EXCERPT…
From the publication
MARKETING TO WOMEN
Women control the wealth
"For the past 15 years," Barletta says, "women have been taking home a substantial
majority of college degrees — 57 percent — or one-third more than men."
Their better education has led to better jobs, including many in the boardrooms
across America. Of course, better jobs have meant better pay. In the past three
decades, women's earnings (adjusted for inflation) have soared 63 percent, while
the median income for men has barely moved the meter (just a 0.6 percent increase).
Women’s earning power has improved so dramatically that today, 48 percent of working
wives provide at least half of their household’s income, with 30 percent of working
wives out-earning their husbands.
Now that's earning power. But what about net worth, financial assets, and investment
power? Many people have heard that the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth
in history is about to take place as Baby Boomers inherit from their high-saving
parents. But few have thought about what happens next: because of women's longer
lifespans, combined with their tendency to marry men older than themselves, Boomer
women will then inherit from their husbands and go on to outlive them by 15 to 18
years. That means the combined wealth of two generations will be concentrated in
Baby Boomer women's wallets for almost two decades — a trend investment firms
can hardly afford to ignore.
It's more than the money
Women's remarkable gains in earning power and wealth ownership are only half the
story. Where the rubber really hits the road for marketers is in women's spending
power. Although women make up "only" 51 percent of the U.S. population, they account
for a striking 81 percent of all consumer and business purchases.
"In the past, big-ticket items like cars, insurance policies, and major appliances
were bought by men," Barletta says, "and they were marketed that way. Nowadays,
women need their own cars, computers, cell phones, and their own investment accounts.
So manufacturers and marketers are facing a whole new marketplace." Barletta points
out, "Single women head 27 percent of households. That's more than one out of four
U.S. households where women are the sole decision-makers. In married households,
women still make most of the spending decisions, only in this case, they have two
incomes to manage."
A world of difference
So women have control of a sizable amount of the nation's spending power, and statistics
show they make the financial decisions, but why change the way advertisers present
their wares?
It's not the product that matters, but the prospect. And studies show that male
and female prospects have very different priorities, preferences, and attitudes
about a lot of things. The way they move through a decision process is radically
different — and often leads to very different brand and product choices.
Martha Barletta, author of Marketing to Women: How to Understand,
Reach and Increase your Share of the World's Largest Market Segment,
offers her insights in this publication. She is the president and CEO of The TrendSight Group and a recognized authority on gender-focused
marketing strategies.
Barletta has consulted with ACTON Marketing to develop marketing materials that
address key points in a woman's buying decision process.
