The 10 Commandments Of Marketing To Women
Most people who know me think of me as an op/ed writer, spouting arguably articulate points of view on things like politics, social media, entertainment and like where I live now.But I am also a professional writer and blogger. This post was one I wrote for a graphic design/marketing company that I was doing a great deal of work for and and wanted to help them with their marketing.
Though it was written a couple of years ago and the world as we know it is quite a different place than it was then, I believe the insights I gathered here are every bit as relevant today, if not moreso.
PS: There are no images supporting this post because when I searched for some, the vast majority of what I found were a bit offensive to women. There's a lot of that going around these days.
On Marketing To Women
One of our clients has decided that they would like to do a campaign that targets women. As a man who professes to be in touch with the feminine psyche, (with female partners in and aside from business), my assumption was that I would not find all that much of a difference between marketing to men and women.
But the question of what the differences actually could be was intriguing so I decided do a little digging on the good old world wide web.
Now you have to be careful when you research anything on the web, because it is the great equalizer, and it’s really hard to separate the political agendas from the honest information, especially with issues like this.
But like anything in life, if you dig around enough, you will start to see patterns of opinion.
Rather than bore you with the longer version of the results I found, I have distilled this research down to what I call “The 10 Commandments of Marketing To Women.”
What you will hopefully find as you read through it is that there is a high level of interconnectivity between all of these characteristics, which is not something you can always observe in men.
1. Women Are Focused On Connections: They look for similarities as opposed to points of difference. They focus on creating cooperation, good relationships and ways to help each other.
2. Women Trust Common Experience, as opposed to men who tend to put more faith in authority. The reason for this is that men think vertically as in hierarchies whereas women tend to think laterally as in common ground or level playing fields, where everyone can benefit.
3. Women Prefer Win/Win Situations, as opposed to men who think win/lose. That is not to say they are less competitive than men, just competitive in a different way.
4. Women Plan Ahead To Avoid Negative Outcomes. As a result women tend to be better long term thinkers and planners.
5. Women Put More Time And Research Into Their Decisions. This means that if you are marketing to them, you are obliged to do a very thorough job of communicating information, as they will take it all into account.
6. Women Are More Loyal To Those With Whom They Do Business. This has to do with the fact that women are simply much more confident in their decisions, whereas with men, not so much.
7. Women Refer More Often Than Men. This is an adjunct to 6. It’s a lot easier for women to be good and frequent referrers, because they are more confident in the decisions they make in the first place and because it is more in their communal nature to recommend products and services they are happy with to others.
8. Women Are Much More No-Nonsense Than Men. If a woman has an objection to something, she will tell you about it and expect you to address it immediately. She is a big believer in testimonials, as opposed to marketing hyperbole because she has a highly developed B/S meter.
9. Women Prefer Stories To Facts. To women, stories are more memorable than features and benefits. She will relate stronger to stories involving people’s experiences with your product or service. This makes an emotional connection that can motivate them to take action. This means that things like case studies, testimonials and product reviews are something they will take a good deal of interest in.
10. Women Genuinely Believe That Quantity Is Not Quality. Women tend to look at just about everything in their lives from a qualitative perspective. Quality of life. Quality of service. Quality of products. Quality of experience.
Yeah, But You're A Guy
Now the assumption here is that being a man writing this post would naturally put me at a disadvantage. Because on the one hand, you could look at the aforementioned points to keep in mind when marketing to women and think, well OK, that’s the man’s point of view.
But then I would have to politely correct you because a) A professional writer can put himself in just about anybody's shoes, and b) The sources I used to derive this list all come from blogs and web sites that are run by women. Just wanted to clarify that point.
Now if you’re a woman out there reading this, very little here is going to come as a surprise.
But if you’re a man, most of this could be quite a revelation…at least it was to me. It might be worth reading a couple of times, and seeing if there aren’t some things we men could do to be more like women.
Maybe then the world would be less of a ‘dog eat dog’ place than it is now.
If you liked this post, let me know. If you liked it enough to share it, please feel free.
If your business has reached the point where talking to an experienced communication professional would be the preferred option to banging your head against the wall or whatever, lets talk.
