By Tami Anderson & Elizabeth Howland, andHow Marketing
Women have been associated with shopping since the concept began but, until fairly recently, not so much with buying. When it comes to big purchases like cars, homes, finances or technology, the conversations (and the marketing dollars) have primarily been directed to men. The theory seemed to be that the hunters decided what to get and the gatherers went out and got it. Today it’s clear that women are making a majority of both home and business purchases.
Startups and small businesses can apply some of the same lessons that big brands have been learning about effective marketing strategies for women . To tap into the power of this $7 trillion market in America, (which, by the way, exceeds the size of the entire Japanese economy) keep these seven insights in mind:
There is no “women’s market”; there’s your women’s market
A few years ago Salomon, the performance ski and outdoor brand, took a look at the growing spending power of women in the sports market and decided that their male-oriented image was missing the mark. As part of a seven-year women’s initiative, they spent two years identifying who their female customers were and learning what was important to them about sport, shopping and life. Further analysis led them to three well-defined market segments, based on lifestyles vs. demographics.
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