BOOK REVIEW She Marketing: The Science of Marketing to Women

Consider the following statistics. Today, women make over 80% of all consumer-purchasing decisions. Women aged 25-40 are the fastest growing demographic with expendable cash. And for the first time since World War I, there are more single women than married women.

These facts open part one of She Marketing by Splash Consulting Group Director Amanda Stevens. Women wield the power of the purse, yet so many marketers fall into common traps when targeting this key demographic, argues Stevens. Marketing to women requires indentifying the unique values important to women – insights that this book, and by extension the She Marketing brand (launched by Splash Consulting Group in 2000), claims to have covered.

It’s hard not to be suspicious of a book written to promote a product. However, upon reading it’s clear She Marketing is more than a PR exercise for Splash. Despite sporting a shiny pink cover that screams Barbie convertible, the book offers deep and powerful insights about marketing to a wide variety of women, from Gen Y “socialites” and “independent princesses” to “family first” types and older “young at hearts”. In a candid conversational style (not unlike the informal dinner party focus groups recommended in chapter seven), Stevens pieces together cognitive studies and various pieces of research to come up with a methodology for marketing to females, closing the last few chapters with real-life examples and a wide range of case studies

What you’ll get out of this book depends on what kind of marketer you are. If you’re savvy when it comes to cosmopolitans, Sex and the City, pregnant pause home loans and online grocery shopping, then the content of this book won’t be anything new. If anything, the wealth of research and statistics Stevens includes will provide a handy arsenal of facts when convincing less enlightened execs of the importance of a targeted campaign for women.

But if you’re the kind of marketer who thinks feminine is all about dressing products up in pink and the biggest battle for women today is choosing between a baby or career(note: they now do both), then there are some revelations to be found in Stevens’ book.

Rating: 7 out of 10

 AUTHOR: Amanda Stevens

PUBLISHER: Splash Publishing, $34.95

REVIEWER: Sophia Russell

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