Strategy Trinkets, trash and adult colouring books

On Tuesday night I accidentally (on purpose) spent too much [...]

read
Design Your brand is your user experience

There’s a lot to be said for the growing field [...]

read
Digital Merry Amex-mas (Augmented Fun From Down Un)

Here’s a nice little present from American Express in Australia. [...]

read
Culture Where do you stand on SOPA and PIPA? read

Big Orange Slide

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

Are you reaching the world’s largest consumer group?

November 18, 2009 by Samantha Holt

Image by Brian RossIt’s no secret that before any marketer puts their heart into developing a consumer ad campaign, they need to do their homework. Jumping into a creative execution – no matter how stellar it may be – prior to understanding the motivations, values and the lives of the target consumer is like deciding to eat a banana without peeling it first. A hasty move likely to produce unfortunate results.

Now, throw women into your target market, and the importance of understanding what makes them tick becomes exponentially higher. That’s because women are quickly emerging as the primary decision makers in the marketplace.

Some recent findings on the topic:

According to some studies, women account for as much as 85% (PDF) of all consumer brand purchases in the United States, including: 91% of new homes, 93% of food, 66% of PCs, 65% of new cars, and 89% of bank accounts.

By the end of this calendar year, U.S. women are expected to make up the majority of the country’s workforce. To that end, almost 40% of U.S. households report a woman as the primary breadwinner or a provider of essential income to the family’s bottom line.

According to Martha Barletta’s book Marketing to women, women are the world’s largest consumer group, with a collective buying power greater than Japan’s economy.

U.S. women are expected to control $1 trillion (or 60%) of the country’s wealth by the year 2010. That’s according to research conducted by BusinessWeek and Gallup.

And according to one survey, 91% of women say advertisers don’t understand them.

It seems female consumers are making quite a bit a noise in the marketplace. Today’s smart marketer knows it’s time to listen up.

4 Comments on "Are you reaching the world’s largest consumer group?"

Make a Comment


By submitting a comment, you agree to Grip Limited’s Guidelines, Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.


BIG ORANGE SLIDE: © 2010, Grip Limited. All rights reserved. Comments posted on this blog are the individual contributors personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Grip Limited, its vendors, or its clients, nor the contributors respective employers or clients. Complaints, concerns and general hysteria: blogombudsman@griplimited.com