In his 1992 book, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, author John Gray's rather hyperbolic take on the differences between the sexes spawned a litany of phrases and clichéd expressions. Today, while the disparity between men and women continues to be parleyed, experts are reiterating the huge potential of selling to women.
While posing its own sets of challenges it's a segment no marketer can afford to ignore, they say. "We are the new kids on the block. In the past 40 years women have really made their way into the business world and gained respect and appreciation," says Delia Passi, President and CEO of US-based Medelia Inc, a company specialising in training organisations that provide customer service to women. "I'm not surprised it has taken this long, but we've come a long way," she adds.
According to a study conducted by Medelia Inc, women control 83 per cent of all consumer purchases in the United States. Women also spend $4 trillion (Dh14.68trn) a year, and own 40 per cent of all businesses in the US, compared to 10 per cent in Saudi Arabia.
Many of these high net worth individuals out-earn their husbands to the point that by 2025 one in four women will have a larger pay cheque than their spouse. Currently, 75 per cent of female executives in Fortune 500 companies earn more than their husbands, while women influence more than 94 per cent of purchases.
The research also showed that while a majority of men might actually buy the goods, they rarely make the decision alone, reiterating the importance of women-specific marketing. Passi, who is also the author of Winning the Customer, The Essential Guide to Selling to Women, has successfully devised marketing messages for various companies across the world.
Her approach to women has helped traditionally male products attract more female buyers, including Harley Davidson, which she says has seen women account for 15 per cent of all sales today, compared to three per cent four years ago.
"When you sell you can sell anything to anyone but when I started in publishing I found women take longer in the buying process so I had to come up with a new strategy otherwise I wouldn't succeed," she says.
The seven-point plan which she eventually created turned her new venture around as a result and made successful magazines out of Working Woman and Working Mother.
"When a man says he'll think about it, it means 'no', but when a women says that, it means she does want to think about it," says Passi, who also founded Women Certified, a training programme to improve service to women.
The expert was speaking at the third annual Women in Marketing Conference at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel this week in Dubai. The biggest difference between selling to men and women is women take longer to make a decision, the panel at the event agreed.
But according to Robert Taylor-Hughes, the Managing Director of Beiersdorf Middle East, which owns Nivea, a sales technique has also to be adapted depending on the country or environment. Selling to women in the Middle East is more complex than in Europe where the brand originates, he says.
"Marketing is more difficult in this region because it's very culturally divided. We use local talent or have to re-shoot some adverts because we can't use women with blonde hair and blue eyes if we're catering to Arab women," he says.
"We can look at the UAE like a vacuum but once we step outside it's very different and is harder because we have to adjust campaigns, including visuals and copy."
As companies roll out millions on advertising, Tarek Mady, the chair of the Marketing and Communications Department at the American University in Dubai says the best campaign will always be a great customer service.
"Women are the most powerful brand builders and the most dangerous brand killers due to their tendencies towards information sharing," says the academic.
"In Dubai they are six times more likely to use word of mouth than men because by nature, people talk about products they are satisfied with."
Taylor-Hughes says brevity is important. "If you can say it in five seconds you are particularly good at what you do," he says.
Passi meanwhile cites the Dove campaign, when it broke the advertising mould to a degree by shunning the often favoured tactic of using celebrities to endorse products. "The Dove adverts were great because they taught women about self esteem as it featured real women and thus got tremendous attention. Everyone was talking about it because it was controversial but it increased sales and had a great social impact in the market," she says.
Dove brand manager Rose Gray adds: "Our global research shows that many young girls dislike their own bodies and that girls who lack confidence can often fail to realise their potential in life.
"We believe that by using real women, and educating them about how images are constructed, we can help boost women's self-esteem and encourage them to enjoy and delight in their own individual beauty."
The number of women on the web should not be ignored, says Passi. "Women are more likely to spend their time online between 9am and 12pm and when they need to unwind they shop or play games so it's a good idea to create an online game around a brand," she says.
But there are reasons why women are still not on an even footing with men, when
it comes to their presence on the global marketing radar.
"Women are still fairly new to the workforce and it was only in the 1970s women got to be in management positions," says Passi. "In the past 40 years they have really made their way into the business world and gained respect and appreciation." |
