Read Online Why She Buys by Bridget Brennan - Free Book Online Page A
Authors: Bridget Brennan
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that women react more strongly than men to personal interaction with sales associates. The study reveals that for women, “lack of help when needed” is the top problem (29 percent). Funny enough, men react more strongly to the utilitarian aspects of the shopping process, ranking “difficulty in finding parking close to the store’s entrance” as the number one problem (also 29 percent). 17
At its simplest, business is all about motivating people to buy something from you instead of from someone else, or instead of nothing at all. Clearly, understanding what motivates women is critical if they are your target audience. For example, women generally don’t enjoying wading through highly technical instruction manuals, which is one of thereasons the Geek Squad from Best Buy has become so popular. For a lot of men, reading the manual and figuring out a product is part of the fun. From the time they’re young, boys enjoy taking things apart, putting them back together again, and figuring out how things work. This is not as common for women. When they buy something, they usually just want the thing to do what it’s supposed to do, right away.
American Airlines has a wonderful feature on its website that demonstrates a great grasp of this concept. When you go online to book a reservation (remember, women make most of the travel decisions), a little window pops up with a picture of a woman wearing a telephone headset, accompanied by the words “Need help? We’ll call you back right now.” If you need some live assistance from the airline, you can simply type in your phone number and an agent calls you back in about thirty seconds. It’s the perfect execution of personal help in an online environment—the living embodiment of high-tech and high-touch.
The business implications for these gender differences can be summed up as:
• Think twice before using “masculine” competitive messages in your marketing .
Women’s definition of achievement is internal and doesn’t necessarily involve beating or destroying anyone else. It’s surprising how often this competitive messaging turns up, even when it has nothing to do with the product or service in question. Recently I saw a large business-to-business ad at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, featuring a giant sumo wrestler facing off with a man in a business suit who was poised for a fight. It was an ad for a company that sells translation services and other types ofstaffing support for companies entering global markets. Why would anyone feature two men locked in a battle pose for a company that’s supposed to be helpful with multicultural issues? It’s a non sequitur. The lesson is, don’t see aggression where it doesn’t exist.
• No matter what your business, strive to make service a major differentiator .
The cliché that good help is hard to find is still true, and great service can provide a serious competitive advantage when it comes to serving women. Women want assurance up front that your company won’t leave them high and dry if something goes wrong. They have a highly developed sense of fairness and expect the companies they deal with to have it, too.
• Leverage the word-of-mouth power that women customers have on any business .
Women want to be considered indispensable, and that means being the source of valuable information to the people they care about. If women are happy with your business, they are delighted to tell people they know—especially if you provide an incentive for them to do so. From loyalty programs to referral programs, if you’re not leveraging your base of women customers to bring in their contacts, you’re leaving money on the table. To ingratiate women to your company, let them feel like insiders when it comes to news and information about your business. Women like to be in the know, because they enjoy being the source of good information in their social and business circles.
• Invest in human help .
Women believe that asking
At its simplest, business is all about motivating people to buy something from you instead of from someone else, or instead of nothing at all. Clearly, understanding what motivates women is critical if they are your target audience. For example, women generally don’t enjoying wading through highly technical instruction manuals, which is one of thereasons the Geek Squad from Best Buy has become so popular. For a lot of men, reading the manual and figuring out a product is part of the fun. From the time they’re young, boys enjoy taking things apart, putting them back together again, and figuring out how things work. This is not as common for women. When they buy something, they usually just want the thing to do what it’s supposed to do, right away.
American Airlines has a wonderful feature on its website that demonstrates a great grasp of this concept. When you go online to book a reservation (remember, women make most of the travel decisions), a little window pops up with a picture of a woman wearing a telephone headset, accompanied by the words “Need help? We’ll call you back right now.” If you need some live assistance from the airline, you can simply type in your phone number and an agent calls you back in about thirty seconds. It’s the perfect execution of personal help in an online environment—the living embodiment of high-tech and high-touch.
The business implications for these gender differences can be summed up as:
• Think twice before using “masculine” competitive messages in your marketing .
Women’s definition of achievement is internal and doesn’t necessarily involve beating or destroying anyone else. It’s surprising how often this competitive messaging turns up, even when it has nothing to do with the product or service in question. Recently I saw a large business-to-business ad at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, featuring a giant sumo wrestler facing off with a man in a business suit who was poised for a fight. It was an ad for a company that sells translation services and other types ofstaffing support for companies entering global markets. Why would anyone feature two men locked in a battle pose for a company that’s supposed to be helpful with multicultural issues? It’s a non sequitur. The lesson is, don’t see aggression where it doesn’t exist.
• No matter what your business, strive to make service a major differentiator .
The cliché that good help is hard to find is still true, and great service can provide a serious competitive advantage when it comes to serving women. Women want assurance up front that your company won’t leave them high and dry if something goes wrong. They have a highly developed sense of fairness and expect the companies they deal with to have it, too.
• Leverage the word-of-mouth power that women customers have on any business .
Women want to be considered indispensable, and that means being the source of valuable information to the people they care about. If women are happy with your business, they are delighted to tell people they know—especially if you provide an incentive for them to do so. From loyalty programs to referral programs, if you’re not leveraging your base of women customers to bring in their contacts, you’re leaving money on the table. To ingratiate women to your company, let them feel like insiders when it comes to news and information about your business. Women like to be in the know, because they enjoy being the source of good information in their social and business circles.
• Invest in human help .
Women believe that asking
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