Women have been long known to be holding the purse strings when it comes to the majority of household purchases. According to Monique Nadeau, President and CEO of Hope Street Group, “Women overwhelmingly hold the consumer purchasing power in our country, whether we’re talking about individuals or households. Their understanding of the market allows them to start businesses with a high degree of insight about both their potential customers and competitors.”
Then, you might wonder why so many companies are getting it so wrong when it comes to how they market to them. They are so far off base that one recent article noted that 91% of women believe that advertisers simply “don’t understand” when it comes to the female consumer.
It’s not that advertisers are deliberately approaching women in the wrong way because they do have a lot at stake with their targeted advertising campaigns. They are simply missing the mark. It could be the simple fact that advertisers have not kept up with the dramatic changes that women have faced in recent years in their roles as mothers, wives, sisters and daughters.
The crucial point that advertisers need to realize that no matter how many hats we women wear, we do like to make time to share and talk with family, friends, colleagues and, well, maybe anyone who will listen to us for that matter. The advent of multiple online platforms has simply made it easier for women to reach out and share with others.
Tina Konkin, a California-based relationship expert, notes, “Think about ‘back then’ when women got together physically and talked about their relationships or child rearing. They spent time chatting while they canned food for the winter and quilted or enjoyed book clubs and social. Now, women share the same bond virtually through social media and blogging, sharing recipes on Pinterest or swapping stories and pictures of their kids on Facebook.”
Once advertisers realize that the decision making power and ability to leverage women as brand champions is the same but simply has become more powerful thanks to the additional social channels women can broadcast from, they will hit the target every time with us.
Visionary and lauded business accelerator Michelle Patterson is CEO of Event Complete—a full service event management company. She also serves as Executive Director of the largest women’s symposium in North America: the California Women’s Conference (www.californiawomensconference.com) that has featured the First Lady Michelle Obama, former First Lady Laura Bush, Deepak Chopra, Oprah Winfrey, and others. Michelle may be reached online at www.eventcomplete.com.
Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/07/the-end-of-men/8135/
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