Download my free ebook Small Business Communication For The Real Worlhere:
https://onwordsandupwords.wordpress.com/2013/11/24/small-business-communications-for-the-real-world/
All my profile and contact information can be accessed here:
https://www.bebee.com/producer/@jim-murray/this-post-is-my-about-page
All content and images Copyright 2017 Jim Murray
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Comments
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
7 years ago #26
mohammed khalaf
7 years ago #25
Jerry Fletcher
7 years ago #24
Jim Murray
7 years ago #23
Jim Murray
7 years ago #22
Joyce 🐝 Bowen Brand Ambassador @ beBee
7 years ago #21
Joyce 🐝 Bowen Brand Ambassador @ beBee
7 years ago #20
Lada 🏡 Prkic
7 years ago #19
Donald 🐝 Grandy PN
7 years ago #18
Lisa Gallagher
7 years ago #17
Nice post Jim Murray broke down a list. I just copied/pasted hers to do my own, thanks Franci! 1. Women Are Focused On Connections: - Yes 2. Women Trust Common Experience - Agreed 3. Women Prefer Win/Win Situations - Sometimes Me: Not at the expense of others or our pocket books 4. Women Plan Ahead To Avoid Negative Outcomes - Sometimes Me: Other times we need it now and no time to plan ahead 5. Women Put More Time And Research Into Their Decisions - Sometimes Me: And sometimes we are too impulsive 6. Women Are More Loyal To Those With Whom They Do Business - Agreed 7. Women Refer More Often Than Men - Agree, maybe because we are larger consumers of products 8. Women Are Much More No-Nonsense Than Men - Agreed - Me: I used to feel the opposite until I began to see the Politics of men in business 9. Women Prefer Stories To Facts - Agreed. I read reviews 10. Women Genuinely Believe That Quantity Is Not Quality - Yes, quality rules Franci, you and I agreed similarly. I left your words in (sometimes, agree etc..) Jim; "Yea but you're a guy," that gave me a chuckle. Great points Jim!
Devesh 🐝 Bhatt
7 years ago #16
how?
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
7 years ago #15
I fully agree with Paul \'s comment. This is about marketing here. Marketing targets and compartmentalizes groups of people. That's how it works. There is nothing offensive here. Thanks everyone.
🐝 Fatima G. Williams
7 years ago #14
Devesh 🐝 Bhatt
7 years ago #13
dude it looks like your philosophy has flooded all other things in your head. Take a step back and reassess. If that pisses you, its gonna hurt your purpose.
Jim Murray
7 years ago #12
Thanks Paul \. Great comment. Unlike a lot of the other crap that has appread on my comments thread for this post. We really need a blocking feature here. And this is a classic example of just why.
don kerr
7 years ago #11
knee slapper
don kerr
7 years ago #10
cracking me up.
don kerr
7 years ago #9
Self absorption run amok. Sheesh.
Phil Friedman
7 years ago #8
Oh yeah, you too, Don \ud83d\udc1d Kerr. :-)
Phil Friedman
7 years ago #7
Vive Paul \!! Thank you for speaking out. There seems to an epidemic of some seeking to use the posts of other writers to push a self-promotional agenda. Not with question or reasoned argument, but with long diatribes and manifestos that are purely autobiographical. It's a way of gaining attention by piggy backing on popular writers like you, Paul, and Jim. Oh sure, we're all guilty from time to time of posting a link to one of our own articles in someone else's thread, but it seems to be getting out of hand. We all need to ask ourselves if a comment we want to make adds to the conversation. And if not, not make it and simply move on. Cheers!
don kerr
7 years ago #6
Jim Murray
7 years ago #5
Why do I get the feeling that you're using my comment stream to write mini posts on your own philosophy. I find that offensive. If you want to get that across, write your own post instead of cluttering up mine. I get that you disagree and it is about marketing because that's what this post is about. You can preach androgyny till the cows come home if that's your thing. I disagree, and most of the world does too. That may be sad, and it may have to change but it's the way it is right now. I'm giving people useful marketing advice, not trying to show them the light. Please go away.
Jim Murray
7 years ago #4
Hey Max. This is the way it is. If you find this post offensive to your personal philosophy don't read it. I do the same with your stuff.
Javier Cámara-Rica 🐝🇪🇸
7 years ago #3
Phil Friedman
7 years ago #2
Jim Murray
7 years ago #1
Gender Bias. Isn't is funny how easy it is to politicize everything? Some marketing is, by the nature of targeting, not gender biased but gender focused. A real marketer would know the difference.