The Low Down on Catering to Women

Rexanne Smith

Queen of Cars

It has become a well known fact that women dominate consumer spending.  Other interesting facts include the following:

1)      Women make up just half the population.

2)      Over 85% of consumer purchases are made by women and women influence at least 80% of auto purchases.

3)      Women make 65% of new car purchases.

4)      Women make 91% of new home purchases.

5)      Women make 63% of all online purchases.

As you can see, women play an important role in the success of businesses and because of this an extra effort should be made to understand women and why they buy the way they do. This brings up the age old question…..What DO Women Want?

I read a book recently and one of the statements contained therein really stuck with me.  “Within the rich details of women’s conversations are the road maps to what they need and want.” How true this is! For businesses to reach their full potential and highest level of success, they MUST pay close attention to the female buyer.  An understanding of women and their buying habits will ultimately increase their profitability.

What does this mean for the female consumer?  Women WANT to shop with businesses that understand what they want and need.  Women WANT to shop at stores that reach out to them in a meaningful way.  Women WANT to do business with those which they can establish a relationship.

There are differences in female and male brains.

Reaching out to women doesn’t mean businesses need to think PINK (as in the color). Women are looking for something substantially more meaningful.  FACT:  There is no unisex brain.  Scientific Facts:

1)      Men’s brains are 10% larger than women’s. Despite the size difference men and women have the same number of brain cells. Women’s brains are simply packed more densely.

2)      Men do, however, have more gray matter: the stuff that gives the brain its intellectual processing power. This helps them in areas of logic and numbers—straightforward tasks that have only a few variables.

3)      Women’s brains make up for this discrepancy by having more white matter: the connective tissue that lets messages travel from one section of the brain to another. They also have stronger connections between the two brain hemispheres.  This white matter helps women focus on the big picture and create connections between seemingly-unrelated information, because it can assimilate a variety of information from different parts of the brain.

Think about the way we speak. Men tend to stick to one topic at a time. Women’s conversations scatter all over the map, touching on one subject after another in a seemingly endless web of opinions, situations and feelings.  Because of the differences in our brains, women and men think, buy, interact and REact differently.  Women require more details to make a purchase.  They buy not just based on immediate need but how well they think the product will fit their needs a month and even a year down the line. Women may ask family, friends or neighbors to offer suggestions.  Their brain’s abundance of white matter makes it easy to analyze all these different pieces of information and weigh them against each other.

Because women want and need more information, this benefits a business where the male buyer is concerned too. Isn’t it far better to provide more information than not enough? Isn’t a business more prepared?  The goal is not to divide male and female consumers. It’s to understand their different buying styles, once and for all, and reflect both in marketing materials.

Understanding women’s different thinking styles, behaviors, beliefs, and values will bring more women to businesses that share this viewpoint.  These same women will form bonds with those businesses that go the extra mile to understand what they want and need.

Rexanne Smith

Queen of Cars

(478) 227-2445

www.facebook.com/alcarqueen