Marketing to Women

Speaking effectively to 50% plus of the market

As consumers and professionals, women have massive purchasing power and the authority to spend it. So why aren’t more businesses engaging them on a level beyond the common stereotypes? The time is now for understanding the female market and learning how to connect with women as consumers.

When marketing to 50% plus of the world’s population it’s important to remember certain key issues. A consideration is that while men value authority figures in their purchase decisions. Women tend to be swayed by a common experience that’s with someone they can relate to. Listen to a woman making a case for something, and she’ll likely tell a personal story of something that has happened to her or someone she knows. Women cite personal experience (aka opinion) as proof.  Other women understand this and will rarely propose a product/service/ solution that they themselves do not trust.

Many brands stick to common stereotypes around women to market to them; they rarely try to get into women’s minds as individuals to find the answer to the age old question ‘What do women want?’ Truth is, your happy product mommy and joyful period young lady doesn’t exist in real life. In real life, women make fun of and criticise the happy period adverts, and they rarely feel like the mom on TV whose beautiful children are joyfully eating or playing peacefully. Instead they sometimes feel like this infamous happy period complaint letter by Wendi Aarons.

So what do women want?

Recognition as individuals, whose contribution and sole purpose goes beyond being a mother, wife, or opposite sex attention, seeking mass. Thinking about marketing to women as a “universal” theory and using stereotypical categories like “Soccer Moms”, doesn’t allow you to fully engage your audience with your brand. Examples of brands that have truly successfully spoken to women’s shared values and concerns include Dove www.campaignforrealbeauty.com and especially of note is the Dove Pro Age Campaign highlighted in the image. Another inspiring marketing approach is Huggies HuggiesMomInspired.com.

It isn’t that easy, but according to Michelle Miller co-author of ‘The Soccer Mom Myth’ http://www.thesoccermommyth.com and contributor to www.wonderbranding.com “if you start viewing female customers as individuals and members of a generation with shared values, you’re halfway there.”