Some interesting data about women as consumers below, coming from a marketing piece for M2W conference, April in Chicago. Roger Conant (blog site HerMoney!) has become a zealot on the topic of women and money. Roger used to push the topic on car salespeople, with success. He now touts a great fit for women in Credit Unions; less scary than banks, more relationship oriented, untainted by Wall St. scandals, equally insures funds, with a regulatory agency too. I'm convinced and heading to my local CU.
"In the Penn Mutual 2nd Annual Worth Survey for Women, 71% of respondents characterized themselves as Independent Women:
~ Women who characterize themselves as independent are more likely to be on track with respect to paying off debt (33% vs. 19% of non-independent women), building up their savings (26% vs. 18% respectively), and guaranteeing they will maintain or enhance their lifestyle during retirement (26% vs. 17%).~ Independent women are significantly more likely than those who do not view themselves as independent to say they are on or ahead of target for being able to save for future travel (29% vs. 18%), and save for a home remodel (20% vs. 10%). Source: Penn Mutual 2nd Annual Worth Survey for Women, 2010
Are you an independent woman? Please comment below.
Women account for 85% of all consumer purchases, including everything from autos to health care:
~ 91% of New Homes~ 66% PCs
~ 92% Vacations
~ 80% Healthcare
~ 65% New Cars
~ 89% Bank Accounts
~ 93% Food
~ 93% OTC Pharmaceuticals
Does this fit for you? Please comment below.
Women process information & make purchasing decisions differently than men:
~ 59% of women feel misunderstood by food marketers~ 66% feel misunderstood by health care marketers
~ 74% feel misunderstood by automotive marketers
~ 84% feel misunderstood by investment marketers; Source: Yankelovich Monitor
~ 91% of women in one survey said that advertisers don't understand them;
Source: Greenfield Online for Arnold's Women's Insight Team
~ 70% of new businesses are started by women"
Other, older research says that women generally want to understand but even more they want to be understood by all, particularly men.
Has that changed? Please comment below.
Posts
Judy--thanks so much for the great "press"! :-) It means a lot, especially coming from the "gender authority" who sparked my initial interest in this.
ReplyDeleteBut the truth is that gender as a "differentiator" is alive and well…and just as relevant as it was when you and I took on those Houston "car guys" a decade ago.
While some have stated that this new generation is more "gender neutral" I say "no"! Truth is that "gender" is inherent…it's DNA. And aren't we glad.
So the best quote that sums up this opportunity in branding, selling, etc. "to women" (by Bridget Brennan) is still as true today and it was a decade ago…
“Gender is the most potent determinant of how a person views the world and everything in it—more powerful than age, income, race and geography. While there are mountains of research done every year segmenting consumers and analyzing why they buy, it doesn’t take into account the one piece of information that trumps all else: the sex of the buyer. It is stunning how many companies overlook the psychology of gender, when we all know that men and women look at the world so differently."