January 2003

MARKETING ANGEL ™
Understanding the world's largest market

by KIMBERLY MCCALL
Copyright © 2002 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

 

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  Recent columns by Kimberly McCall:

The secrets of cross-promotion (December, 2002)

New Yorkers promoting Maine tourism? Can it be? (November, 2002)

For one high-tech company, Maine is part of the message(October 2002)

Complete index
My holiday reading list was complemented greatly by a new, must-read book, Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach and Increase Your Share of the World's Largest Market Segment. Written by Martha (Marti) Barletta, the book offers tremendous insights on selling to the market segment responsible for 80% of all buying decisions in the home.

Barletta's the president of The TrendSight Group (www.trendsight.com), a Winnetka, Illinois-based company specializing in gender-focused marketing strategies for reaching women consumers. I asked Barletta about her book's findings, and how small-business marketers can harness the awesome power of selling to women.

Kimberly McCall: One of the most compelling sections of your book is on women's aspirations. According to a white paper by Grey Advertising, 85% of women say "making the world a better place" is their top aspiration, followed by 83% wanting to "see kids become really successful." How can small-business marketers best use this data to tailor-make marketing and advertising to appeal to women?

Marti Barletta:

Corporate halo. Women prefer to give their business to good corporate citizens, and there are lots of ways to let your company halo shine. For example:

  • Customer Appreciation. We received holiday cards from our landscaping company and the auto repair shop noting that in appreciation of their clients' business, "a donation has been made in your name" to a certain charitable organization.

  • Awareness. Every summer, our bank sponsors "Music in the Park," bringing in a local group to the little gazebo bandstand across from the bank. The series is promoted in the local paper, inside the branch, and on a tasteful sign at the park. On the evening of the performances, the gazebo is festooned with a "Sponsored by" banner and the branch president introduces the group.

  • Promotion. During a sale or promotion event, let your customers know you'll be donating a portion of proceeds to a worthy cause. One sole-proprietor chocolatier in Michigan organized a fundraising picnic for Cystic Fibrosis. She promoted the event under her company's name, but also invited several local restaurants and retailers to participate Ð a nice way to share her opportunity with clients and introduce herself to new business prospects. She sold a lot of product, her event partners showcased their wares, attendance was great and everyone had a good time.

    Most business owners are already supporting a worthy cause — a community-based program, the arts, the environment, the homeless, or a Christmas toy drive. You're doing it because it's the right thing to do, and some of you may hesitate to make sure your customers know about your good deeds. Don't. Women — substantially more than men — expect the companies they buy from to be good corporate citizens, and they will want to support you by buying from you. How can they do that if you don't let them know?

    Successful Kids: Every mother has a different definition of success [for her children], but one thing all have in common: the need [for children] to learn about the real world and how to function in it. Small businesses can pursue several avenues to provide learning experiences for kids of all ages. Three that leap to mind are materials, seminars/clinics and mentorship.

  • Materials. For younger kids, a car dealership could offer a coloring/puzzle book identifying and fitting together the major components of a car engine, what fluids need to go where in order to make it run, etc.

  • Seminars/Clinics. For teens, a lively, interactive "Under the Hood" car clinic with bonus demonstration of how to change a tire or apply jumper cables would give them a confidence boost Ð and their mothers the reassurance that they can handle these two emergencies.

  • Mentorship. For older teens who are trying to sort out what occupation they want to pursue, the chance to explore an occupation from the inside is invaluable. Small businesses could offer "A Day In the Life" opportunities for a kid to come in and spend the day with the owner of the business to see what it's like — sort of like "Take Your Kids to Work Day," but for other people's kids. To be worthwhile, you should plan for more than just "shadowing" the boss; build in several chances to participate as well. You'll stand out from your competition, and, because these opportunities are rare these days, moms will be grateful and sure to tell all their friends about your great program.

    McCall: You write about appealing to "what women cherish," including their girlfriends and warm, close relationships. I've seen this in action when every member of a tight group of women ends up sharing everything from the same Coach bag to a mortgage broker to a hair stylist. Can you speak a bit about how relationships with other women can be leveraged in marketing?

    Barletta: Small business owners can tap into the greater intimacy of women's close friendships compared to most men's, and the greater role played by word-of-mouth in female gender culture than in male gender culture.

  • Girlfriends. Although this term may not have equal appeal to all women, the feedback I get from most women is that it captures the comfort and closeness of many of their female friendships. From a marketing perspective, the interesting thing is that although advertisers and marketers have often portrayed women as individuals, which we are, of course, or as wives and/or mothers, or with co-workers, it's only recently that women are shown in the context of their girlfriends.

    For advertisers seeking to associate an emotional benefit with their message, this setting can convey a sense of warmth and ease, or a sense of lively fun and frivolity that's often overlooked, and therefore highly differentiating. For businesses hosting or sponsoring a promotional event, "bring a friend" invitations are guaranteed to draw more women customers. The social component will increase the appeal and up the response rate — and of course, every responder is delivering twice the response!

  • Word-of-Mouth. Unlike men, whose small talk usually consists of facts, stats and sports scores, women's "social currency" is comprised of personal stories and daily details. A woman's idea of a really good friendships is one where each party knows almost everything about the other — keeping each other up to date on new stores visited, product successes and failures, unexpectedly good or bad customer service, interesting activities, etc. A savvy marketer can tap into this as free marketing of the most powerful kind! Whether it's a "tell-a-friend" feature on your website, a "sell-a-friend" coupon your customer can pass along to give her friend the same great deal that she just got or a buzz marketing stimulus designed to just get people talking, you can always count on the word-of-mouth multiplier to boost your impact with women.

    McCall: Are there major differences in marketing to women of varying ages? Say a woman in her 30's and one in her 50's?

    Barletta: Because the insights of GenderTrends model [detailed in Barletta's book] come from looking at the differences between women and men, almost all of them apply the same way to women across age groups. The one exception is in the area of what I call Life/Time Factors. Women allocate their time differently than men do, partly because they have different roles in daily life, partly because they have a different style of getting things done, and partly because, thanks to their longer life spans, they simply have more time in their mature years. Although this is not universally true, a woman in her 30's is more likely to be in the "early family" mode than a woman in her 50's, meaning that the number and types of people in her immediate household is different, she's interested in different products and services and, importantly, her purchase decisions are more likely to be directed by her "family gatekeeper" role than by her own personal priorities and preferences.

    Small business owners can and should address these differences through the types of advertising appeals they focus on, the advertising media they select, the nature of the promotional offers and events they choose and the other businesses they partner-market with.

    For more ideas on marketing to women, go to Barletta's web site, www.trendsight.com, and sign up for her soon-to-debut e-newsletter.

    Kimberly L. McCall (a.k.a. Marketing Angel™), is president of McCall Media & Marketing, Inc., a business communications company in Freeport, Maine. McCall writes monthly columns for Entrepreneur magazine and contributes to inc.com and The Wall Street Journal's StartupJournal.com. Sign up for her free weekly bulletin at www.MarketingAngel.com or contact McCall at 207-865-0055.


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