Women are responsible for 83% of all consumer purchases.Healthcare — 80% Give the lady what she wants! The universal question remains, what does she want? The answer is really quite simple; to find out what a woman wants, you have to ask her. As simple as it sounds, businesses are still not talking with and listening to the most powerful market on Earth – females. Even with the staggering statistical information out there that proves women are the largest national economy, women still are struggling to feel like they are being taken seriously. Women represent the decision–maker in more than 80% of all consumer purchasing decisions and now are gaining major ground in corporate buying power. Yet, a small minority of corporations and businesses are integrating female–driven strategy into their marketing and customer service strategies. When not embraced by a female–friendly environment, women report that they are still ignored, dismissed and treated as less than intelligent by the very businesses that they want to buy from. This doesn't make sense for the corporate bottom line. Companies will benefit once they realize up to 50% of their revenues are left on the table, and then decide to embrace the female market they may have missed. Women are an ideal demographic to market to for many reasons beside the sheer numbers. Given a positive buying experience, where she feels an emotional connection and respect, a woman will become your brand ambassador, giving your best sales person a lesson in the art of referral business. Now you've tapped into the most elaborate, extensive communications network there is: the female talk network. Women will tell everyone, and boast for your company, if they had a good experience shopping with you. I can personally attest to this. In the past two months, I went out of my way to track down managers just to thank them for an exceptional shopping or customer service experience. With all of the shopping we have to do, women quickly rate their experiences as good or bad – because as a daily experience, it's so top-of-mind. The good news: I'm motivated to let companies know when they got it right; the bad news, I'm motivated because it's so infrequent. Am I demanding? No; just hopeful someone will help me to find the right ink cartridge/camera/auto repair... and get me out of the store quickly with what I need. I operate like every other woman out there: having an endless to-do list for myself and everyone on my list with little time to get it done. Traditional marketing efforts fail to truly understand how women operate, process mentally and feel about things. Most advertising targets basic motivators – yet they fail to grasp and apply the deep sociological, cultural and psychological wiring that drives women's buying habits. According to Martha Barletta, author of Marketing to Women, there is a need for marketing strategies to recognize that women are fundamentally different than men in how they buy. Women have extrasensory perception and she doesn't mean they can read our mind – although one wonders! Women's receptors are more sensitive in vision, taste, smell and all the senses. Women are generally more emotional than men, and they appreciate an emotional connection with a product or service. You hear this every day – someone talking about how an experience – good or bad – made them feel. It's our job to have strong antennae; we were wired this way for reasons that precede us by a few millennia. Often put down for their detail-orientation, women gather and massage detailed data to make buying decisions whether for a new dress, or a multi-million dollar corporate systems purchase. Also the brunt of jokes is the ability to retain details. This inherent bandwidth must have a reason, and we sure do use it. Women like context in addition to detail, whereas many men would rather get to the point! We're different – yet no longer need to remain a mystery when it comes to our economic impact and how companies can put that insight to work. What do women want? The same thing anyone does: respect. Here are some insights about women regarding consumer purchases:
©2006 Lisa Stamos, Past Publisher, McHenry County Woman Newspaper™ |