“Women control the majority of purchasing decisions in a household and their influence is growing.” That’s just one of the many key findings from a Nielsen Study which showed that women the world over are in control of purchasing decisions which should serve as a wake up call to business to consumer (B2C) marketers and advertisers across the globe.
The study, titled Women of Tomorrow: A Study of Women Around the World, provides insight into how current and future generations of female consumers shop and use media differently and presents many cases where marketers have a “massive opportunity to better connect women with the products they buy and the media technologies they use to make a positive impact both in their lives and in the bottom line.” The study also provides even more proof as to the importance of creating and integrated marketing and advertising message.
Let’s Start With Social Media…
Every day more and more women around the world join a social network and in fact, as the study showed that when online, women are more engaged than men plus they tend to spend more time on fewer sites which should scream at advertisers. In other words, unlike men who “channel surf” or in this case “website surf” due to rampant ADD – at least in my case, women stay on one site for a longer period of time which provides marketers and advertisers a better chance at connecting with them via an online ad.
The Nielsen Study also showed that women talk 28 percent more and text 14 percent more than men every month and that they are also heavier users of social features of phones (SMS, MMS, social networking) compared to men who tend to use functional features more (GPS, email, Internet).
Then there are the “Social Moms” different of course as these are the women defined as females who actively participate in social networking and have at least one child. In a complementary study done by NM Incite and Nielsen, marketers and advertisers are provided additional context on social mom’s content trends, shopping tendencies and overall social media engagement.
Context such as…
- The social mom is highly active in accessing social networks via mobile devices with 50% of all all moms actively participating in social media accessing platforms via mobile devices, in comparison to 39 percent of females overall, and 37 percent of the overall population in general.
- 56% of Social Moms are more likely to download a coupon than the general population.
- They are also more likely to shop online for Consumer Product Goods (hello business to consumer marketers, listen up) than other product categories, with the research showing that 86 percent are more likely to shop online for cosmetics than the general public, as well as skincare products (85%), hair care goods (74%) and fragrances (68%).
- Moms who actively participate in social media are 81% more likely to become a fan of or follow a brand online.
- 86% more likely to post a status update.
- 84% are more likely to comment or post content than the general population.
Have to include the obligatory chart, right?
Ok so what does all this mean? Well when it comes to women and social media, marketers and advertisers have a tremendous opportunity to connect with women online and in the social space for that’s where many of them are residing. If you, Mr. Marketer and Mrs. Advertiser, accept the fact that women are making the majority of purchase decisions – and quite frankly if you don’t know this by now, I don’t know what to say to you, then you need to find ways to connect with these same decision makers and empower them and reward them for being brand ambassadors – YOUR brand ambassadors.
The Two Ts – Trust & Television
Women, be they from Emerging or Developed countries, place a very high value on the opinions of their friends and family – AKA they trust the people they know when it comes to recommending a product or service.
But, women the world over seem to have problem in trusting any ad they come across via their mobile phone, their smartphone or via a social network.
As to where most women like to receive the latest news about new products… TV is the preferred source to get information about new products and services. When it comes to getting information about new products, television continues to be the most pervasive form of media and is the number one source that women rely on across continents. How about that?… good old TV remains the most-trusted source. Of course seeing how Television Advertising Is Not Dead, especially when you consider the fact that Television Advertising is Thirty Eight Times More Emotionally Engaging Than Digital Advertising, it’s really no surprise to yours truly that TV scores so high on the trust meter among women.
Paging Henry Ford…
Remember the old (or do they still use it?) Ford tagline of “Quality is Job #1?”
Hey brand marketers, women, AKA the ones buying your products and keeping you in business, want what they pay for… in other words, they will sacrifice price, to an extent, to quality. Yes, quality. A well-made product, a service which does what it’s advertised to do and so on…
One Final Word – Integration
Lord knows anyone who knows me knows I am a HUGE proponent of integration – be it integration within marketing departments to integration of platforms to deliver the same message to the end user, AKA the consumer, AKA the ones keeping you in business. An integrated marketing strategy is perhaps fantasy land in some marketers’ eyes – hell I even referred to it as the Holy Grail of Marketing, but make no mistake about it, to succeed AND stay successful marketers and advertisers alike need to reach that promised land or else…
And don’t just take it from me… right from the findings:
- Integrate digital platforms into your media mix that connect with women’s innate nature to engage and multi-task. Create messaging that focuses on the issues that are important in her life.
- Create cross-platform campaigns that are customized for the medium, but stay consistent with the message. Be authentic and deliver the relevancy she demands.
- Women rely on television to get information about products, but as the landscape continues to fragment, complementary and integrated marketing plans are vital.
Steve Olenski
Sources: Women of Tomorrow: A Study of Women Around the World, NM Incite