What Women (Really) Want
My attention was drawn this morning to a video short posted by Ad Age.
It reminds me of a little guessing game we play in this family. We’re deeply intrigued with the inventors of handy gadgetry. The latest, greatest invention always sparks an instant debate over whether its creator was male or female, based upon the level of intuitiveness and real-world usefulness of the design. Now nothing against you guys out there, but when males invent things intended for use by women, a great deal of the time we don’t understand what you could possibly have been thinking. Our needs are different from yours, our brains are wired differently, and if you really want to market an item to us, you have to think like we do.
Before going any further with this, let me tell you why you should care. It’s standard marketing wisdom that women control 80% of all household purchases. That’s why marketers of household supplies, kids’ gear, food, cosmetics and clothes are good at reaching women. But women buy gender-neutral stuff, too: cars, auto services, technology; the list includes everything but Viagra. Women today influence 85% of automobile buying decisions, according to GM. They also purchase 65% of new cars. Women make 75% of all healthcare decisions, whether for themselves or their families, according to a recent report from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. They also make up more than half of all health consumers.
Now if you’re married or have a serious relationship with a female, you don’t need to read this next paragraph. (You could write it.) Let me tell you how the consumer world works in general. We ladies make most of the buying decisions for our families. Shopping is what we do and boy are we good at it. We also like the most bang for a buck and don’t tend to buy useless junk. We invest our money in the stuff we find truly useful; things that will make our daily lives easier. If you make a clutzy can opener that’s difficult and messy to operate, we’ll buy someone else’s can opener instead, but we won’t stop there. We’ll waste no time in calling all of our gal pals to warn them about your really dreadful can opener so they don’t make the same mistake. Kaboom: instant viral marketing, and believe me, we have a lot of friends on speed dial.
In short, what women want right now is attention to detail in product design and service; the right choices, not endless choices; and a more thorough, thoughtful selling process that respects our desire to understand what we’re buying before we take it home. We also care deeply about customer service. Women make final purchasing decisions based on the relationship with the seller, not on statistics and quantitative data. Given a choice between two nearly identical products, women are likely to decide based upon customer service and the ongoing relationship with the vendor. If you take care of us after we purchase your product, you’ve got a loyal customer for life.
We also prefer simple, straight-forward instructions over 200-page manuals, not because we’re incapable of understanding but simply because we don’t have time to read through pages and pages of instructions to get to the operational basics. Most of us are uber-multitasking with families and careers to balance. Quick start manuals are a girl’s best friend.
All in all, we’re a formidable force to be reckoned with in today’s marketplace. Why do you think we carry these big handbags anyway?
Just my Lynnterpretation.
