 |
| Reaching female buyers requires attention to detail |
|
|
Selling to women is about pressing the right buttons
I once walked into one of the most popular shoe shops in an upmarket mall. In the past the market typically relied on them for durable, hard-wearing, reasonably priced leather shoes for the family. This time round I hoped to find a nice, decent, stylish, good quality, low heeled, closed, preferably black or brown office leather shoe and reasonably priced.
Instead they had all these synthetic shoes [some open, some closed] that were not appealing at all. I was frustrated after going round nearly shoe shops in town without success.
So I asked the shop attendant why they no longer stock such shoes for women and yet they had this very fine leather shoes for men. “We have realised that majority of women do not want to spend too much money on shoes like men,” she said, “and so we bring mass synthetic/manmade leather shoes that will appeal to their [family] budget.”
Now notice my ‘demand’ list: Are most women shoppers like me or am I just a fussy customer? Part of what makes marketing to women seem so complicated is the fact that their purchase decision-making paths can be a bit winding. It may be for a home, clothes, investments, schools, fuelling at a gas station, buying gifts, etc. Generally women consider price, square footage, school systems, and all the other more traditional elements.
However, their buying curves give them even more to ponder. They may have checked off everything on their list, close to a decision, and then learn that your company sponsored the run they participated in last weekend. Boom! She’s sold. All things equal though, the more obvious, linear, and typically bottom-line considerations of price, quality, and customer experience somehow stand.
Top journalist Fara Warner in her book The Power of the Purse says in the US, women drive 80 percent of all buying decisions. She gives an example of Kodak’s digital camera business soaring from fourth to first for creating easy-to-download digital cameras for technophobic women.
The diamond giant maker DeBeers’s bittersweet campaign to get women to buy their own diamonds instead of pining for a man to do it brought in rolling sales. Back here at home we have the financial services sector especially, creating products that appeal to women. All have a unique story in every case - putting women at the centre of their strategies, and listening intently to what real women consumers were telling them.
Reaching female buyers requires attention to detail and a whole-company approach.
‘Web’ thinking: Not surprisingly, a woman’s more typically holistic buying characteristics are founded in the extra-connectedness of her brain. Helen Fisher wrote in her book The First Sex, “As women make decisions, they weigh more variables, consider more options and outcomes, recall more points of view, and see more ways to proceed.” It’s no wonder then that emotions play a larger role in the way women think about everything.
The curving buying path: With their very connected, it-all-matters brains, women may be taking in a lot more information and heeding more external influences and cultural changes during their buying process. The overall challenge is to understand them, respect them and show your appreciation for them to do business with women.
Connecting with women: A more holistic, “human” approach may be needed. You can be the best builder on paper, but without tending to all the details of her full experience with your company, you won’t necessarily gain her business. For women, the emotional side of their home-buying process, for example, may be what draws them in, while the linear facts and figures — though still important — may come into play further into the process.
A smart investment: Chances are your investment in a long-term interactive relationship and allowance for a woman’s more winding purchase decision-making process will pay off exponentially.
Personally, I can identify with that — I previously ran a very successful business for which 90 percent of buyers were women. Our unique selling proposition was high quality, colourful trendy toilet bags and, above all, customer excellence. The business wound up seven years ago but Kiasili brand still has an emotional connection with female clients who still describe the products they bought back then so emotionally and passionately.
The products are still ‘living’ in my customers’ dressing tables, bathrooms, and travel cases and, most importantly, in their minds.
|
