Do You Really Know Who’s Buying?

Hey, you wanna make some money? Want better topline results in the short term? Want a better operating model for your business—something to really bolster growth and add gains to your market share? Then wake up which shoulder is wearing the purse.

I’ve been paying close attention these days to commercials, advertisements, and marketing messages, both for business to business and consumer sectors. What a throwback. Women are still portrayed as underlings at the office, or queens of the household and the kiddie van pool. More often than not, diversity is token at best. And don’t even go there with alternative family situations.

These are the same areas where wealth is being created, entrepreneurialism is intrepid, and growth will come from. Didn’t we just go through one of the worst economic disasters on record? What makes us think that the same-old, same-old approaches to marketing our wares to guys will help us through?

We shouldn’t fear it, guys. You’ve seen the market share demographics. You know who’s holding the wallets, starting more small businesses, and making the decisions. So we can’t stimulate growth of our share of the market and revenues if we continue to solely cater our business to the needs of—sorry—white men. We can connect with a more diverse base of customers and we can sidestep the stereotypes if we try. (NOTE: WOMEN DON’T WANT EVERYTHING IN PINK!)

I challenge our business, and all businesses, to make a meaningful connection with female customers this year. Do it right, and the money will follow.

The quickest way to know a woman is to go shopping with her. —Marcelene Cox

Comments

[S. R. Malone]

Smart post! Particularly when coupled with data about layoffs and job cuts by gender. Women were faring better than men, categorically speaking, when it came to maintaining employment throughout this economic downturn. Now, if we could work on the pay inequity thing while we endeavor to get a little more respect in "who's buying" arena....

[Whatsername]

Didn't I just say that women hold the spending power? Isn't that power exercised by *buying* things? Remember Howie Mandel's standup in the 80s? "Oh, you work in procurement. That's shopping." So if women truly influence most purchase decisions, chances are good that you can learn about me by tagging along while I shop - whether sourcing for my job or filling my fridge.

The quotes are automatically generated from one place: my brain, filled to the brim with bits of useless pop culture references and trivia. And I think you're overthinking this one.

[L. J. Helgerson]

Ah the irony. Your quote-of-the-day at the bottom of your page may be automatically generated, but I found it curious. After all the talk about stereotypes about women, the last line of your posting read as follows:
"The quickest way to know a woman is to go shopping with her.--Marceline Cox"

And how is that *not* the same kind of stereotyping that you decried in the previous posts? Could it be that our entire socio-political system, along all of our technology, are fueled not by oil, but by irony?!?