TrendSight: Marketing to Women

All Consuming

By Maria Mooshil
Tribune staff reporter
Published June 15, 2005

From cars to banking to electronics, the push to cash in on female spending power has never been greater--and marketers are using the Internet, store design and more to make their pitches resonate.

Women are hot.

To marketers, that is.

In 80 percent to 85 percent of all consumer-buying decisions, women are considered the primary decision-makers, marketing studies show. And some retailers are taking steps--bold or tentative, depending on the source--to try to capture women's allegiance and the $3.3 trillion to $7 trillion marketing observers say they spend annually on consumer purchases.

Also capitalizing on this female consumer gold mine are consulting companies, books, newsletters and conferences, all armed with strategies and data to help retailers gain access to women's wallets.

"We're doing this, but how can we do it better?" is what Kelley Skoloda, director of global brand marketing practice for Ketchum public relations, is hearing from clients. In response, Ketchum began an initiative in December to help companies better connect with female customers.

"Women are constantly juggling tasks and thoughts at a higher rate than men . . . to manage their daily life. It doesn't mean they're harried or they're frenzied. It's just what we do," Skoloda says. The constant "multiminding" means one medium alone doesn't work to reach women, she says, and marketers have to take a multitiered approach instead.

"Women aren't paying attention to a 30-second ad, and if [they are], they're also packing a child's lunch or reading a paper," Skoloda says.

The more competitive the industry, the more women are being targeted, says Martha Barletta, president and chief executive of The TrendSight Group in Winnetka and author of "Marketing to Women" (Dearborn).

"The place where it's news is the big-ticket industries," she says, pointing to banking, cars, computers and consumer electronics. "When you have that much competition, you have to get smarter to get more business."

But efforts to market to women, which have only started to take root in the past few years, are still "nominal," she says. "Compared to nothing, a lot is being done."