A recent Harvard Business Review article, The Female Economy, demonstrated the size of the current and female market. The authors commence their piece with:
“Women now drive the world economy. Globally, they control about $20 trillion in annual consumer spending, and that figure could climb as high as $28 trillion in the next five years. Their $13 trillion in total yearly earnings could reach $18 trillion in the same period. In aggregate, women represent a growth market bigger than China and India combined — more than twice as big, in fact.”
Marketers around the world are likely to be rubbing their hands in glee in the prospect of this awesome market potential. However, as brand leaders such as Procter and Gamble are likely to know, marketing to just “women” is not an easy matter. The trouble with a lot of marketers sitting in their ivory towers (and as a former brand manager myself, I do have the right to say this), is that they have the tendency to use a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing to a particular segment. Even given the advent of social media, marketers are still perplexed and are only just skimming the surface of what this technology can do for their brand. Why? They don’t understand social media, let alone the context in which it can be used for their marketing purposes….
Recently, I have been noticing great similarities between working with company cultures and creating environments where women feel that they “fit-in”, and the building of a branded experience where a female consumers feels that the brand is “talking to them”.
Committed readers of my blog will recall how I am a fervent advocate for Breaking Gender Stereotypes. Instead of just giving your branded collateral a pink wash and expect female consumers to come running in their Manolos’ to spend their money with you (similarly, launching a Women’s Network in your company and expecting female employee retention to boom), spend some time understanding really those lynch-pins of your relationship with your consumers.
Find the Passion
Why would a female consumer be motivated to buy your brand? What is it about your product or service that homes-in to their personal purchase drivers? What is it giving your consumer at an individual level? Find out what your consumers’ need is and then, and only then, attempt to position your product or service. Women are very sensitive to hard selling, purely because it goes against the grains of the social values and behaviours that we have been socialised in. In the female sphere, the rules of engagement, empathy and collaboration tend to dominate personal AND brand relationships.
Solve a problem
How does your brand or product solve a problem that your female consumer is facing? Remember, women today are torn in 20 different directions between work/career, managing the household, taking children to school, looking after elders, etc…. Be flexible in finding the solutions, and communicate the fact that you have taken the time to do so. Customer-centricity by offering service and innovation is our second mantra to marketers. Engage in a conversation (and this is genuinely where social media does add some amazing value to the marketing mix) to understand HER and how your products fits in to HER USAGE context. I can only commend Best Buy’s future-orientated approach to developing such a culture both in their business. Product development and marketing through the use of the WOLF concept.
Augment your offer with relevant partnerships
If you have a great product, but through your interactions with your customers (through consumer research, community discussions, etc) you see there is a gap that could be filled by partnering with a complementary product, do so. BUT, only do so where it is relevant in HER usage context. For example, if you were the brand manager of Blackberry, teaming up with the Vanish, the stain remover, is not likely to have synergistic effects. However, if you were to collaborate on a targeted Blackberry-Filofax case that managed to solve the issue of not losing the mobile phone in the (ever growing) handbag, then you are hitting the nail on the head. Perhaps you feel I am preaching to the converted? Well, the examples of non-relevant marketing partnerships and irrelevant gifting activities (such as mouse-mats in washing powders) are out there – you may even recall some of you own…
Understand and embrace her world
How does your brand or service extend to her circle of influence and the people that matter in her life – family and friends? How far does your brand engage with those stakeholders? How far CAN your brand engage with those stakeholders? And through what medium – virtually, e.g. through an online community, in the physical world through specially-designed events or activities? For example, one of the greatest growth areas is health clubs. However, they are very much designed for male needs – imagine a sweaty, smelly gym filled with body builders. We have all been there. If you were the Marketing Director of a gym, would not one of the best ways to increase membership is to offer targeted gym classes for women and their close friends so that women can work out in a non-intimidating environment AND catch up on their gossip? (Whilst I am not one to condone gender segregation, there are times when offering comfortable, safe, female-only experiences for women consumers is relevant)….
The Female Network gateway to the Female Market
With 2010 coming just around the corner, let’s wake up to the reality that the Marketing and, ultimately, Revenue Generation, models are changing in every industry with the advent of new technology. The gurus of the new “paradigm” refer to this new technology as the Female Network (Leon Benjamin’s Winning By Sharing is a great example); marketers world-wide take note of the pointers above to build brand loyalty and embrace this technology as the gateway to the Female Market.
