around awhile in other parts of the world, but are just beginning to really gain awareness in the U.S. The primary benefit for marketers is that the QR codes are helping them build their mobile strategies. With 60 percent of moms owning smartphones, developing a strong mobile strategy is a must for marketers who want to reach moms in a way that is effective and relevant for their busy lifestyles.

For female consumers, the primary benefit of QC codes is their convenience. And that’s what it’s all about when marketing to moms – helping to make their lives easier. A QR code can be snapped on a smartphone camera, and instantly deliver detailed information about a product, consumer reviews, e-coupons, comparison pricing, and much more. Codes can be printed on everything from promotional materials to billboards and point-of-purchase displays. They can even be used to encourage consumers to “like” a Facebook page, deliver digital prizes, or enter sweepstakes.

A few major brands are helping to build prominence for QR codes in the U.S., including Target, Best Buy, Macy’s and Post Cereals. Best Buy has enhanced the shopping experience of its customers by adding QR codes to all their price tags. According to a recent Ad Age article, Macy’s is behind the most visible QR education effort, with a 30-second spot running nationally. The spot explains to shoppers how to use the codes, and the benefits they’ll experience once they scan one with their smart phone.

The opportunities for incorporating QC codes into marketing campaigns are endless. A QR code on a bag of pasta can be scanned to receive an instant recipe on a smartphone. A coffee retailer can offer free coffee to every 10^th person by scanning the bar code at checkout. And at checkout customers can scan their QR codes to see if they’ve instantly won any additional value.

As QR codes continue to be highlighted in the months to come, the important thing for marketers to understand is how to make QR codes effective to female consumers. In addition to convenience, a primary way to make codes effective is to make sure they equate to value – a discount, a coupon, or a “sneak peak” at upcoming products.

Is this the year of the QR code for your brand?

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