What would you call a market segment that spends more than the entire population of Japan, represents the third-largest economy on the globe and controls more than US$14 trillion in wealth? Well, if you’re like a lot of other marketers developing strategies to target North American women, you’d call it a niche, along the same lines as ethnic and other specialty markets.
That, says Marti Barletta, a Chicago-based marketing consultant, is a shame. Rather than salivating over the huge potential of marketing their products to women, she says, too many companies are merely paying lip service to this huge and expanding market.
As baby boomers age over the next 10 years, the amount of wealth controlled by women will swell to more than US$22 trillion, Barletta says, adding that they already buy 50% of the computers sold in the U.S., and 65% of the new cars. Plus, women are starting new businesses at twice the rate of men and by 2010 are expected to fill half the Fortune 500’s top 20 jobs.
‘I’m sorry, but 52% of the population is not a niche market,’ she told a group of marketers at a recent Toronto seminar.
While traditional female-driven industries such as packaged goods, fashion and cosmetics have learned to speak to women on their own terms, companies in the financial services, automobile and computer industries are only now starting to effectively pursue that market, Barletta says.
Apple Computer is one company that wins high marks from Barletta for the introduction of its iMac personal computer – not for its use of brightly hued consoles, but for its emphasis on ease of use in its marketing materials.
While many marketers are slowly waking to the potential that lies in marketing to women, both women and men are suspicious of any product that is marketed purely as a ‘women’s product,’ Barletta says.
‘Men won’t buy products they think are ‘girlie’ and women look at them and think they are probably inferior to the men’s,’ she says.
Most attempts to market to women fail to live up to potential because of a lack of proper market segmentation, she says, pointing out that working women, stay-at-home mothers and retirees have very different concerns.
Elizabeth Hoyle, vice-president of marketing with Toronto-based Trimark Mutual Funds, says her firm has made great efforts to reach out to all segments of the women’s market. Rather than emphasizing the performance value of the company’s mutual funds, she explains, Trimark keys in on how women can benefit from mutual funds at different stages in their lives.
For instance, says Hoyle, the company markets a financial product to young mothers and grandmothers who want to save for the education of their children and grandchildren.
Sidebar: Too big to ignore
Percentage of household spending controlled by women: 83
Percentage of packaged goods spending controlled by women: 92
Percentage of U.S. households where women are the primary purchasing agent: 85
Percentage of new cars bought by women: 65
Percentage of new computers bought by women: 50
Current amount wealth controlled by U.S. women: US$14 trillion
Amount of wealth women are expected to control by 2010: US$22 trillion
Percentage of participants in investment clubs who are women: 61
Percentage of 1998 users of online services who are women: 47
Percentage of 1996 users of online services who are women: 16
Percentage of women who say current advertising is connecting with them: 31
Percentage of women who said in 1995 that advertising is connecting with them: 10
Percentage of women who say current advertising continues to show men and women in stereotypical roles: 59
Average number of people to whom a satisfied female customer will recommend a product or service: 28
Average number of people to whom a satisfied male customer will recommend a product or service: 13
