marketing to women
Why is it so hard to talk to women?
Men may still be the higher wage earners in most households, but women are the main holders of the purse strings, deciding what to cut back on, how much to save, and what to spend the hard-earned cash on. From techno-gadgets to the weekly shop, home decor to utility bills, women are the decision-makers (even when they let the men think that they are).
Belinda Parmar of Lady Geeks reckons the tech brands could be missing out on £0.5 billion in revenue by not marketing to women. ‘Ask any family who was in charge of buying the Christmas gifts, and you’ll find out its women not men. Women are not only buying technology for themselves, but as the Chief Household Officer, are buying for kids, husband, gran and friends. Women are in charge of the house, but more importantly are in charge of the living room (see battle for the living room) where much of the technology lives: PVR, console, HD TV…. ‘
Yet marketers seem to find it so difficult to talk to women? Is it because there are more male marketers? Is it because women are so complex? Is it that the marketing world just hasn’t learned women-speak? Or is it something else?
Perhaps the gender dynamics model developed by Pauline Crawford and Alana Mitchell can throw some light on the matter. ‘Not all women are the same, yet they are all ‘female’. Likewise with men; they do not all behave the same yet they are ‘male’. We all have within us mixture of masculine and feminine characteristics, preferences, and behaviours.
While having a female body means women have unique body parts and cycles, some women may be more ‘male’ in their thinking, decision making and in their logical responses, while many females portray the classic all female traits of nurturing, sensitivity and intuitive reasoning. Likewise within men, some may be more ‘female’ in their thinking preferences, emotional reactions, and actions and still be male through and through!’
A mere conversation about cars and handbags with Pauline and my colleague Di, bore this out. Pauline (the more masculine thinker of the three of us) wants great performance in her car and pure practicality in her handbag. Di (more feminine thinking) wants comfort and reliability in her car and a soft, squishy handbag. I (sitting in the middle ground) went for beauty and quirkiness in both, with scant regard for practicality, performance, comfort or reliability!
What is particularly interesting from the viewpoint of how to talk to women is that the language you use will vary depending on where on the masculine/feminine scale your female audience sits. So you’d need to have that knowledge as a fundamental pillar to your marketing strategy. Pointless trying sell a performance car to the Di’s of this world or a squishy handbag to the Pauline’s. But get the targetting and the language right and you are onto a winner!
In addition, your female buyers will have placed your product or brand in a specific context in their lives, they will have certain criteria relating to that context and they will have a whole other set of unconscious thought processes that drive their actual buying behaviours at the point of purchase.
It would be pretty good to know all these things before you start lavishing spending this year’s severely cut budgets. It would definitely make a difference to your ROI.