What Do Women Want? To Stop Worrying

By Rieva Lesonsky

Are you marketing to women? Then take note: A surprising new study by the Boston Consulting Group and reported in Marketing Daily found that women are more worried about their financial situation today than they were even at the height (or should I say depths?) of the Great Recession.

When asked what their biggest concern is, 57% of women surveyed said it was managing household finances. (By comparison, in 2009 their biggest concern was lack of time.) Women were 21% more likely than men to say they are anxious about the future, and 44% more likely to say they face a great deal of stress.

No wonder: Nearly three-fourths (73 percent) say they have been personally affected by the global economic downturn. Just 13 percent feel “very” financially secure, but one-third don’t feel financially secure at all.

As a result, more than half (57%) are cutting back on spending in areas such as buying private-label brands, buying less food, getting their hair cut less often and wearing old clothes instead of buying new ones.

Although men are more likely to have lost their jobs than women are (men account for about 85 percent of layoffs, Michael J. Silverstein, senior partner at The Boston Consulting Group, told Marketing Daily), women whose spouses or partners are laid off or fear being laid off are more worried about family finances.

If your business involves life insurance, investment/financial advice or banking, be especially wary: The survey found these are the top three categories where women say marketers don’t understand their needs.

So what does it take to market to worried women? First, keep in mind that women are cutting back, but they don’t want to look like they’re cutting back and they want to keep up appearances of the same lifestyle. Silverstein cites the following core issues:

• Create value packages. Add features to deliver more value instead of “stripping things out,” Silverstein advise.
• Be innovative. Women want to feel smart when they’re making a purchase and innovative products help them do so.
• Show you understand her time concerns. With more than 90 percent of working women saying they’re still responsible for all of the household chores and child care, time pressures aren’t going away any time soon. Even in a down economy, women will still pay extra if it will buy them precious time.

Image by Flickr user Alan Cleaver (Creative Commons)

This entry was posted on Friday, September 30th, 2011 at 6:00 am and is filed under Marketing, sales process, Small Business, small business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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