Marketing on women

Marketing to Women June 22, Marketing to Women Since the last few decades, advertisers and marketers are looking at women s, and segments with renewed interest. The interest is not only for selling feminine based products, female apparel, or groceries, but also for electronic items, cars, holidays, tours, and even mens apparel. Women have emerged as the main decision makers in buying a large number of products1.
Factors: Many factors have acted as a catalyst for change and these include an increase in the number of women with jobs, rise in single women and single women with children and an increase in the number of women entrepreneurs and business owners, and these groups have sufficient disposable income. Today, women are well educated, travel, and live alone in new cities, and they form a mobile workforce. Women are active in almost all sectors, such as engineering, manufacturing, construction, hospitality, healthcare, entertainment and TV, and many other sectors. Thus, the earning power of women has increased, and they do not have to depend on their husbands, fathers, brothers, or partners to buy products2.
Statistics: In USA, high net worth women make up 39 percent of the top earners while 2. 5 million women have assets of $ 4. 2 trillion. About 43 percent of women in USA have assets of more than $ 500, 000. Estimates until 2020 indicate that women will control and manage about two thirds of the national wealth and control about $ 40 trillion. Generally, women make 95 percent of the decisions to buy a large number of products, while in groceries; they make 99 percent of the decisions. Estimates indicate that women are the decision makers for 85 percent of all consumer goods, 91% of new homes, 92 percent for vacations, 65 percent for new cars and 93 percent for pharmaceuticals, beauty products and personal hygiene items. Women also participate in online buying and 22 percent shop online almost daily, and they post reviews about their purchase, post messages in social media and write to marketing firms about their pleasure or displeasure3.
Loyalty: Studies indicate that womens loyalty is less for some types of products such as consumer goods, groceries and toiletries. They look at a number of factors such as product quality and price and they would be willing to try new products that are recommended by friends or that cost less, but the products must meet the expected quality requirement. Celebrity endorsements have limited appeal, unless women like the products. Women also tend to be more loyal to the service provider such as the waiter, hairdresser, or the shop attendant, and less to the shop or business4.
Age groups: Women customer segments include tweens, teens, young adults, adults, mature and seniors, and women become active buyers and decision makers, right from their childhood. Tweens and teens in the age groups of 11-15 are mainly interested in cosmetics, junk jewelry and apparel, while other age groups are interested in food, electronic items, cars, life style products and other such items. Senior groups, made of women in the 50+ age group buy expensive and durable luxury goods5.
Advertisement and marketing: The nature of ads and promotion for these age groups depend on the product. Generally, female celebrity endorsements strike a chord. For all other goods, the price, discounts, special offers, quality and convenience matters. Depending on the background, women look at ads on TV, newspapers and magazines, hoardings and online. Rather than glamour and using beautiful models in the Ads, women like to see the value that they get when they purchase a product6.
The paper examined important aspects of marketing to women. It is clear that women form a sizeable percentage of customers, and they are the main decision makers in buying a large number of products. Hence, it is clear that advertisers look at women with interest and direct their marketing efforts at them.
References
Dick, Arnold. and Basu, Kunal. ” Customer Loyalty: Toward an Integrated Conceptual Framework”. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 22. 2 (1994): 99–113
Melnyk, Valentyna., Osselaer, Stijn. and Bijmolt, Tammo. ” Are Women More Loyal Customers Than Men? Gender Differences in Loyalty to Firms and Individual Service Providers”. Journal of Marketing, 73. 7 (2009): 82–96. Print
Iacobucci, Dawn, and Churchill, Gilbert. Marketing research: methodological foundations. London: Cengage Learning, 2009. Print
Wyer, Mary., Women, science, and technology: A reader in feminist science studies. NY: Routledge, 2013. Print