What Really Makes Women Buy?

Purchases by women now total trillions of dollars annually, accounting for about 80% of all consumer expenditures. Reaching this influential audience should be the number one priority for almost any business. But all too often, marketers and product development teams aren't sure how to begin.

Lisa Johnson and Andrea Learned, co-founders of ReachWomen, a firm that specializes in advising clients on the behavior of women as consumers, have written a ground-breaking new book, Don't Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy—and How to Increase Your Share of This Crucial Market (AMACOM, 2004) that helps unlock the secrets to developing products, services and marketing strategies that resonate with women.

In the introduction to Don't Think Pink, the authors outline a mission for companies that want to sell to women: “Your brand and your marketing team must be authentically interested in, and connected with, the women you serve in order to develop the most resonant products, services and marketing campaigns. The idea is to know your prospective and current women customers so well that you can place your brand right where it needs to be and ensure that your products or services will be readily accessible, in their minds and on the shelf, just when and where they need them.”

One key strategy in marketing to women is the ability to reach out to them during specific life stages or transitional points—going to college, getting married, career change, parenthood, divorce, retirement, death of a parent, etc. Because so many purchasing decisions are made around these life changes, they provide rich opportunities for enhancement of brand-building relationships with the customer. The authors write, “A transition requires a more conscious decision-making process and may result in customers exploring alternative paths or displaying a greater openness to new ideas and options. During transitions people think not only about what they need (retail space for a new business venture, for example), but they may also reexamine how to best fulfill those needs… As they enter new life stages, customers often make upgrades, seriously considering new brands and checking out new industries for the first time.”

Because new trends in life transitions have developed at the same pace as those in society and culture, in Don't Think Pink the authors explore a few of these new trends and how they shape women-based marketing:

• Women typically navigate through change. Because women often make the buying decisions surrounding transitions, much of the emotional and physical burden rests on their shoulders. They deeply appreciate the extra service and support your products and services can offer them during stressful times.
  
  
• Reruns are now common. Life transitions previously considered on-time events now commonly occur more than once—for example, marriage, raising a family and divorce. It will be important for marketers to avoid a limited view of the typical age range for certain transitional events and to cultivate customer satisfaction with their product or service, as many women will return to the same brands for assistance the second time around.
  
  
• Timelines are shifting. The life transitions once traditionally associated with youth have shifted upward. For example, many women experience their child-rearing years in their late thirties.
  
  
• “Mature” transitions are more frequent. As Baby Boomers age, more women will be undergoing transitions like menopause, retirement, second marriages and grandparenthood. But marketers beware: this group of senior citizens will require you to reinvent your “senior” marketing ways to reinforce their youthful self-image.

Even if your products or services aren't directly related to a major life transition, your brand can still provide support to women in transition, say Johnson and Learned. They write, “As a woman goes through a career change, for example, her personal life won't suddenly stop moving around her. It's just not possible for her to focus in and do her transition processing in a vacuum without distractions from the rest of her life. Your brand can provide support by easing the other tasks she may have, or the roles she may be playing (as mom, businesswoman, household manager) and giving her the room to breathe.”

If you would like to learn more about Don't Think Pink: What Really Makes Women Buy—and How to Increase Your Share of This Crucial Market and other AMACOM business titles, click here.

Click here to read a sample chapter from Don't Think Pink.

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