How and Why Do Women Buy?
by Kare Anderson, co-founder of
SavvyHer, Emmy-winning former NBC and Wall Street Journal reporter and author of LikeABILITY ~
SayitBetter.com
A woman wanted a cell phone that would work anywhere, not rack
up high roaming fees, and be "cute," according to Martha Barletta,
author of _Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach, and
Increase Your Share of the World's Largest Market
Segment
Her husband researched various plans and found the one that most
matched her calling and financial criteria.
"What kind of phone comes with it?" the woman asked.
"What difference does that make?!" replied the husband.
His wife looked at the information he'd gathered and discovered that
Nokia had a model in "ocean blue," although the nearest store carrying
one in that color was an hour's drive away. She drove.
"The color of the phone is the most important thing?" asked her
astounded husband. No, said Barletta, it wasn't the most important thing,
but while this woman was buying, "she wanted what she wanted."
To women, details of beauty, simplicity, and practicality matter.
Says Barletta, "A woman might choose a Jeep Cherokee because
it's the only one whose hatch she can easily flip open."
Studies have shown, writes Barletta, that the male sees his relationship
to others in terms of higher/lower, faster/slower, first/second.
A female sees her relationships in less competitive terms: similar-to/
different-from, know-her/don't-know-her. Thus advertising that says
others will be jealous if you own this product works with men but
is off-putting to women.
Women, says Barletta, want to be able to say, "Yep, that's my life.
If that product works for her, it'll probably work for me."
Thus the power of cultivating the mavens -- the trusted people to
whom your market of women turn for advice -- can be the key to
increasing your profits.
When you want to learn exactly how to cultivate those mavens, read Malcolm Gladwell's brilliant book on the topic, _The Tipping Point:
How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference_ (http://www.sayitbetter.com/store/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=TTB&Category_Code=T2F).
More than half the U.S. population is female, and women purchase
or influence the purchase of more than 80% of all products and
services.
Women are the majority decision-makers today, not only in the
traditional areas of fashion, food, and cosmetics but also for
such big-ticket buys as automobiles, financial services, home
improvement, computer electronics, and travel.
So you might think there would be nothing about the buying habits
of women that American businesses don't know.
However, Barletta and Mary Lou Quinlan, author of _Just Ask a Woman:
Cracking the Code of What Women Want and How They Buy_, believe
that many marketing and sales strategies are more likely to annoy
their target audience than to attract them.
"You might feel that you have already evolved into the most politically
correct person you can be. Your ads are not offensive your products
keep improving, but that's not enough to lure a woman to buy your
product rather than a competing brand," warns Mary Lou Quinlan.
Both Quinlan and Barletta point out that women are especially valuable
customers. More than men, they typically ask for recommendations
from friends and acquaintances before they buy and, if they are happy
with a product or service, will recommend it to others. Again, this
highlights the powerful influence of mavens on buying decisions.
According to Quinlan and Barletta, women - especially working mothers
- lead time-pressured lives and therefore appreciate products that
simplify tasks and relieve anxieties.
They prefer product warranties and service guarantees more than
extra bells and whistles.
Women don't want to be told a product is "cool"; they want to hear
specifics about how it serves their needs and their families' needs.
Both agree that women want marketers to be patient and helpful.
"It's frustrating to marketers of high-stakes or big-ticket services
such as financial services or cars to be asked to meet with women
several times to go through alternatives," writes Quinlan.
But from a woman's point of view, it's necessary: "Women judge the quality
of the relationship as well as the quality of a product. They ask a lot of questions and do a lot of listening before they form a trusting relationship
to believe what that person is saying about the product," she says.
Quinlan and Barletta reach many of the same conclusions but disagree
on some points.
For example, Quinlan says women today - especially working mothers
are stressed out.
Barletta believes the opposite: "In fact, women today are proud of how
well they cope with stress."
In another point of disagreement, both authors describe a current
ad for the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, reaching opposite
conclusions as to its effectiveness.
In the ad, writes Barletta, a "gracious, glamorous, silver-haired woman
is coming up a red carpet as if to the Academy Awards. Suddenly, she
trips and falls flat on her face.
The message: Cholesterol doesn't care who you are; it can even bring a princess down."
Women don't like the ad because they "don't like to see anyone get hurt, even for a good cause," says Barletta. "All I can think is, 'Oooh that poor woman, is she okay?'"
Quinlan praises the same ad for being "cliche-smashing." She says the
way to get womens attention is to play against type. "How often have
you seen the gray-haired grandmother walking the beach and worrying
about her incontinence or arthritis?" she asks.
According to Quinlan, the Lipitor ad is an example of letting older models "be silly and not just sentimental," which, she implies, appeals to women.
On this point, I agree with Barletta, not Quinlan. What do you think?
But the books differ most significantly in how they present their material.
Quinlan is CEO of Just Ask a Woman, Inc. (http://www.justaskawoman.com/)
a marketing research firm she founded in 1999.
Her main research method is a TV-show format in which Quinlan plays "Oprah" to elicit candid views and opinions from an all-female audience.
In her book, Quinlan shares the insights from her interviews of more
than 3,000 women.
They have told her that, in their stressed lives, they would appreciate
having bank statements that are "understandable" and instructions for
cell phones "written in English" (as opposed, presumably, to techie talk).
Surely, a wise bank or cell phone manufacturer would provide same.
But a reader can't help wondering, wouldn't men like understandable
bank statements and cell phone manuals too? Wouldn't anyone?
Barletta is president of The TrendSight Group (http://www.trendsight.com/),
a marketing consulting firm that also was founded four years ago.
Its patented product, the "GenderTrends Marketing Model," provides a process for analyzing how to mesh what you sell and how you sell it with,
as Barletta puts it, "female gender culture."
Barletta's book not only describes what women want, it also shows many
scenarios where no rule applies to 100% of either gender's buying behavior.
Barletta notes that it is not that women want better products and
better service while men don't. It's that women will go to more
trouble to obtain what they want.
She points out, for example, that Wyndham Hotels put magnifying mirrors
in bathrooms based on suggestions from women who wanted them for
applying eye makeup.
Men didn't request the mirrors and probably never would have, according
to Barletta, but they appreciated them when they appeared, because it made shaving easier.
One reason it takes women longer to make a buying decision, Barletta
explains, is that women want the "perfect answer."
Men will buy a workable answer rather than continue to shop, while women will continue to shop in the hope of finding that perfect answer. Now that sounds familiar.
Women also relate better to "warmer" than to "winner." A Nissan print ad
stating "horsepower increased 17%, torque increased 6%, bragging rights
increased 100%" is a male-only ad.
Women (even those who know what torque is) don't care as much about bragging rights says Barletta. But an ad for an SUV that says "Think of it as a 4,000 pound guardian angel" is an ad that resonates women.
Both books were helpful to me, but Barletta's book contains more
information for marketers regardless of gender.
Kare
Anderson is a trailblazer in media, business,
and politics and a former journalist for the Wall
Street Journal, Le Monde, UPI,
and other newspapers. Kare was Pacific Telesis'
first Wideband and Cable Division Director, a
co-founder of a national public affairs and
advertising firm, and now president of the Say it
Better Center. In government, she was a state
senator's chief of staff, co-founder of nine
political action committees and appointed
commissioner. Kare's a frequent strategic
communication coach to leaders in business and
government. Visit her website http://sayitbetter.com
