Feature: Targeting Steotypes

Women are highly valuable consumers. According to the centre for Economics and Business research, by 2025, women will own 60% of the nations wealth. So how do marketers adapt when specifically targeting females? Matt Sullivan reports.

My first encounter in the world of sales was at the age of 16 with Saturday job selling kitchen and bathroom suites at my local builders merchant. It was drummed into me during my training that I always had to convince the female to buy as she would have the most purchasing power…if not the money. When successful we would both proceed to the counter, husband in tow, cheque book in hand.

This echo’s many other stereotypical views on women’s purchasing habits. But when marketing to women today they still hold some truth.

Two-way communication

In general the marketing message has to be more complex and a brand has to work harder to engage with the female psyche. Where as a male may be more receptive to POS or an impulse purchase, the two way communication in sales promotion really comes in to it’s own when targeting women. Creating a lasting relationship between consumer and brand, It’s the communication that works best so they can taste, touch and test the product before purchasing. Emma Laney of Syren Strategies, a marketing agency that specialises in targeting women agrees that there are subtle differences between targeting men and women: “Women are consumer creators – they value involvement in the process of brands and marketing – they like to be asked their opinions and value an open dialogue between brands and themselves. Whereas men like simplicity and directness, women like context, richness and depth. Women like brands that respect their time, put them in control and are understanding of the demands on their life in the various roles that they have to play.”

Women adopt a more cyclical purchase decision process, meaning that they put more upfront time into buying into brands or products, seeking out the perfect answer before they commit. In contrast, man’s process is more linear and tends to move in straight lines through the stages without detours.

Getting it right

Once you have engaged in this way with your consumer (and the vital part is managing to live up to any expectations you have set), women will often become a very loyal customer. Successful brands will create an emotional bond with female consumers that will last a sustained period of time and provides results for the brand.

Another major factor in “living up to expectations” is the all important recommendation that will filter into the female network of consumers. Syren Strategies estimate that Women will recommend a positive experience 21 times verses a man’s 2.6 times and that 70% of women learn about products and brands not from mainstream media, but from other women. Therefore a careful balance has to be struck between selling the product and managing the consumer’s expectations.

In 2004, Marketing agency Iris launched Iris Female, a designated department to target women. It is headed by Nicola Armstrong Group Account Director who explains: “Word of mouth is one of the holy grails for brands looking to market to women. It has been shown that women respond to this type of recommendation more than any other form of marketing, and as a result they spend their money on the basis of what their close circle of friends say.”

“Team Mum”

While investigating how to market to mothers, a research project conducted by iris identified that a mum’s most trusted source of information is ‘Team Mum’, a group made up of her friends who have children and those parents she meets in the school playground. “The crux for marketers is that ‘Team Mum’ forms the ultimate viral network. An example of this recommendation culture is the success of www.mumsnet.com, a site where mums can come together and share their knowledge with other parents, research products and discuss their problems. If a brand can harness the power of ‘viral Mum’ through stimulation and facilitation the opportunities are endless” says Armstrong.

Home truths

Some of this article may still seem to have a generalised view in its descriptions of female buying habits and, certainly if not conducted well, a campaign risks becoming patronising to its audience. However there is still a lot to take on board from how male and female consumers behave differently and things may not have changed that much since I was trying to sell a double oven to a wife while her husband was asking for directions to the Joinery department.