Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach, and Increase Your Share of the World's Largest Market Segment

In this uniquely informative volume, Barletta answers three separate but related questions: What makes women a worthwhile market? Why market differently to women? and How do we get beyond gender generalities to actionable tactics? In her Introduction, she lists "Eight Myths of Marketing to Women" which, during the course of her book's narrative, she convincingly repudiates. For example, #5: With women, marketing is all about relationships. "While it's true that women put more emphasis on relationships -- personal and corporate -- than men do, their purchase decisions and response to communications are affected by far more than `relationships.' From word meaning to word-of-mouth referrals, product priorities to Internet usage patterns, women differ from men in many, many marketing dimensions. And, to overlook their complexities would be to undermine the effectiveness of your company's programs." According to Barletta, there are four components of the women's market: earning power ("What's in her wallet?"), high-net worth women ("the ultimate asset-holders"), consumer spending power (the "household chief purchasing officer"), and women in business ("controlling the company checkbook"). A majority of consumers in the U.S. are women. Research indicates that online spending will increase 26% this year to $96 billion. Consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of the economy and women influence 95% and make 85% of all consumer buying decisions; moreover, the majority of corporate purchasing agents and managers are women. Female entrepreneurs account for 70% of new business start-ups. If you are still unconvinced of the upside potential of marketing to women, consider these facts: * Between 1970 and 1990, the number of women living alone doubled from 7.3 million to 15.3 million and this pattern has continued. * At least 55% of those online each day are women. * By the year 2010, women will control 60% of wealth in the U.S. * College students were responsible for $210 billion in sales in 2002 and 58% of them were female. * Women purchase more than 50% of the cars and own more than 46% of the homes in the U.S. * More than half of all business travelers are women. In Part II of her book, Barletta introduces and then explains what she calls the GenderTrends(tm)Marketing Model, a systematic and simple tool to help her readers understand, reach, and increase their share of the world's largest market -- women. The model is designed to achieve three objectives: 1. "Structure the complexities of the gender differences into an organized view of female [in italics] gender culture." 2. "Show you how gender culture interacts with each of the 12 [in italics] marketing elements [end italics] in the marketing mix." 3. "Apply the resulting insights to the four stages of the consumer's [in italics] purchase path." FYI, the four are activation through market entry, nomination of purchase options to consider, investigation and decision with regard to nominees, and

Marti is a person of remarkable insight. What she understands about human nature and the way that men and women view the world is backed up by both solid research and keen intuition. Luckily - for her clients and the readers of her books - she has applied those insights to teach us all how to effectively communicate to women about our products, services, and ideas. A pragmatic intellectual, Marti applies her thinking to a wide range of marketing topics and writes in a lively style that makes her work a delight to read.

It's worth your time and money to buy and read Barletta's second edition for Chapter 11 alone. Titled: "PrimeTime Women: The Target Marketer's Golden Bulls-Eye," this is a totally new chapter packed full of statistics and information on what promises to be a very lucrative market segment for marketers wise enough to pursue it. Best of all, Barletta not only describes the market in detail, she provides creative recommendations and tips for reaching these women.

You could fill a football stadium with books about marketing, but only a handful could be categorized as "groundbreaking". This book might fit that definition. Ms. Barletta's ideas about gender marketing were certainly new to me, made enormous sense, and seriously challenge conventional wisdom. She begins with an overview of how men and women differ in personality, behavior, and temperment. Her observations ring true and will bring a smile to anyone who has ever had a relationship with a member of the opposite sex. Next comes a detailed, step-by-step "how-to" manual of how to create marketing programs and materials that attract women. This nuts-and-bolts information is useful not only for gender marketing, but as a comprehensive guide to managing a marketing program in general. She then devotes some attention to techniques of selling to women and wraps up with an overview of the "Big Picture". Some people, like me, might be surprised to learn how much buying power and influence women have. (They have most of it.) And--women's influence is growing as baby boomers age! As I read the book, it began to dawn on me just how male-centric advertising is, and how so many advertisers are missing a golden opportunity to attract new business by shaping their message to women. Plus, it's a no-brainer, because women-based marketing seems to help with the guys, too. A key point Barletta stresses over and over is that women are more demanding customers than men. Therefore, she says, if you meet the expectations of a woman, you will exceed the expectations of a man. I think that makes sense. The book does anything but bash men, which I liked, being one. Barletta even concedes men's superiority in some areas, such as abstract and spacial thinking. (She proves it by including a few graphic representations of her model that are virtually incomprehensible.) In some cases, I think she draws her lines too sharply between the sexes. For instance, the idea that men like features and women like benefits seems like an overgeneralization. True, men can get caught up in a gadget's bells and whistles, but I've seen women analyze features into the ground when shopping for an appliance or car. And plenty of men like to hear about benefits and get bored stiff with technical talk about features. Anyway, this book could open your eyes to all sorts of new opportunities to make money. It's a valuable read for anyone in marketing.

"Marketing to Women" isn't just a collection of polls and observations pulled together by someone looking to write a bestseller. There is hard science to back up many of Barletta's assertions about how men and women see the world differently, and why marketers should care. The main reason why we should care, is $6,144,000,000,000. Yes, that 6 is in the TRILLIONS column. That's how much money American women spend in a year, according to a 2004 "Time" magazine report. Barletta presents a comprehensive, if often strident, explanation of what business owners stand to lose if their advertising doesn't drop two persistent beliefs about society: that men do the spending, and that youth is all everyone cares about. She gives many examples of companies that have moved beyond those beliefs, and ways that other industries can do the same. One of her standout case studies is Lowe's Home Improvement Stores. In the "men's world" of home improvement, women actually make most purchases (over 60%) and drive 80% of them. Lowe's noticed that, and their efforts to make their stores physically and psychologically appealing to women have paid off. As she explains, there is more to catching our fancy than producing a line of pink hand tools (that's condescending), but catch it you can (with better lighting and bigger paint departments). The book does have a shortcoming, though, and it's a big one. Barletta has an axe to grind, and she wants to do it on the forehead of the nearest male. She isn't content to let her large collection of both social and scientific data make her case for marketing to women. Her snide remarks weaken her case on two fronts: by turning off the very people who stand to gain the most from her research, and by damaging her reputation as a leader in her field. But if you can ignore the sniping-and I strongly suggest that you do-this book may be the single most profitable purchase you're going to make in a long time.